Chris Agutter praised his side’s dominant first half display as they progressed in the Surrey Senior Cup, but insisted there were important lessons to take from a less convincing second half.
Goals within the first half-hour from Aaron Jones and Eduino Vaz put Sutton in the ascendancy heading into the break, but a strike from AFC Croydon Athletic’s Josh Williams ten minutes from time set up a nervy finale as the U’s ended up eeking past their Step 4 opponents.
With a blend of first-team regulars, fringe players and academy prospects on show, the Head Coach nonetheless said he was pleased with aspects of the performance, notably the way they set the tone early with their intensity and attacking intent, while acknowledging clear areas for improvement.
“First half, I thought we were very good. Irrelevant of level of opposition, I think we produced some really positive bits of play; could have been more convincing on the scoreline, but I thought in general we were very good, particularly from an attacking perspective.”
“In the moments we had to defend, I thought we’d done our job – be aggressive on the front foot, defended hard at the pitch, limited a decent Croydon side to very little.”
“So first half was really positive, second half was less positive – loads of learning from the second half for sure, learning from the first half too, but definitely more from the second half.”
Despite making significant changes, including three inclusions from the academy along, Agutter maintained his winning mentality he has touched on throughout his time in charge at Gander Green Lane by fielding primarily first team players, and was pleased with the application of those stepping in.
“Everyone played their part, it was a really good team performance. As I said after the Guildford game, I think it’s good to see the academy players amongst a first team squad because I think it does give them a better chance to really showcase what they can do and give us an idea of what they’d look like in a first team environment as opposed to a full academy side.”
“I think opportunities have got to be earned, not given, so the lads that have had the opportunity to feature tonight have deserved it off the back of some really good performances with the academy and training with the first team”
“First half very good, loads of positive individual performances, really good all round team performance and then again, second half, not so good.”
One of the standout performers was George Vorster, whom Agutter has spoken highly of in recent weeks, and the teenager built on his league debut at the weekend with another composed showing, playing the full 90+ against Croydon as he displayed why he has been so highly rated during loan spells at Ashford United (Middlesex) and Burgess Hill Town.
“He’s a very good player. Credit to the academy again, Dacky [Jimmy Dack], Glenn [Nichols] and Co, and then also guys at Ashford and Burgess Hill where he’s been out on loan over the last sort of 18 months.”
“You can often find when players go out on loan, sometimes it can be at their detriment, and the biggest credit I can give the guys at Ashford and Burgess Hill is that George has really developed and improved, so they’ve given them a really good environment and couple that with the academy set up, and again, credit to George himself.”
“He’s gone out and worked incredibly hard to work our way into the first team squad, so I think you can see tonight as well he’s one of our best performers tonight. He was one of the one of the more positive performers in the second half as well, so yeah, really happy with him, and I look forward to him featuring more for the first team for sure.”
In addition, another major positive was the long-awaited return of Vaz, who completed 90 minutes for the first time since returning from injury as well as capping the night with a goal.
“I was surprised at how physically fit he was from the Southampton game because we’d initially planned for him to only play 45 minutes, but again, credit to Vaz and the medical team, really, that he’s able to, after that period of time, come back and play 70, 75 minutes, and then back out of another 90 minutes inside two weeks, on top of getting the assist for JT on Saturday.”
“Really, really pleased to have him back in the building in terms of available for selection; pleased to have him back in the building day in, day out, rather than in the treatment room.”
An honest post-match assessment indeed, Agutter touched on his frustration with the manner in which his side conceded in the second half, emphasising the need for better game management, and how important it is to learn from the mistakes made.
“It’s just learning really, because there’s a few moments in the second half where we’ve either lost a 50-50 or we’ve turned the ball over cheap through a lack of detail or care in the past, like an unforced error or we’ve made some indifferent decisions, and it’s just given them a bit of momentum in the game.”
“What we didn’t do enough of is push back and interfere with the momentum of the game, so I always think a reflection of how well we’re playing is how often we go back to the goalkeeper, because believe it or not, I’d rather not go back to the goalkeeper, and I just felt in the first half, as an example, we would switch play and change the angle and move the opposition around through playing through midfield, through playing along the back line and the wide players and on occasion, really.”
“Whereas second half, we just kept going back to David [Aziaya] and sometimes it can be a bit of the easy way out rather than the right decision and then because we go back to David, we then lose territory, and it’s all right going back to David or the goalkeeper if we’re thinking about the next action.”
“They then get a half-sensible press on, we then, because we haven’t done our work well enough to support David, we then force it back down the pitch and couple of that with not winning our first and second balls as well when we did go longer, it just meant that Croydon had far too much joy in that second half and could build up a bit of momentum.”
“The learning is we need to disrupt that, whether that is as basic as it sounds and as old school as it sounds, whether that’s smashing into a 50-50 and making a big challenge because there was a few tackles flying around in that second half, which is fair.”
“Let’s win that battle first and foremost just to shift it back in our favour or it’s somebody taking the ball under pressure and taking touches and rolling out of a 1v1 or whether it’s playing forwards. We have to find a way to get the game going back in our favour.”
Looking forward, a big Emirates FA Cup tie is next on the agenda with Shrewsbury Town visiting on Saturday, and Agutter stressed the importance of maintaining momentum and building on a strong, unbeaten month.
“We’ve had a very good November and the challenge for the group is to have a better December, and for us to do that, we needed to win tonight.”
“We need to progress in this competition, we want to win this competition, we want to win every game, and again, so for us, it was a case getting this game ticked off, winning this game, progressing in this competition, and then now it’s full focus on Shrewsbury.”
“There’s no injuries tonight, we’ve got more minutes in the bank for more of the players that need the game time or short game time. We’re going to the game in a really good place, we’ve also a number of academy players pushing.”
Agutter also offered clarity on Kai Jennings’ his involvement with AFC Wimbledon, with EFL rules allowing players to appear for their parent club in the Vertu Trophy despite being out on loan.
Jennings played 90 minutes as Wimbledon beat Cardiff City 5-1 and progress to the Round of 16 of the competition, making his first senior start for the Dons in the Welsh capital.
“He’s obviously at his parent club, so he’s got an opportunity to feature for them tonight in a cup competition. He was in the squad for them in the last outing in that respective competition, so he’s got an opportunity to get a start for Wimbledon tonight.”
“I think it’s a reflection of the relationship between the two clubs, to be fair, sometimes it can be a bit disruptive from the loan club’s perspective, but, again, because it’s such a good relationship, it’s all about giving Kai the best opportunity to play the best level possible and fulfil his potential, so, hopefully he’s had a good outing tonight for Wimbledon and then we can benefit from that on Saturday against Shrewsbury.”
