MATCH REPORT

Sutton thirds finished their season in fine style with an effective dismantling of a visiting team who were sitting two league places above their hosts. Brad Whitmore in goal deserved the clean sheet, but it was his defenders who earned it for him in the main. Jeremy Smith patrolled the heart of the defence, shoring up the few gaps left by Kieran Forrest, Lewis Shooter, and Josh Ripley, all of whom have made decent progress this year. Jacob Synnott once again proved himself to be a class act, passing sweetly from the back to the industrious wide midfielders, James Collingwood-Smith and Harry Braginton. Two quickfire goals put the fixture into Sutton's hands. A goalmouth scramble was put away but Luke Proctor, after a string of short corner strikes from Ian White had peppered the keeper. Then almost immediately afterwards Adam Pack pounced on a botched clearance and calmly beat the advancing ‘keeper. The exigencies of finding enough club umpires deprived Sutton of their central midfield partnership of White and Jack Smith for the second half, but this allowed no respite for BourneDeeping as Proctor and the mercurial Pavel Saponenko simply ran through the tiring defence with some sublime dribbling skills. The final goal from Braginton underlined Sutton's dominance and there was even time for Tyler Hagan to come off the bench and show that as well as being a stellar young keeper, he is no mean outfielder.

A very respectable top half league finish for the third team. It wasn't quite what captain Adam Sisson wanted at the start of the season, but with the number of players lost to the squad through injury or promotion to the progressive second team, the players should be very proud of their improvement, achievements and the manner in which they have represented the club.