Edon Pruti said Sutton’s goalless draw with Braintree Town was a step in the right direction, with the U’s kicking off life under Chris Agutter with a point on the board.
The Albania youth international was a part of the backline which secured a second clean sheet of the season and cemented a crucial point under their new boss at the Rare Breed Meat Co. Stadium.
“I’d definitely say it’s a different game in terms of what we’ve played” he said.
“In terms of; we’ve tried to dominate the ball, get it out from the back and stuff and you could definitely see at times it was working, at times sometimes it wasn’t working and we definitely learnt a lot from today about ourselves and what we can do and what we can’t do and stuff like that.”
“In a lot of respects, I felt like we had chances to win the game. In a lot of respects, definitely a building block, a step in the right direction.”
Playing in a back three alongside Jack Taylor and Will Tizzard, Pruti played a key role in keeping their first clean sheet since the second game of the season against Solihull Moors, and as he said, was an important bit of progress made in the first step under Agutter.
“Clean sheets are something that defenders, especially myself, we sort of buzz off.”
“I feel like we have deserved clean sheets, a lot more clean sheets this season, but it’s good to actually just get one on the board and looking forward to next week, hopefully get another one.”
So far, Pruti and his teammates have enjoyed one training session under the former Worthing boss, who was announced as Steve Morison’s successor on Thursday. Despite this, it has looked to be a positive start, with Agutter stamping his authority down from the off.
“It’s been really good, amazing, you know.”
“He hasn’t tried to flood us with loads of information, wants us to sort of play to our strengths and obviously implement his style of football, which I think if the boys stick to and really sort of apply themselves to, we can be a great, great team and we can in my opinion, shoot up his table.”
One aspect of the superb defensive display in Essex came in the form of David Aziaya, who has come in over the last two games to replace Jack Sims due to injury, but has nonetheless produced an assured performance, and was recognised by being voted by the supporters as their Man of the Match for his display against the Iron, in which he notably kept the likes of John Akinde and Chay Cooper at bay.
“He’s been magnificent, he’s been almost a complete keeper. Good with his feet, coming up, picking up crosses and saving.”
“At the end of the day, just stopping shots going into his goal and I said to him I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
“It’s nothing better than having a cool, calm and composed goalkeeper behind you and I thought he’s really done well against Yeovil and today as well so it’s really good to be playing in front of him.”
Looking ahead, Sutton are set for a break from league action, heading to Guildford City on Wednesday night for the Surrey Senior Cup First Round, before heading to Guildford’s neighbours in Farnham Town for the FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round.
“We come in on Monday, we train, Tuesday we work hard, and then Wednesday we look forward to playing a game and hopefully winning that one as well.”
Photo Credit: Paul Loughlin
