Steve Morison faced the media for the first time ahead of Sutton’s competitive 2025/26 season, and spoke to SUFCtv to preview the U’s trip to York City on opening day.
With preparation in full swing after a successful pre-season campaign, Sutton took to another intense training session in the days leading up to the opening day visit to the LNER Community Stadium, with Morison watching on as his players put the work in once more.
Looking ahead to the first game of the season, Morison said:
“Yeah, really excited.”
“It’s a long six weeks pre-season, it feels like a long six weeks anyway. It’s go time Saturday and a great way to start the season against one of the favourites for the league, it’s a great chance to see where everyone is and obviously, I think by the end of August, we’ll have had a lot of games, it starts looking fast and yeah, can’t wait to get involved.”
“We’re really positive. Pre-season is pre-season, you can read as much or a little into it as possible. We know behind the scenes that they’ve worked correctly, they’ve done everything we’ve asked of them. We got together nice and early, which was good, we managed to get most of our signings done – apart from Brandon [Njoku] – before the season had even started.”
“We know where we are, we know what our lane is and we’re staying in our lane. We’ve worked really hard this pre-season and currently myself, the rest of the staff, there’s only seven of us, we do everything.”
Morison gave a special mention to each of the staff members in his backroom team, highlighting the tight-knit unit in Sutton’s ranks heading into the new campaign, with each member playing an important part in what hopes to be a successful season in South London.
“Jon [Meeney], myself with the coaching, Kyri [Neocleous] with the goalkeepers has been excellent and then Sean [Miles] with the S&C, the lads are fit, they’re strong, they’re robust, they’ve been doing their work in the gym every single day. Luke [Silavwe] and Cat [Chambers] with the physio and the therapy, they’ve been on the boys working all the hours they can to get the lads ready and then obviously you’ve got Graham [Cowell] making sure the lads are all kitted out.”
“We do the analysis ourselves and we’ve been grafting and the players have been matching that work effort and I can’t wait to see it all come together on Saturday. Really proud of the work we’ve done over the six weeks and really looking forward to a good month of football.”
The Head Coach also touched on his aims and expectations heading into what is his first full season in the Gander Green Lane dugout, having first joined midway through the 2023/24 season with the U’s then in League Two. After an indifferent time of it last term in the U’s first season back in the National League since 2021, Morison said:
“We just want to be more consistent than we were last year, we just want a consistency in our performance. We’ve had that over pre-season, which has been really pleasing. We just want to carry that on now. We just want to be consistent. We’ve got a lot of belief in the camp.”
“There’s a lot of focus and I think they’re playing with freedom, that’s what I’ve really enjoyed. All within a nice structure and one that they’re all buying into and they’re all enjoying. There’s a really nice camaraderie in the group. We just need to stay positive.”
“We need to enjoy the ride and just be consistent. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, this league.”
The first batch of games sees Sutton thrown into the deep end from the off, with six games in the first month of the campaign alone.
The trip to York will be followed by the first National League Cup Group Stage match against Fulham just three days later, with the first home league game against Solihull Moors then taking place the following weekend, with clashes against Forest Green Rovers, Scunthorpe United, Rochdale AFC and Carlisle United closing out a busy August for the U’s.
“It starts like a house on fire in the first two months, someone said to me it’s like 15 games in two months or something like that and maybe even more with the National League Cup as well. It’s going to be a test of the boys’ ability to play, recover, play, recover, carry information, deal with disappointment, deal with over-positivity as there is at times in any walk of life. So, yeah, it’s about staying as consistent as we can and that’s what our big focus has been on.”
As for the opposition, York will be a familiar face for Morison’s side, having last faced them back in January. A terrific win was secured against the odds thanks to a Will Davies brace, but nonetheless displayed the Minstermen’s quality, with Adam Hinshelwood’s side ending the campaign with a clear second-place finish.
On what he expects on opening day, Morison admitted: “They’ll be a tough test. They’re a very good team, very good coaching staff, just a team that we need to go and compete against first and foremost.”
“We’re going to have to be at it and it’s going to be a great game. I’m sure they’ll come out in their numbers. We’ll travel well as well and yeah, it’s a great test and a great opportunity to see where we are against another team in our league.”
“Full respect to them in what they did last year, just missing out and I’m sure they’ll want to go on better this year.”
After witnessing the fans come in their numbers last time out at the LNER Community Stadium, the Head Coach issued a call to arms for U’s supporters, and will be looking forward to seeing a packed out away end come Saturday.
“The fans that have turned out for pre-season, the amount that have come has been great. I’m sure we’ll see them getting behind the boys on Saturday and hopefully we can give them something to cheer about.”
