Sutton's tale of woe continues. Whereas in the home game Sutton felt fortunate to win , in this game they felt unlucky not to get a point. They started the game in the best possible way. Winston powered in to the Rovers box in the seventh minute and was brought down by the defender. The referee immediately signalled a penalty. Aiden Newhouse stepped forward to take it ,but his low shot to the keepers left was easily saved. It seems that United are beginning to have a real problem with spot kicks. That was Sutton's only shot (on or off target) in the first half and Doncaster faired little better. An early substitution for the home side side saw the introduction of Warren for Atkins. Doncaster relied on dropping the ball over the heads of the Sutton back four. This looked to be causing the Us some problems and it was from just such a ball that Kirkwood scored. The forward reaching the waist high bounce and lifting it over the advancing Howells into the top corner of the net (25mins). Ten minutes later Kirkwood stole in between Laker and Skelly and directed a downward header which Howells got down well to. Sutton were continually falling foul of the off side flag and were unable to create any notable chances. The best effort being Skelly's run on goal following Ekoku winning the ball midway in the Rovers half. Barry Laker did well in the defence Gwynne Berry returned from injury , possibly a little sooner than he would have liked and Matt Lee came in for the suspended Brooker. The half finished with Rover going in with a deserved lead.
Like so many games this season Sutton came out with a renewed sense of purpose. Most of this chances this half were Sutton chances. Doncaster best chance saw Howells make a good stop and then have the follow up cleared of the line. At the other end a good cross from Ekoku fell to a well placed Winston , whose glancing header went agonisingly close. A similar scenario had Newhouse heading just wide. A cross from Lee turned into a shot which had the Rovers' keeper very close to being embarrassed, He eventually tipped it away for a corner. Rover's game dropped off and their passing began to get more ragged often surrendering possesion to United very cheaply. Watson replaced Rowlands with about 15 minutes to go. The Sutton pressure did not pay off and the game finished 1-0 to Rovers.
HOWELLS,LEE,SKELLY,BERRY,LAKER,HARLOW,ROWLAND,HARFORD,NEWHOUSE,WATSON,EKOKU,EKOKU SUBS: WATSON,SEARS,DACK,HUTCHINSON,BAKER