Sutton United 2

Oxford City 1

Sutton gained three priceless points against lowly Oxford on Saturday but it was a far from convincing performance by a team who looked low on confidence and form. The blustery wind and the poor state of the pitch must have been contributing factors as too is the lack of patience shown by the home crowd who are too quick to vocally criticise players who are clearly struggling but need their confidence boosted by the supporters. However with their main rivals Dagenham and Kingstonian sharing the points in their game U's lead at the top of the table has been increased again to four points.

Sutton brought Nassim Akrour and James Virgo into the side in place of Barry Laker and Junior Haynes but Jimmy Dack was still unfit so Steve Watson and John Ugbah retained their partnership in midfield. And it was they who started brightly and looked particularly dangerous from set pieces in the first ten minutes. Paul Clark blasted over from eight yards when he could have done better and Keeper Ian Moores made a fine save from a Joff Vansittart header with several Sutton players just unable to reach the rebound. But then Sutton seemed to run out ideas and the game became very scrappy and indeed it was Oxford who had the better chances in a poor first half.

Les Cleevely made a superb double save to deny Jason Caffel and Steve Jenkins and then the latter who had been found by Ian Concannon in oceans of space inside Sutton's box lifted the ball over the bar with just the goalkeeper to beat.

However after thirty-six minutes the visitors took the lead. Sutton actually had a corner but a very poor delivery resulted in the ball being played all the way back to Les Cleevely who scuffed his clearance straight to Jermaine McSporran who hit it back over Cleevely into an empty net.

Sutton's response was swift and they equalised within eight minutes. Matt Hanlan won a corner that was headed into the six-yard box by Joff Vansittart for the former to stab the ball in from three yards.

Into the second half and despite Junior Haynes entering the fray in place of David Everitt, Sutton were still unable to impose themselves on the game. However with twenty minutes to go they did score the winner. Keeper Moores seemed to have a hopeful lob from Steve Watson under control until it floated just under his crossbar on the wind and he ended up being grateful to push it over. From the resulting corner Joff Vansittart seemed to stab the ball home from virtually on the goal line after several Sutton attempts were cleared off the line or hit defenders.

Two minutes later Moores partly redeemed himself when a Steve Watson shot again from a corner looked goalbound until he pushed it over. Oxford took off leading scorer Ian Concannon with ten minutes to go to bring on fresh legs but Sutton's lead was never seriously threatened.

What must be slightly worrying for both manager and supporters is that we didn't make a single chance from open play in the whole of the ninety minutes. The return of Andy Salako must be a priority in John Rain's mind even if he does look like something out of Phantom of The Opera and perhaps now those supporters who have given him such a hard time will realise his value to the side and give him as much support as they do the other players.

The Sutton line up was:

Les Cleevely, Danny Brooker, David Everitt, Gwynne Berry, Paul Clark, James Virgo, Steve Watson, John Ugbah, Nassim Akrour, Matt Hanlan and Joff Vansittart.

Junior Haynes replaced David Everitt

Barry Laker and Danny Mills were the unused Subs.