MATCH REPORT

Honours even in this local derby with both teams fighting for their lives in Div3NW. Neither side will think a point was enough in their relegation battle, but both teams had enough opportunities to win the match and can only blame themselves for not taking them. The first half belonged to Spalding, with three goals before the interval confounding Sutton's makeshift defence, two of them worked into close range for tap ins and the other a fine finish which left ‘keeper Matt Braginton helpless after a blocked short corner fell kindly to an unmarked forward. Sutton's shortage of available players meant call-ups for two players at opposite ends of their hockey careers: veteran Ian White showed his age, but brought experience, while Jacob Synnott made his second team debut barely a week after his 14^th birthday and gave a mature display that belied his tender years. A brief period of ten minutes in the first half showed what Sutton could do if they only could hold onto possession with captain Nick Ellis linking well with Gary Hales, but it was not until the second half that possession led to pressure and the pressure turned into goals. Josh Baker played higher up the pitch and his extra mobility asked different questions of the visitors' defence; Pavel Saponenko and William Taylor, two more third team regulars adjusting to a higher level, overlapped down the flanks and got into some great positions; and the team's engine room of Will White and Dan Oldfield harried, hassled and pushed Spalding back. After Hales had intercepted a stray pass and beaten the keeper one-on-one, short corners provided the home team's way back to parity. Ellis placed an accurate direct strike into the corner, had a second deflected into the net from a defender's stick and had Will White's angled shot not found the base of the post, Sutton could have been celebrating. As tensions mounted,  a slew of cards disrupted the flow of the match, but Spalding nearly had the last word, good defending from Adam Taylor keeping out a short corner as time expired. Will White's superlative midfield performance while nursing an injured calf garnered him a second consecutive Man of the Match Award.