MATCH REPORT

This weeks fixture saw Long Sutton 1s playing Bishop Stortford 1s at home, with a win taking Sutton level with their opponents on points and within 3 points of the top. Sutton started brightly with some great attacking runs down each wing from Fred Whatling and Dan Batten, with Whatling managing to find Ben Shore in the D. Shore unselfishly slipped the ball to Josh Fyson on the back post, who managed to put Sutton ahead. Sutton continued to press and added to the lead with a lovely run from Man of the Match Will Cook who took a quick sideline to himself and ran almost unchallenged into the D to find the back of the goal at close range. Half time soon came with Sutton unlucky to have extended the lead further after Jamie Featherstone almost lobbed the keeper, in what was a sensational save from Stortfords goalie. Sutton started the second half determined to keep Stortford out but unfortunately they found their way through the solid defence to make it 2-1. In previous seasons, this might have been the start of Suttons downfall, however about a minute later, a lovely ball from Stef Fox found Fyson, who aerialled the ball from his own half onto the stick of Ben Shore who was now 1 on 1 with the keeper in Stortfords D. Shore showed great composure to control the ball, round the keeper and put Sutton back to 2 goals clear. Sutton's defence again held strong, and some excellent communication all round saw Stortford struggling to break through. Continued pressure from Sutton saw Cook convert a Featherstone cross to extend the lead further. Sutton then applied more pressure and scored the goal of the game, where a great tackle from Cook and a lovely string of 4 passes saw Shore convert a superbly worked team goal to put Sutton 4-1 up. At this point, Stortfords heads seem to dip and a storming run from Tom Baguley saw him pop up in the attacking D, reaching heights on the pitch not usually frequented by the stalwart defender. He came to his senses and passed to Cook who megged the keeper to complete his hat trick, much to the frustration of Featherstone, who was screaming for the ball wide open at the back post. Cook then added his 4th and Sutton's 7th in the dying minutes of the game to ensure the game ended 7-1 after what was a very dominant team display from Sutton.