United Get Going On Alternative Route To Wembley With Bath Victory
- Johnnie Lowery
- Dec 11, 2016
- 3 min read
Sutton United advanced to the 2nd round of the FA Trophy on Saturday with a one goal win over Bath City of the National League South, in a game that in truth never really got going.
It was a bright enough start from the U’s with Biamou getting a good opportunity inside the first minute, but firing straight at O'Leary in the Bath City goal. The opening 10 minutes saw Sutton dominate and Deacon, once again man of the match, got in behind the visitors’ on two occasions but couldn’t quite find the final ball to get the goal that would have been deserved based on the opening few minutes. Bath solidified after this tricky spell though and there wasn’t much in the game with chances rare and the ball spending most of the time pinging around the middle of the park.
Indeed the nature of the goal when it came was a fair reflection of the game itself. Amankwaah was rather clumsily fouled in a wide position about 35 yards from goal, and the resulting free kick from Jefford avoided everyone and nestled into the far corner with O'Leary indecisive over whether to move to the right to meet the ball or stay central in case somebody did get a touch. To the credit of Jefford it was exactly the kind of ball a defence and keeper have nightmares about and to call it a fluke would be doing the full back a disservice. The action for the half wasn’t over however as a mistake from Jefford put McCootie in, but the Bath City striker fired badly wide.
The second half was on the most part on a non-event, with the away side making an effort to try and get back into the game but rarely threatening Ross Worner in the Sutton goal. They did have one good opportunity however when Morgan beat the U’s keeper but was flagged offside, with those in black and white feeling somewhat aggrieved at the decision. At the other end Jefford came close to getting another goal after an effort from the edge of the box took a wild deflection, but O'Leary recovered well to make a great save. Biamou had something of a half opportunity to make the game safe but didn’t get enough on his effort when knocking it past the keeper, and the defence were able to recover and clear. The last few minutes saw a lot of pressure from the away side but the threat was fairly minimal and Sutton were able to celebrate after 4 minutes of injury time with a place in the last 32 of the FA Trophy secured
Manager Paul Doswell gave his thoughts to SUFCtv after the game:
“It was a drab afternoon: it was a poor crowd by recent experiences, the atmosphere was very flat, the weather was quite flat and drizzly, and I think the performance was relatively flat”
“But a win’s a win, nobody’s going to judge that performance in a few weeks’ time, but we want to sharpen up ready for Wrexham”
“We didn’t feel we were going to concede apart from if something happened from one of their long throws but I thought we defended well”
“That free kick you’ll see go in many times in Premiership games where if it’s a good enough delivery and everyone misses it the keeper doesn’t know whether to stick or bust – we were fortunate to get it but we’ll take anything today.”