MATCH REPORT

Sutton stepped into this match knowing a win was all that would be good enough. Without Gemma Parr and Charlie Leuty, Sutton decided to be aggressive in their plan against a team in the lower half of the table. The wind and driving rain made conditions pretty tough from the start, with many games being postponed, but as usual, Sutton pressed hard and high from the first whistle. The game was played out mostly in the St Ives' half in the opening minutes and a few early opportunities were early signs of what was to come. With the ball moving quickly around the midfield Connie Gittins and Amber Jones were finding space up front to worry the St Ives' defense and the rest of the team were finding them easily and often. This created space for our rapid wide midfielders to exploit and created the opening 2 goals. It took only 8 minutes for Sutton to break the seal and it was through the wide right channel with a slick move which started with Hannah Baker, finding Connie Gittins who drove the baseline before feeding the ball across to Amber Jones to push home from close range. Nerves settled, the midfield, once again being choreographed by Jo Bland, dominated for large periods with little getting through to the returning Tania White and her defensive colleagues. Emmy Gittins was moved inside to CM for this game, a decision which proved to be a good one as she was gave a dominant display in both attack and defense despite being full of cold. The second goal came from the same channel as the first, but the move started deeper with Jess Burton driving forward into space, she moved the ball inside and after three very quick passes Connie Gittins was in the D. She again found Jones and this time she slapped high into the goal and past the flailing St Ives' keeper. In between these goals Sutton dominated with Connie Gittins going 1v1 with the keeper, who made a good save, both forwards had shots just wide and several short corners were created but not converted. MOM Katie Collingwood-Smith worked hard all game winning the ball back when needed almost as much as Maro Itoje earlier in the day. She linked up with the inside players, beat the St Ives' defenders and had her best game for the team. 2 minutes before half time, another short corner was won and, on this occasion, a sharp routine found Jemima Dodd on the far post to deflect the ball through the legs of the helpless keeper. The rain abated long enough for a half time chat encouraging the team to carry on and keep scoring but this was not to be. St Ives changed formation and tried to come back at Sutton but again the midfield stopped many attacks in their tracks. Midway through the half the wind changed and a sudden icy chill in the air added to the already dismal weather. As conditions deteriorated St Ives did start to have some success and penetrated the Long Sutton D, even forcing short corners, but this was a day that belonged to Sutton. Wallis was determined to keep a clean sheet along with the defensive line of Lisa Baker, Lauren Cooper, Maisie Sullivan, Jess Burton and Tania White and this they did with aplomb. The closest St Ives came to a goal was a short corner deflection which Tania White nonchalantly cleared knee height off the line despite protests from the opposition that the ball had crossed over. Sutton kept creating chances with Dodd, Burton, Gittins and Bland all having shots without success. Long Sutton would have taken a 3-0 score line at the start of the day but afterwards would have liked more. However, the chances created, and the style of play will have given confidence which is worth more than a better goal difference. The weather was rubbish, the team followers were fantastic for standing out in the wind and rain, but the performance was easily the best part of the day. A happy Captain led the team off the pitch with an instruction to bring the same next week against Cambs City.