U's Battle For Draw In Cumbria
- Johnnie Lowery
- Mar 5, 2017
- 2 min read
Keeping a top flight non-league football clean sheet away from home for the first time since 1990, Sutton picked up a solid point at Barrow to round off a highly successful week.
It was a game of few chances with the U’s doing well to nullify the Barrow attack, whilst occasionally threatening on the break. Ross Hannah thought he had found a good opportunity for the hosts after finding himself free down the right flank, but Nicky Bailey made a fantastic recovering challenge which summed up his excellent performance. The closest Barrow came to a goal was when Liam Hughes’ header at the far post edged past Puddy but was cleared off the line by Jamie Collins. Diarra and Hannah also had half chances from set pieces, though neither could find the target from a corner and a free kick respectively.
The second half was slightly more open with a few major talking points involving refereeing decisions as well. Hughes was perhaps fortunate to escape with a yellow card after showing Adam Coombes into the home dugout with the ball already out of play, with Gomis also booked for his reaction. Will Puddy looked confident when called upon but only had one really challenging save to make, tipping an effort from Richie Bennett that skidded across the surface out for a corner. Towards the end of the game United stepped it up a gear and had chances to nick a winner, Deacon firing just wide from the edge of the box and an effort from Jack Jebb deflecting just the wrong side of the post. Controversy followed from the resulting corner, with Deacon picking up the rebound off Beckwith’s effort and going down under a challenge in the box. Nothing was given and Deacon was subsequently shown a second yellow card for his protests, forcing the U’s to play out the final few minutes a man down. This all but ended Sutton’s attacking intent but they were able to hold on for a good point relatively comfortably.
Paul Doswell gave his thoughts to SUFCtv after the game:
“I’m very pleased with our defensive performance today, I thought we had a good shape about us as well, and we created 3 or 4 opportunities in the second half”
“We’ve come away and we’ve got our 7th point of the week, and it was needed – there’s no doubt about that”
“We look very much on track to keep doing well”
“What we now need to do is nail down the next game, we take one game at a time, but we’ve got to hit that 50 points as soon as we can and then why not – one of our aims now is to see if we can finish in the top half”