Sutton United 3

Purfleet 0

Sutton opened a seven-point gap at the top of the Premier Division with this comfortable victory over mid-table Purfleet at Gander Green Lane.

Apart from a goal mouth scramble in the very first minute it is hard to remember the away side troubling Les Cleevely at any stage during the game as Sutton kept their third clean sheet in the league in a row. In fact they have yet to concede a league goal in 1998.

There were very few chances in the opening exchanges and in fact Sutton's first chance did not arrive until the nineteenth minute of the game, Matt Hanlan winning a corner on Sutton’s left which was floated in by Danny Brooker and Joff Vansittart's flick header was well pushed over by goalkeeper Steve Mead. But within a minute Sutton were in front, Matt Hanlan running onto a through ball past a static Purfleet defence who vainly appealed for offside and calmly slotting the ball left footed beyond the oncoming keeper.

Sutton’s rhythm wasn’t helped by injuries as firstly Jimmy Dack and then Andy Salako had to leave the field, Steve Watson and Clive Gartell replacing them in what turned out to be a fairly uneventful half.

After the break Purfleet still offered very little, seemingly happy to carry out a damage limitation exercise rather than try to create anything of their own and risk being caught on the break.

Sutton extended their lead after 57 minutes following another corner taken by Danny Brooker, John Ugbah benefiting from another good delivery to head home his eighth league goal of the season.

Six minutes later they made it three effectively killing off the game as a contest from another set piece. Matt Hanlan was brought down three yards outside the box and Dave Everitt curled a glorious left-footed free kick over the wall and beyond the grasp of the keeper into the corner of the net.

Nassim Akrour replaced Matt Hanlan with ten minutes to go as Sutton cruised home with plenty to spare.

They now look forward to another home game on Saturday against St. Alban’s City kick off 3pm.

The Sutton line up was:

Les Cleevely, Danny Brooker, David Everitt, Gwynne Berry, James Virgo, Barry Laker, Jimmy Dack, John Ugbah, Andy Salako, Matt Hanlan and Joff Vansittart.

Clive Gartell, Nassim Akrour and Steve Watson were the Subs.