Jack Sims will miss Sutton’s final Enterprise National League game of the 2025/26 campaign away at Boreham Wood (Saturday, 25th April; 12.30pm KO) due to a reoccurrence of the back injury which made him absent for the start of Chris Agutter’s rein back in October.

Sims had originally picked up the problem ahead of Jon Meeney’s final match in interim charge at home to Yeovil Town and led to David Aziaya being awarded his league debut, with Agutter confirming that Chris Haigh will take the spot in between the sticks as the U’s bring the curtains down on the season, having replaced Sims last Saturday against Altrincham.

“Simo is injured and, it wouldn’t make sense to try and force him out there, especially when you’ve got Chris Haigh as an alternative option.

I thought he was very good in amongst a pretty average performance at best [against Altrincham] – I thought Haighy was one of the real positives and he will be in goal on Saturday.”

Danny Cashman meanwhile finally made his debut against Altrincham, playing the final 15 minutes in a final roll of the dice as the U’s looked to rescue a point against the Robins. The forward showed encouraging signs during his brief cameo, and should be available for selection ahead of the trip to Meadow Park.

“Danny Cashman came through the [Altrincham] game unscathed.

You can see his class, he’s got a real quality, and so we will get him back out there for Boreham Wood and we’re really looking forward to building on some exciting stuff that we’ve seen in training, and also some good bits in the cameo against Altrincham.”

Brandon Njoku (meniscus), Aaron Jones (ankle), Jack Wadham (knee) and Alex Kirk (back) are therefore the only remaining absentees, though the latter two especially have made strong progress in their respective recoveries to return to the grass over the last few weeks, while Kirk has been rewarded with an extension to his deal ahead of Agutter’s first full season in charge.

“Alex Kirk ticks all the boxes in terms of profile – brilliant pedigree, proven at this level, a very, very good footballer in terms of the technical, tactical stuff and the pretty stuff on the ball.”

The reason he’s had a couple of injuries is, is because he defends wholeheartedly, is fully committed, and on top of that, he’s a good character that has a personality, knows his own mind and will speak his own mind.

So we’re delighted to, to retain Kirky, really looking forward to working with him, and he will be one of three or four additions in the backline on top of those players that we keep for the existing squad.”

The Head Coach also touched on the four Academy players who signed professional deals last week, referred to their role within the squad as a whole, beginning with Saturday’s clash with Boreham Wood.

“Obviously some of them have played more than others like Dan Urpens, Ronny Ruiz in recent weeks, have done great where we’ve had first team absentees and we’ve been destroyed by suspensions and injuries again.

Those guys have had the opportunity and they’ve taken it, they’ve done great for the youth team – got themselves in a position where if the opportunity arose, they were the next ones in line.

They’ve been great for us. Reevo, again – very good. In his earlier time at Sutton in terms of us working together, he played really well in the cup games, he’s done great within the youth team, and he is another player with a really high ceiling, high potential.

And then James Fennelow, again has had a mixed bag from an injury perspective and he needs to iron that out, but the potential and ceiling you can’t ignore. He’s someone that if he was outside the building in terms of profile, we’d be looking at going, how can we get them in?

I would suggest Dan Urpens is ahead of the queue – he’s ready to play now as we’ve seen. Ronny second, Reevo a close third and then James has a bit to do, but as I said if he fulfills his potential, then we’ll have another very exciting player on our hands.”

Agutter will also once again be in the stands after doing so on Saturday, serving the second match of his touchline ban following the post-match hostilities against Rochdale last month.