Sutton Coldfield Town

Sutton Coldfield Town FC is a non league football club from the large suburb eight miles north of the centre of Birmingham of the same name. The club were formed in 1879 starting out playing at Sutton Park.

Town competed in the Central Birmingham League, Aston & District League, Small Heath League and the Suburban League. ‘The Royals’ moved to Coles Lane in 1920 as they competed in the Birmingham Alliance and Birmingham Combination as Sutton Town.

For 1962-63 Town played in the newly renamed West Midlands (Regional) League, changing their name to incorporate ‘Coldfield’ in its title in 1964. A year later Sutton moved to the Worcestershire Combination, which changed its name to the Midland Combination for the 1968-69 season.

After finishing league runners up in consecutive seasons at the turn of the 70’s, The Royals won their first championships in 1977-78 and 1978-79, resulting in a move to the higher West Midlands (Regional) League where they won the title at the first attempt. A fine FA Cup run in 1980-81 saw Town reach the First Round, where Doncaster Rovers ended the fun with a 2-0 win at Coles Lane.

Town won promotion to the Southern League Midland Division for 1982-83 after a second place finish in the West Midlands (Regional) League. Further success came when they were promoted to the Premier Division at the first attempt, but relegation came after just one season at the elevated status.

Town remained in the differently titled second tier of the Southern League for many years. They reached the play offs in 2003-04, but Banbury United ended any hopes of promotion. Following restructuring Sutton were allocated a place in Southern League Division One Midlands in 2006-07, but were transferred owing to the geographical location to the Northern Premier League Division One South for the 2010-11 campaign.

The Royals won promotion in 2014-15 via the play offs as Newcastle Town and then Leek Town were defeated to bring Premier Divisioon football to Coles Lane.

Sutton Coldfield Town FC will play in the Northern Premier Premier Division for the 2016-17 season.

My visit

Romulus 4 Scarborough Athletic 2 (Saturday 7^th September 2013) Northern Premier League Division One South (att: 171)

For full details of my day out and my view of the match, please visit the Romulus page at: http://worldgroundhop.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Romulus

Here is my impression of Coles Lane.

The nice fifteen minute leisurely walk from the station took me down to Coles Lane, where gap between the houses took me to the ground entrance. A small shop selling drinks and groceries was by the entrance.

Cars were parked on the hard standing to the left hand end of the arena, next to the clubhouse with its refreshments serving hatch in front. Several building housed other activities such as the local Table Tennis and Sub Aqua Clubs. The left hand touchline had a cover and then a section of open standing. The far end had a cover over the hard standing directly behind the goal.

The final side was dominated by a superb old Main Stand, which was a raised seating deck with flat hard standing in front and changing rooms below the seats. The centre section had blue tip up seats for dignitaries, with the wings consisting of well worn benches. The view was magnificent from there once I’d negotiated the rickety old stairs.

A small section of what was becoming overgrown terracing was further down the touchline. It typified a slightly ageing and ramshackle look, but it I would rather have that than an identikit newly built ground any day. The lifeblood of the ground was the artificial 3G pitch, and the extra block of changing rooms and toilets stood next to it, which allowed the partitioning off of the playing area to hire whenever senior football was not being played.

Coles Lane had adapted to embrace new facilities in a traditional arena. If only all clubs could consider doing similar in the future.