It is a far cry from that eventful Thursday January 2nd 1879 to today when a meeting at the Town Hall passed the following resolution:- That it is desirable that an Association Football Club be formed for Sutton Coldfield and District and that the gentlemen present at this meeting accordingly constitute themselves a club, to be called "The Sutton Coldfield Football Club"
The Club's first game was against Birmingham on February 1st 1879 at "Meadow Plat" in Sutton Park. Dressing rooms were at the Station Hotel and horse drawn carriages took the players from there to the ground.
For the record, Sutton lost the match 6-2 and it is recorded that "After the hard and exciting work of the afternoon, the two teams and their friends sat down to a substantial repast at the Station Hotel and afterwards passed a very enjoyable evening"
Later that year, Aston Villa's 2nd team visited Sutton on November 8th and lost 4-3 but in the next season playing at Perry Barr in the Birmingham Association Challenge Cup, Villa's 1st team won 10-1 and according to one report "The Villa goalkeeper Copley used a chair to rest his wearied limbs".
Throughout the rest of the 1880s Sutton made steady progress with their 1st team playing in the Central Birmingham League and the Reserves playing in the Aston and District League.
In 1900,Sutton became affiliated to the Birmingham F.A. and moved to a ground in Coles Lane, where the Ambulance depot was later situated.
During the early 1900s the Club held committee meetings at the Duke Inn and they obviously had their fair share of problems because the minute book of November 8th reported ..."the match was abandoned owing to the visitors fighting and the riotous behaviour of their spectators 15 minutes from time, when Sutton were leading by 3 goals to one".
In the Boxing Day game of 1909, Sutton beat Boldmere 6-1, gate receipts were £3-7s-3d, players expenses were 9s-9d and the referee's fee was three shillings.
The team photo is of the 1st team in the 1905-6 season