Above: Sutton Bonington FC in 1929

1898/99 - THE BEGINNING

The earliest record, that we can find, of Sutton Bonington Football Club dates back to the 1898/99 season, when Sutton entered the Loughborough & District League Division 2, finishing the season in 9th place. Sutton finished 9th again the following season.

1922/23 - FIRST LEAGUE TITLE & CUP FINALS

In 1922/23 the club won the Loughborough & District League Division 3 title and reached the final of the Leicestershire County Cup Medals Loughborough but were beaten by Breedon United. They got to final again in 1923/24 but again finished runners up, this time to Shepshed Parish Church.

1950/51 - 2ND LEAGUE TITLE

In the post 2nd world war years, Sutton found themselves playing friendlies, until they joined the Long Eaton & District Amatuer League Division B for the 1949/50 season. The club won the Division B title the following season in 1950/51. By 1953 the club had rejoined the Loughborough Alliance League which they remained a member of until the league changed its name the North Leicestershire League.

1959/60 - A LONG WAIT FOR ANOTHER FINAL

The district competitions of the Leicestershire County Cup Medals were merged to make county-wide East and West competitions in 1946. Sutton had to wait until the 1959/60 season to reach another final, of the Leicestershire County Medals West, but they would again finish as runners up, this time to Whitwick Colliery Reserves.

1984/85 - ANOTHER FINAL

In 1974 the separate City Medals and County Medals competitions were merged to create the Leicestershire Saturday Medals A, B and C competitions. In 1984/85 Sutton reached the final of the Saturday Medals A, again finishing runners up, this time to Kingsway.

Above: Sutton Bonington FC before the Premier Cup Final in 2009

2003/04 to 2008/09 - 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 league title in many years 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 6th in 2005/06, and 6th again 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 to the Final of the Premier Cup. 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

Jimmy Whitchurch was appointed 1st team manager for the 2009/10 season. 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 the season 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.

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.

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 - first cup win!

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.