Steve Morison was full of praise for his side when he spoke to Sutton United FCtv, following a dramatic 2-2 draw away at York City.

Having watched on from the sidelines as Brandon Njoku rescued a point with just three minutes left, the Head Coach commented on the quality that the Minstermen possess, and how in the grand scheme of things, how good a point this is.

“It was the toughest game of the season” he said. “I said to the boys before the game, however much work we’ve done, you’re going to feel like you’ve never played football before in that first half-hour.”

“They’re a really good team, they’re really good players. They’ve signed a lot of league experience in the summer and it was always going to be a tough test. It was a hell of a journey yesterday, we left at 12pm and got here [in York] at 8pm, but I felt the boys, just left it all out there and that’s all we can ask for. They could have been out of sight [York] early doors, [Tyrese] Sinclair’s missed and then obviously [Ollie] Pearce has got the penalty and he’s missed the second one, which gives you a bit of a leg up and a bit of a lifeline.”

“[Ashley] Naders[an] then gets in behind and David Ogbonna gets his first goal for the club, so it’s brilliant. Second half, as I said, they get the goal. Edon [Pruti] scores an own goal which is unfortunate, but I felt what I was really, really pleased with is the last half-hour of the game. Maybe the last 20 minutes, 15 minutes, I felt that they tired a little bit and we got stronger, which is a credit to the players and I thought the subs were excellent when they came on and really pleased that Brandon [Njoku] gets his goal. We keep the set piece alive, make a good pass to Lewis [Simper] and he puts the ball in the box and we get first contact and we get second contact and we score.”

“So yeah, first game away at York, we’ve busted a few coupons, but as I said to them, as a man, they can be proud in there because they left it all out there and they got something out of the game, so yeah, really, really pleased.”

Having got the crucial leveller late on, Morison was in agreement that it was a testament to their character, having come from behind not once but twice, and despite York’s quality, managed to ensure they are still unbeaten in all time against the Minstermen.

“It’s always tough” the Head Coach added. “I actually turned around to the bench and said ‘this is going to be 2-2 this’ because I just felt like we just kept breaking and we were doing alright and it was just that final moment, Jayden [Harris] passes when he could have carried on going and now this goes and I think he can take it and take his man on and surely he hasn’t.”

“We take a point, if you get points on the road and win your home games, you’ve got half a chance. I was really, really pleased with their effort today.”

The two goals were scored by tirelessness work ethic from the Sutton players, first with Nadesan chasing the ball at pace to beat his man and get to the byline before squaring it to Ogbonna, while the second came from a magical pass from Simper which was flicked on by Jack Taylor, allowing Njoku to stick a leg out and get the crucial touch.

“We scored goals how we thought we’d score goals, especially the first one.”

“The second one, obviously it’s something we worked on for our first game in pre-season behind closed doors where we’d put a ball in the box and then when it’d come back out, we’d all run back and start defending, whereas we stayed up, and then our centre half gets the ball, gets the first contact and Brandon puts it in for a great finish.”

“Yeah, I was really pleased, I said it felt like a home game for the other team today. Every duel kind of went their way, every foul kind of went their way. Refs gives a penalty that I we’ve got told it’s got to be an unnatural position – well, he’s just thrown himself at the ball trying to block the cross and you can’t slide without your arms coming in the air and it hits him, and he’s made a very, very quick decision and I felt that possibly asked the question, would we have got that the other end? I don’t know.

“But yeah, look, we come through all that and I said can be really, really proud of our performance.”

Njoku in particular is someone who emphasised how hungry he is to score goals, and has got off to a pretty good start after scoring two goals for the U’s already – both in cameo appearances – against Hampton & Richmond Borough in pre-season and now against York on his competitive debut for the club.

“He [Brandon] should be buzzing. We want to put him out there, Naders would have been disappointed coming off, but it’s his first game of the season, and I thought we could inject a little bit of energy, and we did, and it’ll do him the world of good.”

“Scoring against Hampton in a friendly doesn’t really do anything for you, but scoring in your first league game of the season for the club – and it being such an important goal in front of our fans who travelled really, really well and we gave everyone something to cheer about and the players can be proud of themselves.”

“Now onto Tuesday night, the National League Cup – hopefully give everyone else an opportunity to play games, sticking to the rules, of course. And then we look towards Solihull, which will be a different test, but a really, really tough one.”

The Head Coach also gave a special mention to the supporters who made the long journey up to North Yorkshire, having watched their team come away with something from the match, rather than empty-handed, as it had looked for so much of proceedings.

“I said before that they’re going to travel in their numbers and hopefully we can give them something to cheer about, and that’s exactly what we did. Really, really pleased that they travelled so well and it ended up being a good day, and we can just keep building the momentum. It stemmed all pre-season, it’s been great, and I think there’s been a real good factor around the football club.”

“Thursday night [the Summer Party} was great, the kit launch, the amount of people that turned up, and it showed the amount of fans here. We had more fans here than we did last year, and we’ve given something to cheer about, so I’m really, really pleased about that.”

You can watch the full post-match interview here.