Match Report

Harry Beautyman scored twice, and brought up his half century of Sutton goals, as U’s moved made it four wins out of five in the National League and moved up to third place in the table. After a delayed kick off due to floodlight issues Sutton produced arguably their best 45 minutes of the season so far in the first half, and Will Randall had already seen a shot deflected just over when Beautyman reached his 50 goal milestone. Omar Bugiel, outstanding in the first half, cut in to the penalty area following a throw in and then allowed Beautyman to score with a low shot from just inside the penalty area.

Dominant for much of the half, U’s could have added more as Beautyman and Randall both tested Adam Smith from outside the penalty area, while Bugiel’s shot was blocked by Josh Staunton, who injured himself in the process and was unable to continue. However their failure to take more control in terms of the scoreline was punished as Yeovil equalised after five minutes of first half stoppage time. Bugiel blotted his first half copy book with an unnecessary foul just inside the Sutton half, and Charlie Lee found space on the right to collect the free kick and cross for Joe Quigley to fire home on the turn via the underside of the bar.

It was just about Yeovil’s only shot of the half, but Sutton recovered from the disappointment and after Isaac Olaofe had just failed to capitalise on a wayward back pass from Lawson D’Ath his pace beat the Yeovil defence again soon afterwards as Albi Skendi’s mistake allowed a Bouzanis clearance through to Olaofe and Luke Wilkinson brought him down just inside the penalty area. Olaofe looked to have a reasonable chance of getting a shot away, and Wilkinson might have been lucky only to be booked, but Beautyman smashed home the penalty to ensure justice was done.

Dean Bouzanis had to scramble to his left to push away a Rhys Murphys shot, and U’s then lost Jon Barden to injury, Ben Goodliffe coming on for his first league appearance of the season, but Olaofe continued to cause problems for the home defence and almost set up a chance for David Ajiboye, whose shot was blocked. Yeovil put U’s under more pressure as the half went on, but Bouzanis saved well from Skendi’s low shot, Murphy falling over the grounded Rob Milsom as he went for the rebound and referee James Durkin waving away the penalty appeals, booking Murphy for his continued protests. U’s went down to ten men in stoppage time, Coby Rowe seriously injured in a challenge for which Skendi became the fifth Yeovil player booked, but were able to hold on as Yeovil had the ball in the net right at the end only for Murphy to be offside as he challenged Bouzanis to force the ball in.

Yeovil: A Smith, D Leadbitter, J Staunton(sub C Dickinson 32), L Wilkinson, G Rogers, A Skendi, C Lee(sub J Clarke 78), L D’Ath, M Warburton(sub J Smith), J Quigley, R Murphy. Subs n/u A-J Ryan, R Burke. Booked: Lee, Wilkinson, Murphy, Leadbitter, Skendi.