Saturday 21 January – Suburban League

SUTTON UTD 4 HEMEL HEMPSTEAD 1 

Playing with the wind behind them in the first half, Sutton took full advantage to set up an ultimately convincing victory. A sign of things to come was a free kick from Rob Hughes in the first minute that flew past the goalkeeper and crashed back off the post, and soon afterwards Matt Robinson had a shot deflected just wide. The opening goal wasn’t long in coming, though, as a Brett Cummings cross was nicely controlled by Matt Reece, whose shot on the turn was half stopped by the keeper but dropped behind him and was over the line before he could recover. Six minutes later Chris Beard powered a diving header in from a Hughes corner, and Brandon Johnson almost added a third with a long range shot which the keeper scrambled wide, but then a high cross caused confusion in the Sutton defence and Hemel pulled a goal back. Nine minutes before half time, though, Kevant Serbony headed in Johnson’s corner to send U’s in at the break with a two goal advantage. With the wind on their backs in the second half Hemel had several early chances without being able to reduce the arrears, and after Hughes had twice tested the keeper from outside the penalty area Robinson tapped in at the far post after Dan Pringle had fired the ball low across goal. Ulysse Obame Ndong made one fine save as Hemel looked for a consolation, and in the last five minutes both teams hit the woodwork as Anson Cousins saw a shot come back off the post and a scramble following a corner ended with the ball hit the underside of the bar.

Sutton: Ulysse Obame Ndong, Dan Pringle, Anson Cousins, Chris Beard, Paul Lawrence, Rob Hughes, Brett Cummings(sub Lewis Lovelock 82), Brandon Johnson, Matt Robinson(sub Elliott Phipps 75), Matt Reece(sub Dan Wanyoni 75), Kevant Serbony. Subs n/u Cyrille Sahie, Jack Mesure. Goals: Reece(12), Beard(18), Serbony(36), Robinson (71). Booked: Pringle (25-persistent infringement), Reece(55-delaying restart of play).