2 Sutton United Vs Chesham United 3
ATT 307
United fell to their fifth league defeat in a row after Chesham went home with all three points. The defeat leaves United with out a league win since the derby victory over Carshalton leaving Sutton with only four points from a possible twenty-four.
The first half showed little effort from Sutton to end their losing streak, as Chesham dominated the first half restricting Sutton to a few half chances. Although Sutton could have taken the lead in the first ten minutes when a corner kick was knocked toward the goal by a Chesham defender, forcing his keeper into a fine save. Five minutes later Chesham took full advantage of an opening in the Sutton defence but Mark Watson could not find the target. Minutes later Watson again had a chance to open the scoring but Tommy Dunn superbly saved his header. Ten minutes before half time a short corner fell to James Pinnock, his low shot was again well saved by Dunn. United came close to breaking the deadlock when Craig Howard unleashed Nko Ekoku with a good cross-field ball. Nko then managed to beat Brian Statham and crossed for Dave Harlow whose volley was just inches wide. With almost the last kick of the half Chesham could have scored when a corner wasn’t properly cleared, the ball fell to a Chesham forward who blasted the ball over the bar from close range.
Chesham got off to the ideal started to the second half when in the first two minutes of the restart. The united defence failed to clear a cross from the left and missed Victor Renner who was running to slot the ball home. Eight minutes later Sutton were close to equalising when another Dave Harlow volley was tipped wide. With twenty minutes gone Matt Gray was pulled down inside the area and a penalty was awarded and Danny Bolt stepped up to take it. Bolt sent the keeper the wrong way and levelled the scored. The scores only remained level for four minutes when a cross from the right fell to Brown who was able to turn and stab the ball past Dunn. Within two minutes of that goal going in Sutton were able to level the scores again when Rob Haworth was fouled on the edge of the area. Danny Bolt took the kick, which arrowed into the bottom left hand corner leaving the keeper standing. Sutton almost let Chesham score a minute after equalising when another cross wasn’t cleared and fell to Mark Watson who sliced his shot well wide of the post. Minutes later they could have scored when Renner’s header looped over Dunn but fell the wrong side of the post. In the last fifteen minutes Sutton went close when a Danny Bolt through ball was knocked back to him by a defender and gave him a second chance to put Matt Gray through. Gray ran on to the ball and shot narrowly wide. Two minutes later Gray was grounded by a very bad tackle by Statham who escaped with a booking. The free kick was put into the area by Bolt for Haworth to head straight at the keeper. Almost immediately Bolt won the ball back a cross the ball that was met by Haworth who made the keeper work for the save. With five minutes to go Williams dived into Ernie Cooksey inside the area and a penalty was awarded. It was Statham who stepped up to take the kick and scored to add to Sutton recent losing streak.
Elation Matt Grays first full league appearance for Sutton.
Deflation Five league lost in a row
Seven games in total lost in a row