Today we travelled to Sutton facing a side who picked up their first league win of the season last week. Once we all found the ground, the lads seemed in a buoyant mood and we were looking forward to a good game, unfortunately without Fin who was missing through illness.
The pitch was quite heavy in places and the strong winds also made this quite a leveller if I’m honest, with Hampton struggling to get anything going in the opening 10 minutes. We were also going uphill and it was proving to be a difficult game, with Sutton battling hard. Nothing really clear cut in the first half from both sides, with Rushy managing to break down the right hand side on several occasions, but nothing really came from his good work. Jack managed to have an effort on goal that went wide of the near post.
Stalemate at half time, 0-0.
The second half started brightly for the Reds, still having some joy down the wings but their CB was having a strong game and getting anything clear-cut was proving difficult.
A moment of magic from Charlie, who’d clearly been watching Asensio closely at the Villa yesterday, delightfully spun away from the defender and down the wing, met with “ooooooo” even from the home supporters! Unfortunately nothing came of it, but a lovely moment all the same. We then got an indirect free kick on the edge of the box as the keeper handled, which Jack flicked forward for Rushy and it caused a melee that Rayyan threw himself into and the loose ball was bundled in by Rushy. 1-0. This seemed to wake Sutton up as they now had a sense of urgency, but Sanders had other thoughts when he boshed in a couple of strong tackles to keep them at arms reach. A nervy moment from Harrison when the ball slipped through his legs and ended up trickling onto the post, in an otherwise solid display for our number 1. It’s not easy to stay alert for the whole 70 minutes when so much of the game is away from our box, especially when he’s probably freezing cold as well. We got away with it though and it remained 1-0.
Some good work from Charlie, Jack and Rushy was moving us up the pitch, but nothing really of note chance-wise. The ball did fall to Harry but he didn’t connect well with his left foot and it trickled into the keepers hands. A corner for Hampton left us exposed on the counter attack but that man Sanders covered across from right back to the left hand side and put in a fierce tackle to thwart them. Excellent work Zach!
Rushy broke away in injury time and we thought the writing was on the wall, but the defender recovered well and got enough on Rushy to force his shot wide.
The game finished 0-1 and although not exactly a footballing spectacle, we’ll take our 3rd win on the bounce as well as a clean sheet and enjoy the moment of sitting in 2nd place in the league for the first time this season.
Well done lads, not an easy day but this week you won the scrap!
Everyone put a shift in today and Charlie can consider himself unlucky as he was pipped to MOTM by the battling Sanders. A terrific display both on and off the pitch, where his positive attitude when cheering on his team mates and his crunching tackles kept Sutton away from our goal. Well done Zach!
Only 4 games to go now (3 home, 1 away) and all to play for.
Next week we have a week off for some fun at TOCA social, a well-deserved treat for the lads.
Proud of you all today lads, well done.
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