Chris Agutter emphasised his pride in his players after his side fell to defeat in extra time despite an extraordinary effort with nine men against Shrewsbury Town.
His Sutton team found themselves eliminated from the Emirates FA Cup after John Marquis capitalised on a mistake at the back, completing Salop’s comeback after Kai Jennings’ stunning opening goal, and dealt the U’s the hardest of blows, having conceded the equaliser in the first minute of stoppage time.
Yet despite the heartbreak, his overriding feeling quickly turned to pride, with the National League side going toe-to-toe with League Two opposition, putting in what was a tremendous, hard-fought display that was no doubt worthy of the win and a passage into the hat for Round Three.
“It’s very frustrating, really frustrating,” he said. “You don’t mind losing games when you deserve to lose them, but today feels different because we were so close to getting over the line.”
“It [the winner] was incredibly avoidable. We’ve got to be better defensively in wide areas. We had a warning a couple of minutes earlier as well. That’s frustrating, but the level of performance and the fact we deserved to win the game… I’m really proud of them.”
“At nine men we’re still pressing, still getting after the opposition, still forcing them backwards, still creating chances”.
“They’re a great group. I’ve just told them they’re the best group I’ve ever had the privilege to manage – not just in terms of quality but effort.”
Two red cards proved major talking points, and Agutter made no attempt to hide his frustration, with David Ogbonna being shown a second yellow card moments after Shrewsbury’s equaliser, before Junior Eccleston saw an extremely soft straight red card, a controversial decision that made an already uphill battle even steeper.
“It’s difficult to get out of the way when you’re a yard away and someone boots the ball at you. It felt cheap,” he said of the first dismissal. “It wasn't even as if there was a movement from Obi towards the ball, so it felt cheap.”
As for Eccleston’s, Agutter said: “it’s quite soft so it’s one of them where the refs probably bought it but I think it was a really well-natured, competitive game of football”
“I don’t really think there was a bad tackle in the game, I didn’t think the tackle on Kai was worth a red card even for them, but for some reason, we’ve got cards like confetti and referee heavily involved, and I’m just not sure the game warranted that.”
There were, however, moments of genuine quality, none more so than Jennings’ superb opener, producing an Olimpico as his corner 21 minutes from time flew all the way in and gave Will Brook no chance.
“I thought he was excellent; funny we were saying in the dugout, ‘don’t cross it because that’s one thing Shrewsbury are good at is they’re aerially decent, defending their box, they’re big and powerful.”
“Yeah, another very good performance, but I think, honestly, you could throw any of the lads; names at the Man of the Match award and it would have been justified, because I thought the collective performance was superb. Jack Sims, so good – he made a couple of good saves, but just in terms of helping us to break pressure and build up, it’s so good. And again, I could say the same for a majority of the team.”
Despite the defeat, the Sutton supporters were relentless, backing the team throughout the entire 120 minutes and the support was not lost on the head coach.
“Unbelievable. Please keep coming back in your numbers,” he said.
“Keep giving us that following. It’s, for me personally, like the feeling you get when you’re standing in the dugout and you feel the warmth of support is top draw.
“Credit to the noise and the volume that our brilliant, brilliant fan base produce. And equally, I know it helps the players so much. We do definitely have home advantage, like I said. I’m not sure what our record is at home, but it’s very positive and that’s a reflection of the support. So thank you very much.”
“We’ll bounce back and we’ll continue to build momentum.”
