Match Centre

Having dropped in to the Enterprise National League relegation zone due to inactivity on Saturday, Sutton climbed out of it with a battling victory against Woking, playing for nearly an hour with ten men after goalkeeper Chris Haigh, deputising for the injured Jack Sims, had seen his first league start of the season cut short by a red card for bringing down Woking’s Matt Ward to deny a goalscoring opportunity. Haigh had earlier been involved in the latest mishap to occur in U’s penalty area to gift the opposition a goal, his pass out blocked by Ollie Sanderson and deflecting to Jack Turner, who had the easiest of tasks to score and equalise Kai Jennings’ early opener for Sutton. Brandon Njoku restored Sutton’s lead in the 27th minute, but was then the player sacrificed soon afterwards as David Aziaya came on to replace Haigh.

Jennings and Njoku started the game with Ashley Nadesan dropping to the bench and Charlie Bell beginning his three match ban after being sent off against Braintree, U’s playing Njoku and Jermaine Francis alongside each other as a front two, while Chris Agutter was in the stand due to a touchline ban, Dean Hammond and Ben Cornelius directing operations. Sutton were off to a flying start as Jennings combined with Njoku on the left, playing the striker in and then in position to collect his pull back, turn inside Keith Andrews and lift the ball in to the net.

Sutton’s fine start was checked as Haigh’s pass out from the back gifted the visitors an equaliser, and another mistake by Junior Eccleston in his own area might have made things worse but Kwaku Donkor covered superbly to avert the danger and set up an attack which ended with Besart Topallaj’s low cross being bundled in by Francis at the far post but he had gone slightly early and the offside flag cut short the celebrations. However U’s did regain the lead, and Jennings was again involved, having two shots blocked before meeting Donkor’s pull back with a shot which rebounded off Chin Okoli and was stabbed in by Njoku from close range before referee Dean Watson could consider U’s claims for handball.

Again U’s found themselves in self-inflicted trouble, though, as Haigh came rushing outside his area when Ward ran on to a fine crossfield pass from Harry Beautyman and fouled the Woking player as he took the ball round him in a fairly central position. The red card was a formality, and Njoku the luckless player to make way for Aziaya, but despite Woking having lots of possession until half time the substitute keeper was untested.

Woking started the second half strongly, and Caleb Richards should have equalised within a minute when he headed over from close range, and Turner also put a header off target from a right wing cross when he might have done better, but it was Sutton who came closest to changing the scoreline when Lewis Simper, making his 100th Sutton appearance and waved on by the referee after having received treatment for a hip injury, cut in from the right and hit a trademark left foot shot that crashed back off the crossbar, Besart Topallaj’s follow up effort saved by Will Jääskeläinen.

A quadruple substitution by Woking midway through the second half hinted at their management’s thoughts on their second half effort, but despite again having plenty of the ball they struggled to create any clear chances as Sutton worked tirelessly to prevent them getting in to dangerous positions, and Aziaya had to deal with nothing other than a couple of shots straight at him, and two inswinging corners from Jamie Andrews that he punched away under the bar. Indeed Sutton again came closest to a goal when Francis, whose workrate on his own up front after Njoku’s replacement exemplified U’s performance, saw a low shot touched wide by Jaaskelainen, and Topallaj skied a shot over the bar after superb work on the right by Simper. Woking pushed but never found a way through as U’s saw the game out for a fine three points.

Sutton: C Haigh, K Donkor(sub A Nadesan 82), B Topallaj, J Eccleston, H Muller, E Pruti, K Jennings, L Simper(sub D Ogbonna 71), B Njoku(sub D Aziaya 35), J Francis, J Taylor. Subs n/u L Vincent, D Rodari, J Harris, D Eze. Booked: Muller, Nadesan, Aziaya. Sent Off: Haigh.

Woking: W Jaaskelainen, T Hinds(sub A Drewe 78), C Richards, C Okoli, Tunji Akinola, J Andrews, H Beautyman(sub A O’Brien 67), Tim Akinola, J Turner(sub R Syla 67), O Sanderson(sub J Gbode 67), M Ward(sub L Flower 67). Subs n/u C Ross, T Odusina. Booked: Ward, Andrews.

Referee: Dean Watson

Attendance: 2,335(403 away)

Photo Credit: Paul Loughlin