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, which they joined for the 1950-51 campaign.

A place in the Birmingham & District League Southern Division was awarded in 1954-55, which went on to become the newly renamed West Midlands (Regional) League from the start of the 1962-63 season.

The club changed 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. This resulted 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 runners-up 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 down to the Midland Division.

That section of the competition became the Western Division in in 1999, a season before Chris Keough became manager, with Sutton Coldfield going on to reach the playoffs in 2003-04 as non-league football was restructured. Banbury Town ended any hope 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 long serving Keough was replaced by Neil Tooth in 2012.

The Royals won promotion under him in 2014-15 via the play offs as Newcastle Town and then Leek Town were defeated to bring Premier Division football to Coles Lane. Former West Bromwich Albion star Richard Sneekes had a spell in charge of the team between 2016 and 2018.

He was replaced after the team was relegated to Division One Central of the Southern League by a returning Tooth. They reached the playoffs at the first attempt but lost their semifinal tie to Bromsgrove Sporting.

The club was transferred back to the Northern Premier League for 2019-20 in the South East division, but their two seasons there were abandoned owing to Covid-19. When things resumed to some sort of normality Town were played in Division One Midlands with Ross Thorpe managing the side.

Dave Stringer was appointed as manager in May 2022, before being replaced by Cameron Stuart who led the side to a midtable finish in 2023-24 after he was appointed the previous September.

Sutton Coldfield Town FC will play in the Northern Premier League Division One Midlands in the 2024-25 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, click here to visit the Romulus page.
Meanwhile, here were my impressions 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.