MATCH REPORT

Sutton came into this game looking for two things; their first point of the season and the spirit they had played with last season. At the end of the game they had only achieved one of these goals. The game started at a high tempo with Tom Burton particularly lively and Dan Batten running the midfield matching his good engine with intelligent play; in fact on 6 minutes Sutton should have taken the lead and only Nick Ellis will know how he managed to hit the post with the goal gaping. The only thing the game missed in the first half was a goal thanks to some excellent keeping from both Brad Whitmore and the St Ives keeper, indeed with better finishing the score could have been 4-4 at half time. The second half started well with Sutton applying pressure and it was no surprise when they took the lead through an excellent reverse shot from Josh Baker; to their credit this seemed to energise St Ives and they pushed forward and managed to equalise from a short corner. 1-1 going into the last 10 minutes. Sutton pushed on looking for a late winner and then five minutes from the end got hit with a sucker punch, conceding a short corner and conceding. Obviously they pushed forward even more in search of an equaliser and conceded a late goal to give the final score the look of a snapchat filter! So no points but a lot of positives from the game as the team played with a good spirit and there were a number of good performances all over the pitch; not least from Stefan Fox and Alex Canham who spent 1 hour and 55 minutes clearing water and mud off the pitch in the morning to ensure the game went ahead.