Sutton United 3

Carshalton Athletic 1

The kick off was delayed for 15 minutes as a fair proportion of the crowd of 1833 were still queuing well out into Gander Green Lane at 3 o' clock to see this important local between two teams who came into this game in good form.

Sutton were without Barry Laker who was unwell otherwise it was the same starting line up who took on Dagenham last week. Nassim Akrour retained his place in preference to Matt Hanlan.

Carshalton showed they had no intention to lay down within the first minute as Barry Kingsford was booked for a thunderous tackle from behind on Jimmy Dack and their offside trap sometimes played only yards beyond the half way line made it difficult for Sutton to play any sort of passing game.

It was seventeen minutes before any action of note but it was at that point that Sutton took the lead.

Jimmy Dack took a corner on the right which wasn't properly cleared and the ball found its way back to the taker who cut in and hit a fierce left foot shot which took a huge deflection off Tim Alexander and flew into the net past a wrong footed goalkeeper.

Nine minutes later their was nothing lucky about Sutton's second. David Everitt had a good run and cross which was acrobatically taken one handed by Adrian Blake but the keeper then blotted his copybook by throwing the ball out poorly straight to John Ugbah who gave it to Jimmy Dack. He took two strides and hit a left foot shot that screamed into the top corner from fully thirty yards for his second goal of the game.

In between times Carshalton had two chances of their own, ex Sutton player Richard Thompson who looked dangerous all afternoon hit the side netting when he should have done better and then he forced Les Cleevely into a sharp save by his left hand post which resulted in a corner.

Ten minutes before the break Danny Brooker breathed a sigh of relief when in a carbon copy of Sutton's first goal Richard Thompson's shot hit him on the heel and rolled agonisingly past the post for a corner with Cleevely stranded.

Into the second half and with sixteen minutes gone Sutton made the game safe. Andy Salako won a corner on the right that was taken by Jimmy Dack and headed in powerfully at the near post by John Ugbah.

Richard Newberry did miss one golden opportunity for Carshalton midway through the half, badly scuffing his shot wide when he was left free but in truth, they offered very little except for the ever enthusiastic Richard Thompson who got his reward ten minutes from time when he converted a penalty, having been brought down himself after a powerful run into Sutton's box. Paul Clark pushed a cross onto a Sutton post late on but by that stage Sutton were cruising home to three valuable points.

They looked even more valuable ten minutes later when, apart from Boreham Wood's good win at Enfield, all the other results went Sutton's way. Dagenham were beaten 4-0 at Purfleet and Kingston lost 2-1 at Dulwich. So Sutton now sit proudly at the top of the table one point ahead of the "Daggers" with a game in hand.

The Sutton line up was:

Les Cleevely, Danny Brooker, David Everitt, Gwynne Berry, Paul Clarke, James Virgo, Jimmy Dack, John Ugbah, Andy Salako, Nassim Akrour and Joff Vansittart.

Matt Hanlan came on for Akrour with ten minutes to go

Steve Watson and Sean Daly were the unused Subs.

Sutton have a Guardian Insurance Cup tie at home to Basingstoke Town on Tuesday evening kick off 7.30pm. They are then away to Bishop Stortford next Saturday at 3pm.