Ryman Premier League

2 Sutton United V Enfield 3

United would feel that they deserved at least a draw from this scrappy encounter. The United defence seemed none existent as Enfield took a first half three-goal lead. Although Sutton did start the brighter team dominating the play for the first fifteen minutes. United could have taken the lead twice, both times a cross from Nko Ekoku resulted in the ball falling to Dave Harlow who first time round couldn’t keep his shot down but his other shot was well saved by the keeper. Enfield got their first goal from an unnatural mistake from Chris Boothe who hoofed the ball back to the goalkeeper who couldn’t win the challenge and the ball was fired across the face of goal by Robert Boyce, the cross fell to Lee Allen who was able to strike the ball into the unmanned net. Danny Bolt came close to levelling the score when he saw his free kick curled just wide of the post. Enfield doubled their lead on thirty minutes when Danny Jones had time and space in the midfield to open the Sutton defence with a through ball to Allen who hit a low shot past Dunn in the Sutton goal. Three minutes later Enfield extended their lead even further when Sutton couldn’t clear the ball and gave Enfield a repeated chance to get a cross in. On the fourth attempt the ball was put into the area for an unmarked Shayne Chandler to head home.

The second half Sutton came out to get back into the game and with ten minutes gone they had pulled two goals back but couldn’t find the extra goal needed to round off a good battling second half performance. Suttons first came from Dunn’s clearance which found it’s way down field for Rob Haworth to latch on to and fire under the keeper. With ten minutes of the second half gone another long ball found Haworth who was forced to lay it back to Danny Bolt, Bolt saw Whitmarsh unmarked and placed the ball at his feet. Whitmarsh soon ran into trouble and put the ball out to Nko at the wing, Nko then took the ball into the area and struck a fierce shot at goal from a tight angle, which the keeper couldn’t hold on to. United almost equalised when Danny Bolt look to have scored straight from a corner but the effort was cleared off the line. Whitmarsh had a chance to score when he headed Bolt’s cross over the bar. With fifteen minutes left Dave Harlow saw his free kick parried by the keeper, the ball fell to Haworth whose shot was saved by the keeper. Whitmarsh had a few weak efforts saved near the end as well as Nko testing the keeper with another sharp shot. Both teams put in good performances for an interesting second half the only thing that spoiled the game was the rude gestures that the Enfield goalkeeper Stephen Hilton made toward Sutton fans at the final whistle.

Elation Good second half performance

Haworth making every effort to get Sutton back in the game.

Deflation First half performance

Some bad defending through out