FA Cup Joy For Sutton As They Shock Cheltenham
- Johnnie Lowery
- Dec 4, 2016
- 3 min read
Sutton secured a place in the FA Cup 3rd round with the most dramatic of dramatic winners, as Roarie Deacon smashed home the winner in the sixth minute of stoppage time to send the U’s faithful wild.
It was truly a game of two halves, with Cheltenham Town taking the initiative early on and nearly taking advantage of an error from Ross Worner, who seemed to misjudge the flight of a long ball forward. Luckily for the Sutton keeper the angle was too tight for Danny Wright to take advantage. The chances continued to come for the Robins, with Worner forced into a good save at his near post from Dayton, and Dan Spence stretching to clear a header from a corner off the line. When the visitors did take the lead then it was deserved, although not without a hint of fortune after Dayton’s free kick deflected kindly to Wright, who hooked the ball past Worner just after the half hour mark. United managed to stem the tide before half time if nothing else but in truth struggled to create much in the way of chances playing into the wind.
Sutton didn’t waste any time in the second half though, finding an equaliser within a minute. After a cross from the left hand side was headed away to Nicky Bailey on the edge of the box he managed to give Biamou a header to put Tubbs in one-on-one with Cheltenham keeper Griffiths. The debutant made no mistake and the momentum was now with Paul Doswell’s men as they continued to attack. Deacon, who had been quiet in the first half, was now the main man with two good chances in quick succession. The first was fired into the legs of Griffiths whilst the second, little more than a minute later, saw a fierce volley only just clear the bar. The final 10 minutes saw Cheltenham begin to push more, and Dickie was just inches away from winning the tie for the Gloucestershire side when his header from a corner looped over Worner but onto, rather than under, the crossbar. It was Sutton and Deacon who would have the final say though. After being found by Bailey but seemingly having nowhere to go the Sutton winger carved out an opening and fired a beautiful effort through the legs of the covering defender and into the bottom corner, sending the Sutton fans behind the goal into raptures.
A delighted Paul Doswell gave his thoughts to SUFCtv after the game:
“I thought we were very poor first half, we did appreciate that there was a fair wind up against our lads and we just couldn’t seem to get the ball out – but it was more than that”
“There were a few words at half time, because it was a chance we were going to be throwing away. We said to them ‘when you watch this on telly tonight, make sure you watch it as winners’”
“They’ve gone out and put in a brilliant, and I mean brilliant, second half performance – apart from the 2 goals we’ve created another 4 or 5 fantastic opportunities and Roarie on another day could have had his hattrick”
On the draw for the 3rd round on Monday night:
“A home draw is my first preference, preferably against Saints, and if we’re away preferably against Saints, but if not Man United Chelseas and Arsenals but every other club is praying for that game as well so we’ll have to wait and see”
Photo credit: Stuart Tree