Sutton Common Rovers are finally coming home, and they hope it will be the catalyst for a brighter future.

The perennial strugglers in the Premier Division of the Combined Counties League have been stranded outside the borough of Sutton for eight years, ever since they had to vacate their home near Rose Hill.

While the club’s colts, vets, senior Sunday side and reserves play in Wallington, the first team has been living a nomadic life, playing their home games in Leatherhead first, and then Cobham.

But now, a one-year groundshare deal with Sutton United to play on their 3G pitch at Gander Green Lane means SCR are back.

SCR president Gary Brigden said: “It’s a long-held dream. It’s massive for the club, perhaps the biggest thing that has happened to the club since we became a Saturday side in 2004.

“We have 11 kids’ teams and they’re always saying they would come to support us, but to come to Cobham is a real effort, they can’t just say: ‘Oh, it’s half past two, I’ll go and watch the football’.”

He added: “We have wanted to come back for ages, and it now ties up that we get the whole club back in the borough.

“Necessity meant we had to move away, but we’ve always wanted to be back in the borough.

“We have nothing against Cobham, they were fantastic to us and looked after us really well. They let us make the place our home, and we’d never have anything bad to say about them. But it was not Sutton.”

Wimbledon Times:

Last dance in Cobham: SCR's Kieran Wright in action against Guildford City on the last day of the season

SCR had to leave the borough in 2007 because they could not bring their Rose Hill ground up to the standards required by the Combined Counties League.

But now they will be playing, and training, on a state of the art 3G pitch, something Brigden hopes will bring dividends.

“Being at a ground like Sutton United with the surface they have, you’d hope there would be players interested in playing for us – obviously you never know what is going to happy until you start pre-season.

“But we’d like to think we would not be waiting to survive on the last day of the season again – having to do that two years on the trot is not good.”

Sutton United chairman Bruce Elliott said: “We’re pleased to have come to this arrangement with Sutton Common Rovers and to have been able to help them return ‘home’, and we look forward to hosting them next season.

“I’m sure our fans will take an interest in their fortunes.”

Wimbledon Times:

New generation: Work got underway on Sutton United's new 3G pitch installation at Gander Green Lane this week