Sutton United 1

Dulwich Hamlet 1

Another far from convincing performance by Sutton has resulted in them dropping two very valuable home points against Dulwich at Gander Green Lane. And with Kingstonian winning a thriller at Gravesend with two goals in the last eight minutes they go two points clear at the top of the table. A poor game it has to be said, but certainly the strong wind and the awful state of the pitch is not helping Sutton regain their confidence as the pressure at the top of the table begins to mount.

Sutton still without Jimmy Dack also left Matt Hanlan on the bench along with John Ugbah so Mark Watson retained his place in the starting line up. And they got off to a superb start after three minutes Joff Vansittart’s cross reaching Andy Salako at the far post via a deflection off a Dulwich defender and he buried his shot past keeper Darren Wlliams.

Ten minutes later it was nearly two as Clive Gartell had a shot that just brushed past the post and keeper Williams had to be alert five minutes later when an Andy Salako cross was headed goalbound by one of his own defenders but he managed to push it over the bar.

Dulwich would not lie down though and ex Kingstonian Jamie Ndah scored an equaliser ten minutes from half time with a right foot shot that went in off the right hand post to send the sides in level at half time.

 Mark Watson did have a chance early in the second period when put through by David Everitt but the best chance of the half did not arrive until the seventieth minute. Once again it was Watson causing the defence problems with his pace and when he crossed the ball into the box Russell Edwards tried to cut it out but only succeeded in heading the ball against his own crossbar.

Nassim Akrour and John Ugbah replaced Andy Salako and David Everitt immediately afterwards in an attempt to break the deadlock. Mark Watson did have one header just over from a free kick and a Danny Brooker cross nearly deceived the Dulwich keeper in the windy conditions but it was Dulwich who had the best chance to win the game. Richard Thompson guilty of a glaring miss, pushing his shot past the post when clean through after a mistake by Paul Clark.

So Sutton lose the top spot in the league and with Boreham Wood winning comfortably against Walton they must regain their form quickly if not to be left behind in the chase for promotion.

The Sutton line up was:

Les Cleevely, Danny Brooker, David Everitt, Gwynne Berry, Paul Clark, Barry Laker, Andy Salako, Steve Watson, Mark Watson, Andy Salako and Joff Vansittart.

Matt Hanlan John Ugbah and Nassim Akrour were the Subs.