Sutton's Eastmond welcomes Arsenal to 'real world' of non-league football

Sutton United midfielder Craig Eastmond knows a little bit more about Arsenal than his fellow non-league teammates. He came up through the Gunners' youth ranks and was signed by the senior team in 2009.

But after making just a handful of appearances for Arsene Wenger's side and spending time on loan at Millwall, Wycombe Wanderers, and Colchester United, Eastmond eventually saw his Arsenal career come to an end.

Now, his Sutton United side hosts Arsenal at Borough Sports Ground in the final match up of the FA Cup fifth round, where the winner will face Lincoln City in the quarter-finals.

Already, Wenger has lamented the plastic pitch, and Eastmond knows what his former teammates will be thinking.

"The Arsenal players are probably going to think: 'What is this, really?' but this is non-league. This is the real world, the real stuff," Eastmond said, as quoted by the Guardian. "There's always stuff wrong with non-league pitches and non-league dressing rooms but you can't make them feel at home.

"It's going to have to be one where they're thinking: 'Ah, I don't really want to come to Sutton and play this on a Monday night.'

"No one fancies going to a non‑league team, really."

Related: 3 reasons non-league Sutton United can shame Arsenal

Sutton United's journey to the late stages of the FA Cup is but one more string of magic that makes football's oldest tournament such an enticing draw; wins over Dartford, Cheltenham Town, AFC Wimbledon and Leeds United have paved the road to a fairy tale clash against Arsenal.

But for Eastmond, the reunion will be somewhat bittersweet.

"I'd supported them my whole life and then I was playing for them," Eastmond reflected. "I had my name on the back of my shirt and I was playing for Arsenal – what I'd always wanted.

"You've got to move on. I knew a lot of people who were leaving clubs and going down leagues but they were playing more first-team football and that's what you want.

"You have to go out and play first-team football, men's football, real football – where you are fighting for points, fighting for other people who have kids, where they've got to put food on the table. That's where the reality is."