For the second time this season Millwall and Sutton couldn’t be separated as Beth Humphrey’s penalty eight minutes from time ensured that U’s came away from their visit to the Den with a point, the game at the David Weir earlier in the season also having finished level.
Sutton shaded the early stages but were unable to take advantage of several promising set pieces, one of which saw a collision between Nadia Sabania and the home goalkeeper which could have produced a penalty and forced Sabania off for the rest of the afternoon.
Millwall did have the ball in the net, but only after the offside flag had gone up, but in the 24th minute a ball played in to the penalty area found Ciara Watling in acres of space to slot the ball past Megan Taylor.
Sutton levelled nine minutes before half time through a superb individual goal from Millie Cutler, who attacked on the right (below) and beat two defenders before squeezing a shot in to the net from a narrow angle, but in first half stoppage time a cross from the Millwall right found its way to Liva Helt, who controlled the ball before sending a left foot shot in to the corner of the net.
There was little goalmouth activity for much of the second half, Sutton’s best moment coming early on as Emma Spear’s cross was just out of the reach of Brianna Gilbert-Lawal, and in an at times bruising half of several stoppages U’s made a change of goalkeeper midway through the half as Lizzy Knight replaced Taylor. The chance U’s were waiting for came with eight minutes to go as the home goalkeeper flattened K’Shaela Burch-Waldron as they contested an Ella Meehan free kick that had been sent high in to the goalmouth, and Humphrey, as she had done in the home game against Millwall, put the penalty firmly in the corner of the net.
With nine minutes of stoppage time there was still plenty of time for a winner, and Millwall came closest, first when a cross from the left deceived Knight and bounced just over, and then when a shot from the edge of the penalty area hit the bar, but Sutton survived those scares to come away with a deserved point.
Sutton: M Taylor, L Dunne, E Meehan, M Heavingham-Ford, B Humphrey, E Oliver, E Spear, N Sabania, M Cutler, K Burch-Waldron, B Gilbert-Lawal. Subs L Knight, H Baptiste, C Chase, P Langley, A Warren.
The development side lost for the second time this season in the South East Counties League, beaten 2-0 by Carshalton.
Neither side has a competitive game next Sunday, although the first team have a friendly against Erith & Belvedere at the David Weir, kick off 1pm, before a home game against Aylesford the following week.
Photo credit: Leora Jesner and Paul Loughlin
