Sutton v Aston Villa U21 preview and streaming details

18 September 2023

Sutton take a break from league action on Tuesday with a visit from Aston Villa's Under 21 side as U's EFL Trophy campaign gets under way.

Crawley and Charlton have already opened Southern Group B, with Crawley beating the League One side 4-3 at the Broadfield Stadium, and U's will host Crawley in three weeks' time before a visit to The Valley in November. Before that, though, U's will hope to make it a hat-trick of victories against Under 21 sides in the competition, having beaten Crystal Palace and Chelsea in each of the past two seasons.

Villa's Under 21 side finished fifth last season in Premier League 2, losing in the play-offs to Leeds, and have started this season with one win in their first four league games. They drew 2-2 at Brighton in their first group game in the Premier League Cup last Friday, denied victory by an equaliser in the fifth minute of stoppage time.

Villa have had a mixed record in the EFL Trophy in recent seasons, losing all three group games last season, when their opponents again included Crawley, but winning all three the previous season before coincidentally losing to Charlton in the first knock out stage.

Sutton, who reached the final at the first attempt two seasons ago and again came through the group stages last season, will be hoping that it is recent cup form that will prevail on Tuesday rather than league form, Saturday's defeat at Accrington a seventh in a row in the league while U's have beaten League One Cambridge and Wycombe in the Carabao Cup. Sam Hart may be fit to play a part having been out through injury since the start of the season, but the game may come too soon for Craig Eastmond, who has returned to full training this week and hopefully will be available for Saturday's game against MK Dons.

Should the scores be level after 90 minutes on Tuesday each side will take a point, but there will then be a penalty shoot out, the winners of which will receive an extra point.

Tuesday's referee is Jacob Miles, in his first EFL season, although he has been to Sutton before for the National League game against Torquay in April 2021.

Season tickets are NOT valid for Tuesday's game, and tickets can be bought on line here, or at the ground on Tuesday evening at no extra cost. Prices are £12 for adults, £7 for concessions and £3 for juniors age 12-18. Tickets for under 12s are free if bought in conjunction with an adult or concession ticket. Stand seats are £4 extra in all cases.

A programme can be ordered on line to be sent out after the game, price £4 plus postage. Click here to order a copy

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As with all group games in the EFL Trophy the game is being live streamed and is available to watch for £10 through our iFollow service. Click here to buy a match pass.

Match Previews

Match Reports

Match report for Sutton United 2 Aston Villa U21 2 (Aston Villa win 5-4 on penalties)

19 September 2023

Sutton United (Kasimu 79, Beautyman 90+10) Aston Villa U21 (T O'Reilly 6 pen, Kellyman 68). Aston Villa win 5-4 on penalties

There were mixed feelings for Sutton at the end of Tuesday's EFL Trophy game as U's, in the middle of a wretched run of results in the league that looked as though it was going to extend to this competition as Aston Villa's Under 21s went 2-0 up with just over twenty minutes to go, showed great spirit to fight back and earn a draw. Harry Beautyman's equaliser in the tenth minute of stoppage time was the least U's deserved for a performance in which goalkeeper Jack Rose had nothing to do except pick the ball out of the net twice, but having gained a point in the group the second one available to the winners of the penalty shootout proved elusive as Rose was again pretty much a spectator against five excellent Aston Villa penalties, and Rob Milsom's first failure to hit the target from a penalty in his Sutton career proved decisive.

U's fielded a side including only Ryan Jackson and Chrstian N'Guessan of those who had started at Accrington, with Sam Hart returning after injury at left back to play the first half, but were away to the worst possible start when after only five minutes Villa captain Tommi O'Reilly was brought down by his Sutton counterpart Beautyman and picked himself up to convert the penalty, the quality of which proved a foretaste of what would come later as Rose went the right way but still couldn't get a hand on it.

That was the only action the keeper saw for the remainder of the first half, though, as Sutton dominated and created enough chances to go in at the break ahead. Lee Angol's close range effort from Beautyman's low cross was saved by Filip Marschall, and then Scott Kashket played a superb one-two with D'Mani Mellor on the left and continued his run to receive the winger's cut back, only for his first time shot to come back off the post with Beautyman just beaten to the rebound by a Villa defender. Beautyman had a header saved, and Mellor curled a shot just wide as U's looked in vain for the equaliser, and in the second half, while not so dominant, U's still spent much of the time on the front foot against a well organised Villa defence, and Mellor saw a low shot saved by Marschall.

There was a blow for U's twenty minutes in to the second half when Kashket was helped off in some pain after a heavy challenge in midfield, U's also replacing Mellor and Angol at the same time, but before the changes could take effect Villa had doubled their lead on the counter attack as Omari Kellyman lifted a first time shot over Rose from a low Mikell Barnes cross.

Sutton refused to accept defeat, though, and with eleven minutes to go two of the substitutes combined as, after Beautyman had done well to win the ball in midfield, Aiden O'Brien put Hisham Kasimu through and although a heavy touch seemed to have given Marschall a chance, Kasimu's pace saw him get to the ball first and lift it past the keeper.

The goal gave U's the impetus they needed to pile on the pressure for the equaliser. Kasimu was inches away from an Omari Patrick cross, and O'Brien saw a goalbound shot deflected wide. Two long stoppages, one for Kashket's injury and one when Villa defender Kerr Smith had to have his head bandaged, meant that the addition of ten extra minutes was no surprise, and Beautyman shot too high from O'Brien's cross in the sixth of those. Omar Sowunmi was pushed up for the closing stages, and this time the ploy worked as, after he had glanced one header over the bar, he guided a Milsom cross back across goal and Beautyman's header just had enough on it to cross the line before it could be cleared.

The penalty shootout that followed was of high quality, with Rose given little chance by any of Villa's spot kicks and Beautyman, O'Brien, N'Guessan and Patrick scoring equally convincingly. However Milsom had dragged U's third kick wide, meaning that Ben Broggio's successful conversion of Villa's fifth penalty gave them the extra point.

Sutton: J Rose, R Jackson, S Hart(sub R Milsom H-T), O Sowunmi, J Kizzi, D Mellor (sub O Patrick 65), D Pereira(sub J Coley 79), C N'Guessan, L Angol (sub H Kasimu 65), H Beautyman, S Kashket(sub A O'Brien 65). Subs n/u D Bouzanis, L John Booked: Angol, Pereira, Sowunmi. Penalties: Beautyman, O'Brien, Milsom(missed), N'Guessan, Patrick.

Aston Villa: F Marschall, Triston Rowe, F Ealing(sub F Munroe 45+5) M Barnes, J Feeney, K Smith, R Richards(sub Teddy Rowe 86) T O'Reilly (sub K Moore 90+4)O Kellyman(sub A O'Reilly 90+4), T Alcock (sub B Broggio 87)T Patterson. Subs n/u K Pierre, J Wright. Booked: Kellyman. Penalties: Munroe, Teddy Moore, Patterson, Moore, Broggio.

Referee: Jacob Miles

Attendance: 859(115 away)