Croydon F.C 2 v Sutton United 0

83rd 87th                                         Report by David Parker

A very dull and disappointing game from a Sutton side that didn't get going thru out the ninety minutes . As early as the seventh minute the Sutton defence was parted by a good Croydon thru ball and was eventually cleared by Laker .

Sutton only managed to create a few half chances in the whole game and in the tenth minute Harlow saw his weak over ambitious shot from the half way line easily saved by Wastell . Then a couple of minutes later the familiar corner set piece from Dack and Harlow was met by Hartford who put his header over the bar .

After fifteen minutes the referee found the abuse from the Croydon bench too much and decided to sent a member of the Croydon bench into the stands for the rest of the game

In the thirtieth minute the gaps in the Sutton defence were shown yet again as Graham Harper fought his was way to the line and produced a good cross that was well claimed by Andy Little on his first return to Croydon since he signed for Sutton . Five minutes later Keith Rowlands made a good run down the right wing and crossed the ball to Harlow who turned his marker and look to be pulled down inside the area but no penalty was given .

The first half was very slow and directionless with Sutton's passing display being very poor with most of the passes going to the Croydon players .

The second half started with the introduction of Sammy Winston who replaced Keith Rowlands , but the change couldn't produce a an effort from Sutton until the fifteenth minutes of the half which looked to be worse than the first . The sub Winston ran down the right to pull back a low cross into the area but was placed behind the incoming Watson and the ball was quickly cleared up field to Jamie Ndah who once again revealed a hole in Sutton's defence but couldn't find the target from the edge of the area .

After the first twenty of the second half it was Croydon looked the favourites to score and in the eighty third minute Ben Judge's shot was bundled wide by Little for the corner which was cleared by Sutton but only as far as Harper who knocked the ball back into the box for Ndah to see his shot come back from the post to Mark Dickinson to stab home for Croydon's first .

United may have been a goal down to lower opposition but this still didn't push Sutton into action and in the eighty seventh minute Croydon scored again with a shot that was drilled into the bottom corner of the Sutton net out of the reach of Andy Little

Elation No extra time .

Deflation A poor Sutton performance and a dull eventless game

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Croydon 1 Wastell 2 Brodrick 3 Dickson 4 Dickinson 5 Reeve 6 Harper 7 Hughes 8 Judge 9 Allen 10 Ndah ( 15 Dungas ) 11 Simpson

Sutton United 1 Little 2 Brooker 3 Lee 4 Dack 5 Laker 6 Harlow 7 Rowlands 8 Hartford 9 Newhouse 10 Watson 11 Ekoku