CHESHAM UNITED 2 SUTTON UNITED 0

Report by Tony Dolbear

Sutton slumped to a third consecutive defeat on Saturday as they again failed to make any impression on the teams above them in the Ryman League table and found themselves needing a decent result in the Bank Holiday derby against Kingstonian to avoid being swallowed up by a number of clubs below them. Their efforts against Gravesend and Aldershot had been valiant, but on Saturday they were largely outplayed by a more experienced Chesham side on a pitch that gave players little assistance in their efforts to keep the ball on the ground. Hard and uneven, there was never better than a fifty-fifty chance that the ball would go where the player intended, but even that doesn't excuse the number of times Sutton gifted possession to a home side that was scarcely more fluent, but stronger than a U's side that for three minutes in the second half had six teenagers on the pitch. The individual difference between the teams in a forgettable game was Wayne Andrews, the Chesham striker who has figured among the league's leading scorers all season and added two clinical strikes here to the decisive goal he scored at Sutton back in the heat of August. The first, in the 14th minute, nipped in the bud a promising Sutton start that might have yielded a goal after only three minutes, when Matt Gray's good knock down gave Rob Haworth the chance to show strength in holding off a defender before firing in a shot that Delroy Preddie turned aside. Out of nothing, though, a fairly aimless ball down the right was hooked back from near the corner flag by Lee Spiller, and Andrews lost his markers completely to volley crisply past Tommy Dunn. Chesham began to dominate proceedings, with Paul Fewings heading just over from a free kick and Richard Graham drilling a shot in to Dunn's midriff, while on the half hour U's keeper excelled himself as he dived back to tip over Andrews' overhead kick as his defence failed to clear a free kick. Sutton's moments of hope were few, with one darting run by Dave Timothy the notable exception, although his cross to the far post was cleared by the home defence under pressure from Nick Bailey. Five minutes after half time that hope receded further with another cleanly struck Andrews effort from the better part of 25 yards that whistled in to the bottom corner of Dunn's net. To all intents and purposes that was that, with the chief interest for the home supporters whether Andrews would claim a hat trick. Dunn made one good save to deny him, and he also failed to divert Spiller's mis-hit volley in after Dunn had pawed away a corner. For U's supporters the interest lay in the three minutes during which more than half their players on the pitch were under 20, Nick Drew's debut as a substitute for Timothy seeing him join Bailey, Lewis Gonsalves, Paul Honey, Matt Gray and debutant Graham Tydeman, who then made way for Matt Fowler. It was Fowler who came closest to giving them hope with a flick header that went just over after Gray's poorly struck free kick had been helped on, but at no time did U's seriously look like rescuing the situation. Even when referee Colin Overall, not one of the Ryman League's more mobile officials and rarely sympathetic to U's pleadings, did award a free kick 20 yards out when Fowler was tripped, Gray's hasty and half-hit effort straight in to Preddie's arms rather summed up the afternoon.

Chesham: Preddie, Boyce(Nugent 59), Corcoran, Goddard, Kersey, Watts, Brown, Spiller, Andrews(Cook 85), Fewings(Miles 89), Graham.

Sutton: Dunn, Palmer, Gonsalves, Bailey, Hammonds, Honey, Timothy(Drew 63), Tydeman(Fowler 66), Gray, Haworth, Akuamoah. Sub n/u Mison

Referee: C Overall Attendance:266