Steve Morison said that the National League Cup match against Brighton & Hove Albion was about the Sutton Academy players they impressed, in a positive post-match assessment.

Despite falling to defeat against the Seagulls due to late goals from Shane Nti and Ben Barclay, Ashley Nadesan’s last gasp strike injected some energy into the Sutton side late on and saw the likes of Charlie Bell and Dan Urpens go close to levelling things up, which would have put the cherry on top of a superb few senior debuts for the Academy players.

“Apart from the couple of minutes that they got their two goals, it was a really positive performance from the team” said Morison.

“Really disappointed with taking a quick throw in the corner and I have to talk about it because these are the things that eat you up inside because they’re better technically than us. On the ball, the way they handle the ball, all that kind of stuff, they are just genuinely better.”

“There’s no hiding that, so we can’t allow the game to become open, we can’t allow it to become their game. First half was brilliant, compact. We should have had a penalty, a stonewall penalty, but we haven’t got it, but we’ve stayed in the game.”

“We’ve had our moments on the counter and then we start taking quick free kicks, we start taking quick throw-ins, which we can’t do because they want space to play in and we can’t give them that.”

Four senior debuts were awarded to Sutton players against Brighton, with Bell, Mehmet Halim and Adam Reeves given starts, while Urpens played 45 minutes and was joined on the bench by James Fennelow, while Junior Eccleston was notably given the captain’s armband.

“Tonight was nothing more than about giving the young players who have come in and when they train with us they’ve been excellent.”

“They’ve been really good in their league so far and I thought that there should be nothing else that comes out of this game apart from how excellent Charlie Bell was, Mehmet [Halim], Reevesy [Adam Reeves], all making their debuts for the club and I thought they were fantastic.”

“Apart from Junior [Eccleston] taking that quick free kick which really rolled me up for a long time, he was excellent as well and captained the team and he deserved that for his performances. So yeah, look, tonight’s about them and their performance. I thought they were fantastic, a credit to the football club and themselves and the family.”

On Eccleston, the Head Coach spoke glowingly about the young defender, who has made clear why he was awarded with his first professional contract in the summer, and why he has been trusted to establish himself as a fully fledged member of the First Team squad this season, rather than embarking on another loan spell.

“It’s all about the fact that he works the hardest I’ve ever seen a young pro work every single day.”

“He watches copious amounts of stuff on the other teams, he leaves no stone unturned and whenever he plays, he’s a credit to himself and he’s been excellent and when we were talking about it before, who should be captain, there was only one person that was going to be in that team and yeah, he’s a real credit to the football club and the academy who brought him through.”

Morison also highlighted what it took to get the young players prepped and ready for the clash with the Seagulls, with little time to prepare after Saturday’s defeat to Tamworth, but nonetheless, saw them show why they are so highly thought of within the Academy.

“There’s a lot of positives to take all through the game. We were excellent first half. Our shape was fantastic, bear in mind we had no training leading into it because all the young lads have college on a Monday so we can’t work on anything.”

“Everything was done in the dressing room before the game. through video analysis, all that kind of stuff, and then we’re trying to coach them through the game first 10-15 minutes difficult to get groups with then once we did, I felt the first half was, barring a couple of moments that we had more moments than they did first half and i said we should have had a stonewall penalty.”

“I thought on the whole it was good when we just opened up, we didn’t need to open up second half and it was just the lads getting a little bit too excited, their youthful nature, but obviously it’s not something that hasn’t happened before.”

“It’s what keeps happening in our games and it’s something that they’ve got to learn.”