Ashley Nadesan shared his thoughts after Sutton United battled to a 2-2 draw away at Morecambe, praising his teammates’ character while admitting the side could have taken all three points.
The forward came off the bench on the stroke of half time due to an injury to Brandon Njoku, and produced a crucial impact by scoring the equaliser with 20 minutes to go, and complete an outstanding comeback having been 2-0 down.
“First, I thought we played some good stuff, but we couldn’t find that end product,” he said. “But a soft goal to concede from us, letting our runner go.”
“And then starting the second half like that, I felt like it showed real character from us to get the draw. We should have won with my chance at the end, but we were quite happy with the point.”
“I thought I was good, yeah, I thought I was involved in the first goal and obviously scored the second one.”
“I’m obviously gutted for Brandon [Njoku], you never want to see that but hopefully he recovers quickly, but as a team we got on with it – towards the end there was only one team that was trying to go for it and that was us.”
Despite being introduced unexpectedly, Nadesan said he was ready to make his mark, and got into the swing of things during an entire second half after bedding into proceedings at the end of the first.
“I came back [from warming up] just as Brandon went down, so I got sent back out again and came on, but I already knew my role anyway so there was no difference really. I’m just happy to have contributed to the draw.”
“I saw we were playing some neat stuff just in this corner with Simps and Hayden [Muller], and you know Simps or Hayden’s got good delivery.”
“As soon as Hayden whipped it in, I found myself within a couple of yards of space and goalie was a big guy as well. To get it in the corner and beat him, yeah, it was a good feeling and to get it in front of the away support as well.”
The goal was Nadesan’s second league goal of the season, and spoke on how he relishes the competition he has with teammate Njoku, who himself has enjoyed a decent run of form of his own.
“Me and Brandon, we play FIFA together, we talk, we’re good mates, but the competition’s good and healthy.”
“He makes me better. I feel like I can probably make him better. And we both chip away with goals and assists, and today it was my turn to help when Brandon went off.”
Having spent the whole of last season under previous management, Nadesan had signed with different expectations to what he is currently experiencing, but he said he’s enjoying life under Chris Agutter, and specifically the amount of chances he feels he is getting.
“It’s coming with a nice bundle of energy and to play this kind of football. We tried with obviously Morro [Steve Morison] and [Jon] Meeney, but now everything’s clicking now.”
“We’re playing out from the back, playing through the lines. I feel like I’m getting more chances than I ever have and obviously I feel like Brandon probably feels the same way as a striker.”
“It’s really good football and hopefully we know that there’s more to come. Obviously we know that there’s different levels we can go through and I feel like this is probably only just the start and hopefully we can show the fans, everyone, what we can actually do.”
