Birmingham Blues For Sutton

Sutton’s away woes continued in Birmingham at the weekend as Solihull Moors secured a comfortable 3-0 win.

The first half actually saw a decent United performance, though first the home side had taken the lead inside the first couple of minutes. Ross Worner dived at the feet of Regan Charles-Cook to deny him, but the loose ball was eventually returned to him by Murombedzi, and the debutant made no mistake at second attempt. Dan Fitchett had a golden opportunity to equalise not long after but, after doing all the hard work, scuffed his shot badly wide when anything on target would have likely done. Louis John and Nicky Bailey both saw headers flash just wide of the post with Roarie Deacon also going close with a headed effort off the bounce after Spence’s cross took a kind deflection. Unfortunately the on-loan Moors keeper Nathan Baxter read what the winger was trying to do and made the save. The best chance came after John was fouled in the box after another threatening corner, but Jamie Collins saw his penalty saved excellently by the young keeper. There were further penalty appeals just before half time after a challenge on Dundas, but nothing was given and the hosts scored from the resulting counter attack, Charles-Cook once again quickest to react to a loose ball to fire home.

The U’s never really recovered from this setback and the second half was comfortable for Solihull, who could have gone further ahead very early on but for an excellent double save from Ross Worner, denying both Carline and Maye in quick succession. There was one great opportunity for United as a quick free kick put substitute Pape Gueye in behind the home side’s defence but he got the ball stuck under his feet as he tried to round the keeper. In the 70th minute the home side made the points safe when Charles-Cook once again got away from defenders and put in a low cross, which was comfortably put away by substitute Oladapo Afolayan. After this point the game faded away towards its inevitable conclusion with neither side looking like scoring, Adam May coming the closest with a volley not too far over the bar.

Manager Paul Doswell gave his thoughts to SUFCtv after the game:

“To concede a goal in the first minute after all the preparation we put in was a blow”

“It was disappointing and I’ve just let the players know that I thought we got outworked at times by a very young, energetic side”

On the Guiseley trip on Tuesday:

“We’ve lost Kevin Amankwaah with a calf strain and we’ve lost Dan Spence with a hamstring – it’s not getting any easier”

“We need to dig deep on Tuesday because we can get a win there – I’d have taken 3 points from 2 games”

#SuttonUnited #SolihullMoors