Sutton had a chance to redeem themselves after Saturday’s home defeat by Slough Town as they took on St. Alban’s City at Clarence Park last night. Manager John Rains made one change from Saturday’s side bringing in Mark Watson for Junior Haynes who was relegated to the substitutes bench. Gareth Howell’s in Sutton’s goal was making an early return to the club he left during the summer. However St. Alban’s made his return anything but friendly, making him pick the ball out of the net twice within the first twenty-five minutes.

The game started farcically with Naz Akrour being booked for a foul which was quite clearly committed by another Sutton player and worse was to follow as John Pollard rose to head the free kick beyond the outstretched right hand of the luckless Howells to put the home side in front. As on Saturday Sutton has most of the possession but could not turn their superiority into goals and against the run of play they went further behind after twenty-five minutes. Another set play, this time a corner, swung in from the right landed in a crowd of players at the near post and Steve Clark looped a header into the far corner of the net.

Thirty minutes gone and Mark Watson seemed to be bearing down on goal when he was taken out by Ashley Vickers making his home debut but after a long injury stoppage as a result of the challenge he must have been relieved to only receive a yellow card. The resulting free kick was hit straight into the wall. Nassim Akrour made a chance for himself with a jinking run a few minutes later but his left foot shot was saved comfortably by Paul Newell in the home goal. Paul Turner was then booked by referee Ian Trow for a two-footed challenge on John Ugbah as the half ended with Sutton still on top but unable to make any clear cut chances.

Mark Watson headed over just two minutes after the re start and six minutes later was guilty of a bad miss, the ball falling to him eight yards out after a good run by Andy Salako but he ballooned his shot over the bar with an open goal beckoning. Sutton fans must have thought that they were never going to score but after St. Alban’s made three substitutions within ten minutes midway through the half their luck began to change. Firstly Mark Watson won a penalty after being brought down by Matt Jones in the box, Andy Riley gleefully converted the spot kick. Ten minutes later he got his second. Neil Trebble was booked for a challenge on Nko Ekoku and from the free kick Riley drilled the ball home from the edge of the box when the ball was not cleared properly, albeit with the help of a slight deflection.

St Alban’s were now struggling to stave off defeat, there cause not being helped by having to play with centre half Mark Keen up front obviously suffering from concussion from an earlier clash of heads but U’s despite all their efforts were unable to get the winner.

Sutton: -

Gareth Howells, Danny Brooker, Andy Riley, Gwynne Berry, Richard Skelly, John Ugbah, Steve Watson, Andy Salako, Nassim Akrour, Mark Watson and Nko Ekoku.

The unused subs. were Barry Laker, Azeez Akinbolu and Junior Haynes.

St Alban’s:-

Paul Newell, Tom Meredith, Ashley Vickers, Andy Polston, Mark Keen, Matt Jones, Neil Trebble (Justin Gentle) Paul Turner (Gary Cobb) Steve Clark, Rob Haworth (Dominic Gentle) and John Pollard

All three subs were used.