Match Report

Matt Gray’s first competitive match as a manager proved a triumphant one as Sutton came back from what looked a testing opening day trip to Hartlepool with a hard earned and thoroughly deserved victory. With Hartlepool optimistic about their chances this season, a crowd of nearly 4,000 turned up to see their opening game, including 70 from Sutton who had endured train cancellations and delays on the journey north, but it was they who could be heard after 25 minutes as U’s raced in to a two goal lead to puncture the home team’s hopes. What was just about the perfect first 45 minutes for U’s was spoiled two minutes in to stoppage time as Gime Toure scored his first goal at National League level since scoring for U’s against Hartlepool in March, sending Hartlepool in at half time in a far more positive frame of mind than would otherwise have been the case, but U’s defended well in the second half, restricted the home side to few clear chances, and struck brilliantly on the break in the fifth minute of injury time to put the game to bed.

It was important that U’s calmed the home crowd early on, and they found the perfect way to do it in only the seventh minute. An intercepted pass fell for Dale Bennett and he sent over a superb cross that was met by Harry Beautyman with a fine glancing header that looped beyond Ben Killip in to the net, although having got a good hand on the ball the keeper might feel he could have done better. Hartlepool almost replied immediately with Nicke Kabamba finding space and sending in a low shot that beat Jamie Butler but came back off the post, but Sutton, with Bolarinwa, Beautyman, Kenny Davis and Will Randall all keen to support the hard-working Aaron Jarvis up front, continued to make it difficult for the home side and midway through the half a sublime touch from Davis allowed Bolarinwa to go through on the right, his pass was laid off by Jarvis and there was Beautyman again, forcing his way through and shooting low past Killip.

Bolarinwa was giving defender Romony Crichlow-Noble, on loan from Championship side Huddersfield, a torrid time on the Sutton right, going close to adding a third with a curling shot which Killip this time saved, but Crichlow-Noble’s half was summed up just before half time when he was booked after felling Bolarinwa with a challenge that began as rugby and finished as wrestling. Just as U’s were thinking of getting in to the dressing room with a first half job well done, though, Rob Milsom was beaten in the air as he came in from the left back position, and Toure took advantage of the space to cut in from the right and fire low through a crowd of players in to the net.

The goal completely changed the tone, and at the start of the second half it was Hartlepool on the front foot and Sutton struggled to hold the ball for long enough to relieve the pressure. However the defending was committed and effective, and the closest Hartlepool came was when Kabamba sent an overhead kick just too high, and then was denied by a fine save from Butler, who blocked the effort with his legs at close range. Crichlow-Noble, more successful going forward in the second half than he was defending in the first, saw a deep cross volleyed across goal by Luke James, Kabamba throwing himself at the ball but unable to divert it, and Jon Barden, who had just been booked for a foul on Liam Noble, produced the tackle of the game to prevent Jason Kennedy going through, when any misjudgement would have led to a penalty and possibly a second yellow card.

As the half wore on Sutton began to have openings on the break, David Ajiboye’s pace a new threat to the home defence, and Jarvis was only too high when he saw Killip off his line and tried to score from long range. Chances began to arrive, Jarvis stabbing wide from Ajiboye’s pull back and Ajiboye himself shooting across goal, but after Fraser Kerr had headed wide from a corner, and Dan Matsuzaka had made one crucial block seconds after replacing the cramp-stricken Ben Goodliffe, Davis eschewed the obvious ploy of clearing the ball as far as possible when it fell to him just outside the penalty area , but instead instigated a counter attack which saw Randall find Beautyman and U’s with a three-on-one attack. Beautyman’s pass to Omar Bugiel was perfectly timed, Bugiel’s pass to Randall equally so, and Randall, still full of running, provided a finish fitting to the move and the general Sutton performance.

Hartlepool: B Killip, K Richardson (sub N Featherstone 70), R Crichlow-Noble (sub M Kitching 80), M Raynes, F Kerr, L Noble, G Toure (sub G Holohan 83), J Kennedy, N Kabamba, G Mafuta, L James. Subs n/u A Bale, A Cunningham. Booked: Crichlow-Noble.