Sutton Bonington FC

Premier Cup Runners-Up

Division 3 Champions to Premier Cup Runners-Up

Sutton enjoyed a sustained period of success and growth under the stewardship of manager Derek Lister and captain Ben Holmes.

In the 2003/04 season Sutton picked up their first piece of silverware as they finished as Champions of the North Leicestershire Football League Division 3.

The following season they narrowly missed out on another trophy as they finished 2nd in Division 2, but in doing so secured back-to-back promotions.

Sutton's rise continued at a steady pace in Division 1, finishing 5th in 2005/06 and 4th in 2006/07 before earning a 3rd promotion in 5 years as they finished 2nd in 2007/08.

2008/09 saw Sutton compete in the North Leicestershire Premier Division for the first time and they finished a respectable 9th out of 14 teams. The highlight of the season was a run in the Premier Cup that saw the club reach it's first ever cup final. It wasn't to be though and the boys in yellow finished Runners-Up. This signalled the end of the Lister-Holmes era as both stepped down before the start of the 2009/10 season.

2009/10

Following the end of the Lister/Holmes era, Jimmy Whitchurch was appointed 1st team manager. With only 4 players remaining from the side that started the Premier Cup final the previous season, Sutton recruited heavily during pre-season but the lack of experience in the team lead to conceeding several last minute goals. Sutton finished bottom of the table and were relegated back to Division 1.

2010/11

Sutton lost their opening game back in Division One to rivals East leake but then went on to lose just 4 of their next 15 games, progressing to the Quarter-Final of the Cobin Trophy where they were narrowly beaten 5-4 by eventual runners-up Greenhill. Sutton's biggest win came in an 11-1 demolition of Loughborough FC reserves, where Jimmy Whitchurch set a new record for most goals in a game with 6. Sutton ended the season losing just 2 of their final 7 league games and finished the season in a respectable 5th place. Nick Dyer finished top of the Sutton scoring charts with 28 goals, another new record.

2011/12

Sutton started the season in the same vein that they had finished the last, winning 5 out of their first 8 league games. By the end of February Sutton were on course for another 5th place finish in the league and they were into the Quarter-Final of the Charimans Shield, but were knocked out of the cup by Ravenstone reserves and they lost their final 6 league games of the season, slipping down the table and eventually finishing 8th out of 11, 1 place and 3 points behind village rivals the Academicals.

2012/13

During pre season, many of the 1st team players left the club for pastures new and after having missed the last 3 months of the previous season, manager Jimmy Whitchurch was forced to retire through injury. Stu Brown took over on an interim basis and although Sutton were able to field 2 teams on the opening weekend of the season, it was clear that running 2 teams would not be feasable and the 2nd team was disolved with 2nd team manager Jez Whitehead taking over as manager of the 1st team on a full time basis. The 2nd team squad was merged into the 1st team but Sutton struggled to compete. Jez Whitehead stepped down as manger at the end of January having won just 1 game out of 15. Rob Clark took over for the final 10 games of the season but was unable to turn around Sutton's poor form and they finished the season bottom of the table without a win in the league.

Inter-League Cup Winners

2013/14

Following the departure of Rob Clark, Stu Brown took over as manager. Sutton picked up their first point in the league in over a year in the 2nd game of the season, and with the monkey off their backs the refreshed team started to score some goals. They had to wait until late November to earn that first league win in what felt like forever, a tough 3-2 victory over Belton Villa. That lead to to a great run of 6 wins from 9 games, seeing the team climb off the bottom and up to 8th. By mid January the team had scored more goals than in the previous campaign and they finished the season in 9th place.

2014/15

8 new signings were added during pre season and Sutton's resurgence continued throughout the 2014/15 season. The new-look team got off to a rocky start winning just 3 of the opening 8 games, but once the side hed gelled they lost just 2 of their final 16 games, finishing 3rd and achieving promotion back to Division 1. Sutton twice put 12 goals past Woodhouse Imperial, but the highlight of the season was a 17-0 win over Travellers Rest Church Gresley. The lads amassed a massive 99 goals over the course of the season, with Ric Traini setting a new record for goals scored with 38. Tom Dale also set a new assists record with 16.

2015/16

Sutton continued where they had left off the previous season, winning 11 of their 18 league games, finishing 3rd just 3 points behind the winners, achieving back to back promotions. It was another high scoring season with 97 goals scored, 6 players grabbing double figures showing the strength throughout the team. Having set the record the previous season, Tom Dale broke his assists record with 22. This season also saw Sutton lift the Leicestershire Inter-League Cup with an impressive 8-4 win over Glenfield Town in the final, the clubs first trophy since the Division 3 title in 2003/04.

2016/17

8th in Premier Division

2017/18

11th in Premier Division

More to follow

Into the Senior League

2018/19

Following the end of the 2017/18 season a meeting took place between Sutton and the Academicals where the two clubs voted in favour of a merger, agreeing to run a 1st team and a reserve team. The club would continue under the name Sutton Bonington FC with the 1st team remaining in the NLFL Premier Division and the Reserves entering the 3rd Division.

The Reserves had fairly successful first season back, winning half of their games and finishing 5th. The first team on the other hand had a rather unenjoyable season in the Premier Division. The league started with 12 teams, 2 of which dropped out before the opening game and 2 more followed suit before the middle of September. With the league down to just 8 teams, the Premier Cup was brought in with a group stage. This meant that Sutton played some teams 4 times and one team 5 times.

The dwindling numbers in the North Leicestershire Football League prompted Sutton to apply to join the expanding Leicestershire Senior League and they were accepted into the LSL Division 2 at the league's AGM. Sutton's Reserves would remain in the NLFL.

2019/20

Sutton recruited heavily during the summer as they knew their first season in the Leicestershire Senior League was going to be a tough one. With a 16 team division, Sutton could look forward to more variety of opposition and regular mid-week games. .