A stoppage time header from Will Davies was enough to rescue a point against Dagenham & Redbridge.
Sutton United had almost got off to the worst possible start when Lewis Simper was deemed to have handled the ball inside the box within the opening minute, but Jack Sims stepped up to deny Ryan Hill from 12 yards to keep the score goalless. This preceded a fairly end-to-end affair, with Besart Topallaj and Finley Barbrook going closest scoring before the break, with the latter being a controversial incident that saw Harry Phipps prevent a certain goal with his hand, only to be unpunished by the referee.
With the score goalless, Dagenham were given the chance to take the advantage in the second half, with Josh Umerah heading Josh Rees’ flick-on past Sims from close range to break the deadlock on the hour-mark. The visitors thought they had done enough to bring all three points back to East London, but were shellshocked when a deep Barbrook free kick met the head of Davies, who rose highest to power home his 19th goal of the season and seal a point.
A draw sees the U’s remain 12th in the Vanarama National League table, but close the gap on seventh to five points following another positive display.
One change to the team that beat AFC Fylde saw Josh Coley return for his first start in a month, fresh off his 100th appearance for Sutton, and replaced Eduino Vaz following a positive impact off the bench on Tuesday night.
However, Sutton, with less than a minute on the clock, Dagenham found themselves gifted the chance to take the lead and condemn the U’s to an uphill battle for the second home game in a row, with an early penalty being awarded against Simper within the area. However, Sims did brilliantly to get down low and palm Hill’s effort away from goal with his second penalty save in a week.
This was followed by another penalty shout as a Rees strike looked to cannon off Tyler French’s hand, however the U’s skipper went unpunished and Hill subsequently found himself in the book for dissent.
Looking to gain a foothold in the game, a short corner fell to the left foot of Topallaj who’s skewed cross almost caught out visiting goalkeeper Louis Jones, who made a mess of a simple catch to give Sutton another opportunity from a corner.
While this eventually came to nothing, another corner at the other end created chaos in the box with Topallaj clearing a Wyllie effort off the line, and resulted in a goalmouth scramble which was eventually cleared behind for another corner. The resultant set piece was met by Phipps who nodded past Sims, but saw his celebrations cut short due to a foul on French.
This preceded a Sutton counter-attack, with Simper chasing down a loose ball which saw him tangle with Kayden Harrack, who managed to win a foul to stop the break. Simper subsequently found himself in the referee’s book for the challenge, whilst Davies would face the same fate for dissent.
Despite a promising opening half-an-hour, the U’s were forced into an early change when Coley had to be replaced by Vaz, who was immediately involved when he combined with Barbook to send the on-loan Ipswich Town man to the byline and fire an effort across goal and had Jones beaten. Barbrook would be denied by the arm of Phipps, but despite what should have been a stonewall penalty, the referee waved away the appeals to close out the half.
The second half began with a second Sutton change as Harry Ransom replaced Ryan Jackson, but the U’s subsequently struggled to maintain control of proceedings and soon fell behind just after the hour-mark when a cross from the right flank was flicked on by Rees and onto the head of Umerah, who squeezed the ball past Sims to give Dagenham the lead.
Sutton then responded well to going behind, however, with a golden opportunity for Ashley Nadesan seeing the on-loan Gillingham forward unable to keep his effort down when one on one with Jones and was followed by Davies finding the back of the net, only to be denied by the offside flag.
In search of a leveller, Nana Boateng and Siju Odelusi both entered the fray in place of French and Alex Woodyard, with the former almost producing an instant impact when a Barbrook corner flew as far as the former Millwall forward at the back post, getting on the outside of Hill seeing his effort on goal cleared off the line by Paul Kalambayi.
With time running out, four minutes of stoppage time allowed Sutton a lifeline, and preceded a pinpoint free kick from Barbrook meeting the head of Davies, who made no mistake from close range to rescue a point.
Sutton United: Sims; French (Boateng 79’), Taylor, Topallaj; Jackson (Ransom 46’), Barbrook, Woodyard (Odelusi 79’), Simper, Coley (Vaz 37’); Nadesan, Davies
Dagenham & Redbridge: Jones (Harvey 85’); Hessenthaler, Phipps, Rees, Umerah, Hill, N’Guessan, Harrack, Rutherford, Wyllie (Loupalo-Bi 73’), Kalabmbayi
Photo Credit: Paul Loughlin
