Sutton Common Rovers may be enjoying their first season back in the borough in eight years, but boss Darren Salmon reckons the return home has been both a gift and a curse.

Rovers moved to Gander Green Lane to ground-share with Sutton United in the summer, and immediately found themselves overwhelmed with unfamiliar attention.

It affected their start to the Combined Counties Premier Division campaign, losing five of the first six games, drawing the other, and conceding 19 goals in the process.

It also left Rovers rooted to the foot of the table.

But now they have turned their fortunes around and are unbeaten in four league games, winning three, and conceding just one goal.

There was also the dramatic FA Vase victory over Beckenham Town last Friday.

Looking back, Salmon is under no illusions about where the tough start found it roots.

“The transition of moving back to Sutton was a gift and a curse in some respects because it took us a while to get used to the surroundings and get re-established,” he said.

“It also meant we had interest from a huge amount of players and while there are positives from that it took us a good couple of months to settle things down and streamline the squad.

“The squad is a lot more settled now, the performances have come through that continuity.”

Richmond and Twickenham Times:

Goal man: Francois Gabbidon enjoys his goal in the 3-2 FA Vase win over Beckenham Town

He added: “It has taken a little while to get used to the 3G pitch – which is fantastic – we had to get used to the surface and how true it plays.

“The players are so used to playing on grass, and the transformation has taken time for them.

“But also we have found that visiting teams were so enthusiastic to come and play on the pitch, it created a bit of hype at our level and as far as opponents were concerned, all their Christmases had come at once.

“They’d be down two hours early and out training on the pitch, and their enthusiasm transformed itself into some of their performances.

“We were not actually playing that bad, they were thriving on it whereas we were already a little complacent.”

The Rovers, travel to Westfield on Saturday looking to extend their unbeaten run in the league to five games.

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