Mistakes Costly As Sutton Beaten By Forest Green

Two defensive mistakes along with poor finishing cost Sutton United in a 2-1 home defeat against Forest Green in the National League, the visitors able to shut out the U’s effectively in the second half.

Chances were few and far between early on, with Sutton shading it in terms of possession but Forest Green creating the best chances, with Bugiel denied early on after Wishart had played him in. Craig Eastmond had the best opportunity for Sutton, firing his volley from the edge of the box into the back of Adam Coombes, though the ball was going wide anyway. Rovers took the lead just moments after a crazy goalmouth scramble had somehow been survived by United, 3 more efforts blocked on the line after Doidge’s header originally hit the bar. Unfortunately the resultant corner was headed home by Mark Ellis. Not long after this goal a horrendous mix up between Puddy and Collins allowed Doidge to walk the ball into the net for 2-0. Whilst there was never really a threat of further goals from the visitors in the first half they shut out Paul Doswell’s men well.

The second half saw a big improvement from the U’s as they went in chase of a goal to bring them back into the game. Craig Eastmond may feel he should have done better when robbing a defender to win the ball 25 yards from goal but he chose to shoot early and fired wide. After roughly an hour Biamou saw an overhead kick trickle just wide of the post, whilst Roarie Deacon fired an effort narrowly wide of that same post from the edge of the box. Forest Green remained a threat on the break and a ball across goal was narrowly missed by Doidge when any touch would have resulted in a goal. Just as the board went up for stoppage time Biamou got through on goal and was fouled, with the referee controversially deciding the contact was outside the box and sending Mark Ellis off as a result, when under new rules a penalty would have resulted in a booking only. With the wall seemingly much closer than 10 yards United had to improvise with the set piece and Coombes fired it in low, but just wide. There was a late consolation as Cadogan was played in by Collins before finishing low into the bottom left hand corner, but there were no more chances in the minute remaining.

Photo credit: Theo Crouillere-Chavot

#SuttonUnited #ForestGreen