A first half hat trick from Deon Moore saw a Sutton side that was a mixture of youth and experience through to the semi finals of the Surrey Senior Cup, although ultimately a lot less comfortably than looked to be the case when Moore completed his treble to put U’s 3-1 up at half time. At that stage Sutton looked to have booked a place in the last four, but the second half performance failed to match that of the first 45 minutes, Corinthian-Casuals took advantage of a lack of concentration in defence to make it 3-2 midway through the second period, and but for goalkeeper Matt Kerbey getting a touch on a header from Melford Simpson the tie may even have required penaties to resolve it.

There was little hint of it being as close as that in the early stages, and inside five minutes Omari Patrick, one of several players from the first team squad included to build match fitness, cut in from the left and let fly from all of 35 yards with a thunderous shot that crashed back off the post. Patrick sent another shot just wide of the far post from a similar situation, and Deon Moore saw a shot scrambled off the line, and there was a degree of inevitability when Patrick and Stephen Duke-McKenna worked a short corner on the left, and Patrick’s cross was headed in by Moore.

At that stage the Casuals defence, particularly the two full backs up against Moore and Patrick, seemed set for a torrid evening but from nowhere the Isthmian League South Central side were level five minutes later when Tobi Ogundega, playing his first competitive match for U’s, played a pass out of defence that was intercepted by Shyam Taank, and when the ball was lifted back in to the Sutton penalty area a misunderstanding between Junior Eccleston and Kerbey saw the academy defender’s header beat the onrushing goalkeeper and end up in the net.

The equaliser briefly stalled Sutton’s momentum, but just before the half hour Patrick and Moore combined again to leave the visitors seeing stars, Patrick coming in from the left before sweeping a pass out to the right, where Moore cut in along the edge of the penalty area and struck a low left foot shot between LeBlond and his near post. Casuals might have equalised again almost immediately when Kerbey’s low save from Tyrell Butler pushed the ball out to Arthur Dede-Aderi, but Eccleston showed no hangover from his earlier error with a brilliant challenge inside the six yard box to prevent Dede-Aderi scoring for the sixth game in a row. As it was, U’s had soon doubled the lead, this tine a superb first time pass on the turn by Duke-McKenna sending Moore clear on the right again, and the result was almost identical to the second goal except this time Moore checked back on to his right foot before shooting beyond LeBlond to complete a ‘perfect’ treble and become the first player since Billy Medlock in December 2014 to score his first senior competitive goals for the club as a hat trick.

With Moore and Patrick finding less space in the second half Sutton’s goal threat was reduced, although the game for spells still seemed to be drifting towards a comfortable home victory, but midway through the second half U’s were caught napping by a free kick from Oscar Walton played low down the right to Quade Taylor when most were expecting the ball to be lofted in to the penalty area. Taylor’s low cross was turned in by another substitute, Jaedon Reynolds, who had only been on the pitch three minutes, and suddenly U’s path to the semi finals looked less certain. Had Simpson converted a fine cross from Shea Cascoe-Rogers soon afterwards it would have been level again, but the ball flicked wide off the challenging Kerbey and, even without troubling LeBlond in the later stages, Sutton were able to see the game out and earn a semi final against either Farnham Town, who have swept all before them this season in the Combined Counties League Premier Division South, or AFC Croydon Athletic, play-off contenders in the same competition.

Sutton: M Kerbey, J Williams(sub L Moore 89), A Reeves, J Eccleston, T Ogundega, O Khinda, S Duke-McKenna, V Tume, D Moore, C Clay, O Patrick. Subs n/u L Jones, D Urpens, J Trickett, K Edwards.

C Casuals: A LeBlond, A Butler(sub M Liba-Ghallou 62), O Walton, S Taank, S Sankanu, M Sansom(sub Q Taylor 54), O Aina, S Cascoe-Rogers, M Simpson, A Dede-Adari(sub J Reynolds 62), T Butler. Subs n/u E Dito, J Kaate

Referee: Patrick Jolliffe

Attendance: 235