Match Report

After Tuesday’s heavy defeat at Wrexham, Sutton bounced back with three points thanks to an early Harry Beautyman penalty, and while it wasn’t the prettiest victory that U’s will ever achieve, the three points and a clean sheet represented a good response to Tuesday’s game.

On the back foot for most of the second half U’s had to defend to preserve the points, and while Halifax will feel that they should have been going back to Yorkshire with something to show for their efforts, they failed to call Dean Bouzanis in to serious action all afternoon and came close only when substitute Nyal Bell marked his debut with a sublime turn past Louis John and smashed a shot against the crossbar midway through the second half.

The decisive moment came early on, after Isaac Olaofe had seen a shot deflected wide. Will Randall’s corner was flicked on by John at the near post, and as Danny Williams and Luke Summerfield combined to clear referee Lloyd Wood spotted a handball. Beautyman’s penalty was well struck, and needed to be as Sam Johnson got a strong hand to it but couldn’t prevent it finding the roof of the net.

Johnson was prominent for the rest of the first half as U’s enjoyed the better of the game, saving from well struck shots from outside the penalty area by Randall and David Ajiboye, who also sent a cross shot just wide of the far post, but there was disruption for U’s just before the interval when Randall suffered a recurrence of his hamstring injury, and the reshuffle saw Craig Eastmond back in midfield having started the game at right back, where Jon Barden now slotted in.

Halifax started the second half on the front foot, but still struggled to create openings as U’s defended well. The arrival of Bell, though, gave them a greater threat up front and after Neill Byrne had headed over from a right wing free kick, Bell turned past John on to a low right wing cross only to see his shot smack back off the face of the crossbar.

Any Sutton second half attacks were mainly on the counter, and Tobi Sho-Silva was left to plough a lone furrow up front as Olaofe came back to the wide left position and Beautyman moved in to the middle alongside Eastmond and Kenny Davis, but Olaofe did get far enough forward to be disappointed when Sho-Silva failed to put enough on a pass that would have put him clear. Eastmond and Davis both miscued volleys wide from the edge of the penalty area, but it became more a question of whether the one goal would be enough. It was, with the last scare coming when Rob Milsom was penalised for handball thirty yards out, but the wall comfortably did its job to block Niall Maher’s free kick before it could test Bouzanis.

Halifax: S Johnson, N Maher, D Williams, N Clarke(sub J Earing 57), N Byrne, T Bradbury, L Allen, L Summerfield, G Nepumuceno, M Woods(sub K Green 85), N Danns(sub N Bell 57). Subs n/u H Davison-Hale, J Senior. Booked: Clarke, Williams, Maher.