Sutton United take on Shrewsbury Town in an FA Cup second round fixture at Gander Green Lane this Saturday evening (December 6) at 5.15pm.
It will be a challenging game for Sutton United but an opportunity to cause an upset and progress to round three of the competition.
Sutton United head coach Chris Agutter said it was a good opportunity to test himself against a manager with Premier League experience in Michael Appleton.
“More importantly it will give us a gauge of where we’re at as a team," he added.
“We are also on a really good run since we’ve come in and it would be a really good opportunity for benchmarking against a team higher up in the food chain than us.”
Sutton appointed Agutter on October 2 with the club sat 22nd in the table. Two months later the U's are up to 17th in the National League with an unbeaten record in all competitions in November.
“It’s just a collective effort, the staff we’ve got with us are obviously exceptional, do a great job and most importantly the players have been great," added Agutter.
“From day one they’ve been really receptive, coachable, they’ve worked incredibly hard and ultimately they’re very good players .
“So the big thing for us was just reminding a few players that they are very good, we’ve tried to make sure our messaging is really clear, make sure the expectations are really clear.
“It’s probably 10 per cent staff, the rest is players and supporters. The fan base have been magnificent from day one and I think a reflection of their impact is our home form.
"We've lost one game which is an away game, but in general when we’ve played at home, we’ve won.”
It's an old adage that form goes out of the window in the FA Cup, but Agutter said his side's momentum will be important.
“We’d much rather be going into the game off the back of this run of results opposed to the alternative and it definitely gives us a feel-good factor going into a really big game of football," added Agutter.
Sutton have enjoyed plenty of fairytale runs in the FA Cup over the years. Most recently, in 2017 they reached the 5th round of the FA Cup, beating AFC Wimbledon and Leeds United in the process, but were knocked out by eventual winners Arsenal.
“Whether it’s FA Cup, FA Trophy, Surrey Senior Cup, League we just want to win," said Agutter.
“We treat every game as it comes and try to win the next game.
“I know that the club has a real history in terms of the FA Cup so we’ve got something to refer back to as a bit of a benchmark to try and work towards and maybe put our own stamp on Sutton’s history in the competition.
“So that is a real motivation, it definitely is for the players.
“Again, going back to the supporters, we want to give them brilliant days out, two really good results in the two previous rounds has led us to this opportunity to pack Gander Green Lane with a football league club coming to us, so touch wood we can produce another really good performance.”
