Match Report

Sutton suffered a cruel blow in their trip to Rochdale with a deflected stoppage-time strike consigning them to a 2-1 defeat at the Crown Oil Arena.

After the U’s failed to fully clear the lines, the ball was pulled back to striker Devante Rodney, and his shot wrong-footed Sutton goalkeeper Jack Sims after taking a big deflection off a body in the box.

Earlier, Eduino Vaz expertly levelled the scores with a well-taken right-footed strike after Ryan East headed the hosts in front.

Steve Morison’s side had chances to get their noses in front but in the end left Greater Manchester empty-handed.

The first 20 minutes of the National League clash offered little by the way of clear-cut chances with both teams keen to get their feet on the ball.

But the contest kicked into life in the following ten minutes with both Rochdale and Sutton getting on the scoresheet.

East broke the deadlock as he connected with a cross from the right with his downward header beating Sims after the U’s were opened up by some neat interplay from the home side.

The goal somewhat came out of nothing, however, Sutton hit back just shy of the half-hour mark through Vaz’s composed strike.

Some good build-up play down the left saw Charlie Waller find Will Davies with a pinpoint pass; Davies’ touch was slightly heavy, leading to a 50-50 with Dale goalkeeper Luke McNicholas.

Vaz was quickest to pounce onto the loose ball and from just inside the Rochdale box he fired the ball through a crowd with his weaker right foot and into the bottom left-hand corner of the home side’s goal.

There weren’t many opportunities to speak of before the break but Sutton were dealt the major setback of seeing Edwin Agbaje pull up with a hamstring injury.

The second half started in a similar fashion to the first with little to separate the sides, however, Sutton were given another injury setback when Jayden Harris was stretchered off after landing awkwardly when controlling a high pass to him.

Rochdale had the lion’s share of the possession, but it was Sutton who had the better opportunities to go in front with Davies denied by some fine goalkeeping from McNicholas, who blocked his low shot after Davies latched onto a defence-splitting pass from Vaz.

Davies came close to scoring again on 80 minutes when substitute Ashley Nadesan managed to get in behind, but his low cross from the right failed to find the Us no.9 with an open goal gaping.

Sutton were made to rue these missed opportunities as Rodney, who scored twice in the previous match between the two sides in April 2023, came off the bench to strike in the third minute of stoppage time, the ball beating Sims after taking a sizeable deflection en route to goal.

The visitors almost hit back even deeper into stoppage time when Josh Coley’s deflected left-footed shot bounced just wide of goal.

It wasn’t to be for Sutton though as they slip to 13th in the table having lost four of their last five games in all competitions.

Rochdale: L.McNicholas, K.Gordon, R.East, A.Henry (sub J.Burger 64), T.Allarakhia, T.Adebayo-Rowling (sub J.Okeke 82), C.McBride (sub A.Barlow 82), M.Dennis, L.Hogan, J.Buyabu (sub D.Rodney 64), S.Beckwith

Booked: None

Sutton United: J.Sims, E.Agbaje (sub H.Muller 44), T.French, A.Kirk, C.Waller, S.Odelusi, F.Barbrook, J.Harris (sub A.Nadesan 53), E.Vaz (sub N.Boateng 82), J.Coley, W.Davies

Booked: Harris

Referee: Richard Aspinall

Attendance: 2,602