Sutton United U18s were beaten 5-1 by Gillingham on a difficult day in the EFL Youth Alliance.
Despite James Fennelow scoring his third goal in as many games, the Amber were unable to respond to a dominant first half from the home side.
“We were very naïve in the first half,” Glen Nichols gave his assessment of the match. “We didn’t get tight enough, we didn’t get our distances right. It was a naïve performance which, after a bit of adapting and changing after half-time where we matched them up in midfield, we competed better [in the second half].”
Gillingham seized control of the match inside the opening five minutes, when Louie Dayal won possession in the attacking third and unleashed a shot from the edge of penalty area that found its way into the net.
Three minutes later, Dayal’s low cross fell kindly for Alex Asaba to finish at the back post, doubling the home side’s lead.
There was a long break in play just after the quarter-hour mark while Bobby Sheargold received treatment for an injury before being stretchered off the field of play.
Upon the restart, the Gills quickly found a third goal as Stan Sargent was played through on goal before slotting the ball into the far side of the net.
Sargent got his second goal a few minutes later, rising highest to guide Jonah Walker’s cross into the net with his head.
The half ended on a positive note for the U’s, as Kemi Edouard-Marisson’s interception allowed him to play a perfectly-timed through ball into the path of Fennelow who clinically dispatched his opportunity with a right-footed shot across the Gills keeper.
Edouard-Marisson came close to cutting the deficit to two shortly after the half-time break, breaking into the penalty area before hitting a low shot narrowly wide of the far post.
However, it was Gillingham who would get the next goal, with Asaba cutting the ball back for Dayal who swept in his second goal of the match and restore the four-goal advantage.
Despite the scoreline, the U’s continued to probe and be brave going forwards. Tricky feet from Jai Bansoodeb gave him the opportunity to shoot from the edge of the penalty area, and he was unlucky to see his effort bounce back of the post, with Edouard-Marisson’s rebound blocked away for a corner courtesy of some last-ditch defending.
“It’s a case of just competing better, eradicating individual errors,” Nichols continued his reflections, “But also, as I’ve just said to the boys, as a coaching staff and myself we’ve got to take responsibility for how we set up in the first half. We know we need to better and we will be going forwards.”
“We’ve asked the boys to go away and reflect on the game, take a couple of days to watch the footage when it comes in and just do an individual reflection. We’ll sit down all together when we come back after Christmas and go through some footage of the games and look at what we can do better as individuals and then as a team.”
Sutton United U18s: Fletcher (GK), Ruiz, Frost, Bell (C), Urpens, Reeves, Edwards (Brian 46’), Sheargold (Edouard-Marisson 16’), Fennelow, Bansoodeb, Hepburn (Bello 67’)
