At a little before 2 pm on 23rd May 2021, the final whistle went at Sutton United’s ground, the 3-0 victory over Hartlepool had secured promotion to the Football League for the first time in the club’s long history. Formed on 5 March 1898, Sutton United came into being when a meeting of two leading local clubs, Sutton Association and Sutton Guild Rovers, decided that they should join forces. Since then there had been famous FA Cup victories, most notably against Coventry City in 1989 and then in 2017 when they reached the 5th round, beating three Football League teams on the way, but nothing quite like this. Not only had promotion been secured but they were National League Champions too.
The historic first game in the Football League was a 2-1 loss at Forest Green Rovers on 7th August. Lebanon born Omar Bugiel scored a 69th minute equaliser but hopes of a point were dashed by a stoppage time winner for FGR
It was a tough introduction, but hard earned draws at Salford City and Scunthorpe United meant Sutton had two points on the board before their first home game in the Football League which took place at the VBS Community Stadium in Gander Green Lane on 28th August.
Sutton gave a good account of themselves against Oldham Athletic (more shots, more corners) but it’s goals that count and they only scored one (David Ajiboye in the 62nd minute) while the Latics scored two, the winner coming in the sixth minute of stoppage time, a bitterly disappointing end to the game for the bulk of the 3,262 crowd.
As you would expect in 2021, Sutton’s first team squad is a cosmopolitan mix, with birth places that include Australia, the Netherlands and Lebanon. Three black players featured in the starting eleven for that first home game and two of the second half substitutes were also black.
But we were keen to establish the identity of Sutton’s first black player ever and where better to start our research than Amber Planet, their fans’ forum? The trail soon led us to club historian Mark Frake and we are indebted to Mark for providing us with information about the career of Gavin Fraser, Sutton United’s first black player.
Readers of ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’ will know that our definition of ‘black’ includes players of mixed heritage and, on that basis, we are pleased to award the accolade of having been Sutton’s first black player to Gavin Fraser. Gavin joined United for the 1973/4 season, well before many long established Football League clubs had fielded a black player (no black player represented Blackburn Rovers, for instance, until 1987).
Gavin McGregor Fraser was born in the Marylebone area of London on 7th April 1955. His parents were John Fraser and Barbara Butt who had married in Hendon in 1947. John was a student at the time and would go on to work in the probation service, John’s father had been an accountant. Gavin was their third child. He had a sister, Gail, and an elder brother, Andrew, who would become bass guitarist in the band, Free, whose best known single, ‘All Right Now’, was a massive hit in 1970. Gavin’s black heritage stemmed from his father’s side of the family (he was of Bajan/Guyanese heritage).
Gavin was still a schoolboy when he joined Sutton and had represented English Schools FA. He made his Sutton debut as a substitute on 22nd August 1973 in a home game against Hitchin Town and just over a week later he was in the starting XI for the first time against Metropolitan Police in an FA Cup game. He quickly made his mark as a dynamic midfielder, playing 31 times in his debut season and scoring once (Walton & Hersham, away, on 22nd October 1973). He made only three appearances the following season, 1974/75, as he was now studying to be a PE teacher and this restricted his availability.
He spent two seasons with Wycombe Wanderers before returning to Sutton for the 1977/8 season. He established himself as a regular, making 58 appearances in all competitions and scoring 7 goals. The 1978/9 was a memorable one for Sutton and for Gavin, the team won the Anglo-Italian Cup and Gavin, seated third from the left (sporting a fine afro), was a key member of it.
The Anglo-Italian Cup had a somewhat chequered history between 1970 and 1996 but was generally contested by fully professional teams often, but not always, from the Football League or its Italian equivalent. Early winners included Swindon Town (1970), Blackpool (1971) and Newcastle United (1973) with Roma winning for the Italians in 1972.
For the 1978/9 competition each country was represented by four teams. Gavin scored Sutton’s first goal in the competition, a 1-1 draw against Juniorcasle. Sutton did well in the competition, making it through to the final, played in Italy. Sutton were up against Chieti, a professional outfit and red-hot favourites to win the trophy. Tony Rains, something of a Sutton legend and in the team that day, commented that the players regarded the competition as little more than a paid holiday, “it was pretty much a routine thing, you go out there, have a jolly up and pick up your runners-up medal because they were professional and we weren’t and no non-League side had ever won the competition.” But Sutton hadn’t read the script and took a 2-0 first half lead with Bobby Southam and John Rains scoring the goals. A second half fight back produced one goal for Chieti but Sutton held out cheered on by their 200 fans (including club historian Mark) among the 8,000 crowd.
The following season was Gavin’s last in Sutton colours, he made 44 appearances, including a repeat appearance in the final of that year’s Anglo-Italian Cup which Sutton lost on penalties after a 0-0 draw) and scored three goals. After leaving Sutton he had two spells with Carshalton with a brief spell with Hampton sandwiched between them.
Gavin made a total of 181 appearances for Sutton and scored 16 goals.
Gavin would later move to Jersey in the Channel Islands and was a member of the Jersey squads which won the annual inter-island battle with Guernsey in 1987 and 1989. In 2014 he was part of the Jersey FA official party when Sutton visited the island for a pre-season friendly and in 2015 he was elected to the Board of the FA there.
In 2019 he returned to Sutton for a ‘Legends’ Day’:
We welcome Gavin Fraser to the ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’ Hall of Fame.
Finally, of course, we welcome Sutton United the Football League and wish them every success.