Steve Morison spoke positively about Sutton’s opening home league game of the season, despite being unable to find a way through opponents Solihull Moors.
In what was an entertaining goalless draw with the Birmingham-based outfit, Morison watched on from the sidelines as his players came close on a handful of occasions, notably through a couple of late chances apiece for Brandon Njoku and Aaron Jones, before the referee called time on a frustrating afternoon for the U’s.
“In the first half I thought we were excellent” he said, “we dealt with their long throw which was their main outlet as a threat for us in the first half and I thought we was pretty much in control”.
“I thought we dealt with everything really well. I really liked what I saw when we started the game right so yeah, I was really pleased at half-time. We just needed more of the same, obviously we knew the wind was going to carry the ball a bit more the second half, so it was going to be harder to get out and get pinned back a little bit, but yeah I think the subs… we made the subs to bring more energy.”
The Head Coach gave a special mention to the substitutes, with Ogbonna, Siju Odelusi, Njoku and Jack Wadham all injecting some real energy and creativity into Sutton’s attacking play, and helped to produce a display which was worthy of three points, even if it wasn’t to be.
“I think our subs so far have been really good because they keep us on the front foot. I think barring a long throw from them, which is a massive weapon because it’s one hell of a long throw, I thought we controlled the game on the whole with and without the ball.”
“A couple of moments on the turnover where we go a bit forward, we didn’t pick up the second ball or Siju [Odelusi] overlapping David [Ogbonna] when he doesn’t need to just stay, leave David to it. And just that final moment we didn’t put it in the back of the net. We thought we had the chances, we had the better of the chances, some close moments. Even Tyler [French] tried to help us out and nearly added it into his own goal, but yeah it wasn’t meant to be in terms of getting that goal. I thought the performance on the whole was good and yeah, really, really pleased to come out with something.”
“You start every day with nothing and we’ve got something to go home with and I thought the performance on the whole was very encouraging. I think people overthink it, you’re not going to score every chance you get. The main thing is to create chances. The conversation we should be having is how many chances we created. You keep creating those chances. You’ve seen that we can put the ball in the back of the net and today wasn’t meant to be, but we’ll have a worrying conversation when we’re not creating any chances. Until that happens, we don’t worry about it. We keep creating chances and we’ll score plenty of goals.”
Kane Crichlow also made his first league start for the U’s, coming close a couple of times early on, and otherwise showed why he was highly thought of earlier on in his career at Watford.
“Yeah, I thought he [Crichlow] was excellent. We brought him in because I thought he’s really reliable with the ball and I think he showed that in the game. I thought he was excellent in his period. And then we just freshened it up. And obviously what’s nice is you can bring players on that keep you on the front foot and keep the other team honest. So, yeah, I thought he gave a solid performance.”
Defensively, Sutton kept their first clean sheet of the season, with a commanding display from Man of the Match Harry Phipps the centre of it, while Alex Woodyard has begun to flourish this term after having a full pre-season, having joined midway through last season from Colchester United.
“Yeah he [Phipps] gave some big headers, that’s why he started today because we knew what the game was going to be like. So we needed to make sure we dominated that box and I thought he dominated along with the other players very, very well and clean sheets. You keep clean sheets, you’ve got half a chance and we didn’t do enough of that last year and it’s something that is a big focus for the players. It’s something that they’ve talked about, something that they want to do. And yeah, they’ll be really pleased that even though we haven’t won, we’ve kept a clean sheet and that means we haven’t lost.”
“I think he [Woodyard] looks great and I thought he was excellent and we just need to keep managing him and keep making sure that he plays the games because I think he helps everybody and he’s got that little bit of an edge in midfield where he wants to get stuck in, he wants to make contact, he wants to win so many headers. But I thought Jaydon Harris was excellent. Naders [Ashley Nadesan] worked his socks off as per usual and I thought the team as a whole gave a good performance.”
There was even places on the bench for a couple of academy products, with Junior Eccleston making up the substitutes for the second game in a row, while there was a notable inclusion for Klevis Muca, who made the jump up from the Under-19s after training with the first team during the week.
‘They’re not there to fill the spaces up, they’re there on merit. Junior [Eccleston] was there on merit because I felt like that if I needed to make certain changes he’d be the player that I’d use and Klevis [Muca] came in to train a couple of times with us because if you’re doing well with the Under-19s, you get a chance, and he’s done really well. David [Aziaya] took a slight knock on Tuesday night, so he got his first taste of playing at Gander Green Lane.”
Morison also touched on the importance of the supporters, who came in their numbers for the first time in the league this season.
“As I said, it’s something we’re trying to focus on behind the scenes in terms of the boys want to get a real rapport with the fans here. I thought they were excellent and we want to get as many in here early before the lads come in from their warm-up so they can give them a bit of noise and give them a bit of energy. I thought they were great and I thought they were behind the team the whole way.”
