Renwick: Sutton & Epsom are looking to wrap up title by April (From Wimbledon Guardian)

Sutton do not want title to go to the wire, says Renwick

10:00am Friday 25th January 2013 in Sport

By Tom Ambrose

Shawn Renwick hopes Sutton & Epsom will avoid end-of-season drama by securing promotion with at least three fixtures remaining.

The Surrey outfit started the London Division Two South West season on fire, winning their first five games and opening an eight-point lead at the top by Christmas.

However, since the turn of the year, the lead has been cut to five points following a disappointing draw at bottom-club Camberley, and a low-scoring win over Guildford.

Sutton’s nearest rivals, Chobham, are unbeaten in six games and the two teams were due to meet last Saturday until the snow intervened – but number eight Renwick reckons it will take more than a bit of snow to put the skids under Sutton’s promotion hopes.

He said: “This is a club that wants to get itself back into the national league set-up.

“We have a tough match at Tottonians on Saturday and if we can turn them over, I reckon we will be pretty much there.

“We want to have secured the league title and promotion by April – we’d still have at least two or three games to play but we don’t want it going down to the wire.”

Sutton’s home showdown with second-placed Chobham has been re-arranged for the weekend of February 2.

Although five points clear at the top of the league, Sutton face the task of playing six of their nine remaining fixtures away from their Cuddington Court home.

But Renwick, who joined from Esher over the summer to take up a forwards coaching role, says that although that may be a problem for some players, he will embrace the challenge.

“It makes no difference to me where I play my rugby as long as I am on the winning side,” he said.

“It was a real shame the Chobham game couldn’t go ahead, but we face a tough trip at the weekend and it doesn’t get any easier at this stage.

“Perhaps it will be good for some of the lads to have a rest, we can recharge our batteries to kick on again.”

He added: “I joined this club in the summer to win promotion and we are on course to achieve that target.”