report by Tony Dolbear

Sutton's excellent recent run continued on Saturday when a header midway through the second half by Matt Fowler, for whom the goals are flowing again since he ended his barren spell against Bishop's Stortford, secured a sixth consecutive victory. It was one of those games where the result outweighed the performance, with U's out of sorts in the first half and given some awkward moments by a side battling hard for survival at the foot of the table, but they defended well for a second consecutive clean sheet and in the second half carried much more threat in attack. Braintree might reflect that it was the sort of game that sides in their position lose and those on a run like Sutton's win, and will rue the lapse of concentration that led to the goal, but they certainly made life difficult for U's in a first half which did little to warm the spectators on the first genuinely cold Saturday of the season. Too often the ball sailed high in the air, Braintree closing U's down quickly and attacking in a direct style, and rarely was there the slightest hint of a goal. The home side came closest after 17 minutes when a strong run on the right by Tommy Noble ended with a low cross that was met at full stretch at the far post by Mark Jones, but he could only push the ball wide. Noble sent another effort from 20 yards just past Andy Pape's left hand post, and the home side were entitled to feel that they had done enough to lead at the break. Instead they could easily have been trailing, as four minutes before half time Nicky Haydon slipped under pressure from Fowler, who cut in from the right and fired in a shot that Paul Catley turned away, the first time he had been tested in a half that had seen both Lewis Gonsalves and Scott Corbett miss the target by some distance from Danny Bolt corners. The second half started in a much brighter fashion, and in the first 15 minutes either side could have gone in front. Matt Gray dived to flash a header just wide from a Bolt free kick, and then produced a superb cross from the right that was met at the far post by Nick Bailey with a firm downward header that Catley did well to smother. At the other end Pape had to backpedal to tip over a dipping header from Gary Waters following a long free kick from the right, and then Neil Cousins hooked over at the far post after a left wing cross had drifted on the wind and evaded everyone else. The deadlock was broken, though, seconds after U's management team, who have had a good spell recently concerning substitutions, made another significant change. On came Eddie Akuamoah, returning to the club after his three month stay at Bromley, with Gray switching to the right wing back position in place of the more naturally defensive Darren Beale, and within a minute Gray had won a corner after a good run. As the home defence, some of whom felt that it should have been a goal kick, lost concentration Bolt played the corner short to Gray, received the return and swung in a glorious cross that had his team mates queuing up unchallenged at the far post, Fowler stooping to head past the helpless Catley. It was enough to claim the points, and although Braintree pressed forward in search of the equaliser U's defence gave the impression of never losing control, with Pape in commanding form behind them, and Fowler and Akuamoah always troubled the home team's back line on the break without coming that close to adding a second goal.

Braintree: Catley, Girling, Haydon, Waters, Blackwell, Quinton, Simpson, Keevil, Noble, Cousins(Defoe 78), Jones. Subs n/u Hayter, Green.

Sutton: Pape, Beale(Akuamoah 65), Hollands, Palmer, Brooker, Bailey, Bolt(Honey 78), Corbett, Fowler, Gray, Gonsalves. Subs n/u Brett.

Referee: D Elstone Attendance 252