Gander Green Lane

Gander Green Lane, currently known as the VBS Community Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Sutton, Greater London, and is the home ground of Sutton United Football Club and Crystal Palace Women. The record attendance for Gander Green Lane is 14,000 when Sutton United lost 6–0 to Leeds United in the fourth round of the 1969–70 FA Cup.

In recent times the pitch has played host to England C team and FA Sunday Cup matches. From 2015 the surface was a FIFA 2-Star quality 3G pitch, FIFA's highest rating for 3G artificial pitches, but after winning promotion in 2021, Football League playing surface regulations obliged Sutton to replace the 3G surface with grass. During the 2021–22 pre-season, the club installed a hybrid grass "PowerGrass" pitch. During the 2024–25 pre-season, the pitch was replaced again with a new "GrassMaster" hybrid surface, as it was announced that Crystal Palace Women had signed a long term agreement to play their home games at Gander Green Lane.

During the 19th century, the Gander Green Lane site was used as allotments and open fields. The ground was originally developed during the Edwardian period. A 1913 map shows the ground designated as a "Football Ground" with a small pavilion on the northern side of the pitch and a turnstile entrance in the north-western corner via the Collingwood Recreation Ground. The ground was bounded by trees on three sides with a large residential building, Strawberry Lodge (formerly Strawberry House), to the west. To the north and east is the recreation ground and to the south was a field and pit described as a "Brick Field", which was used as a local brickworks. By 1937, Strawberry Lodge had been demolished and replaced by terraced houses, the brick field replaced by the railway line through West Sutton, a second pavilion added to the northern side of the pitch and a further pavilion erected in the south-eastern corner. None of the original pavilions survive today.

Sutton United's first match at Gander Green Lane (then known as the Adult School Sports Ground) was in 1912 against Guards Depot F.C. in the FA Cup. The first league match was against Redhill and was won 1–0 in front of a crowd of over 800. Sutton left the ground at the end of the 1912–13 season as the ground became unavailable due to Sutton Adult School forming their own team. United returned to Gander Green Lane in August 1919.

The Main Stand (or Grandstand) was built in 1951, although it has been altered throughout the years. The stand's red and blue seats, which do not reflect the club's colours, were donated by Chelsea.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1980s, two small wooden stands were replaced by a covered standing terrace, known as the "Rec Terrace" because it is on the Collingwood Recreation Ground side of the pitch, on top of which is a covered television filming box used by SUFCtv. A small remnant of one of the original wooden stands remained for nearly 40 years, next to the Rec Terrace, and was known by Sutton supporters as the "Shoebox".^{[citation needed]}

On 7 January 1989, the Lane hosted an FA Cup match against top division Coventry City, which Sutton won to create one of the biggest upsets in FA Cup history, in front of a sell-out crowd of approximately 8,000 supporters.

In 1997, the Gander Green Lane end of the stadium was levelled off and new terracing was installed.