We started this sunny bank holiday weekend with an FA Cup preliminary round cup tie against Gresley. Four changes today from the mid-week side that lost to Corby; Lomas, Dawes , Concannon and Letford are in for Brown, Haughton, Ellis and Palmer.

Everyone loves a good cup run and there’s no better tournament to do it in than the FA Cup. The journey begins here at Coles Lane with hopefully plenty of twists and turns ahead.

The game starts at a frantic pace with Nadat straight into the oppositions half, gaining a free kick off Steadman. From the resulting free kick, Lomas floats a delightful ball in for Clarke to slot home at the far post. Sutton take the lead early doors, which after back to back losses have helped calm the nerves a little.

10 minutes in and Sutton win another free kick after Clarke climbs all over Hearsey. Lomas floats the ball into the penalty box, Gresley clear but only to Dawes who fires it over the cross bar.

On 14 minutes Nadat runs onto a through ball, somehow taps the ball round the defender, but the ball was to be cleared just before it crossed the line.

Nadat has another opportunity on 17 minutes but fires wide from inside the box. A cross ball from Concannon sees a Nadat header go wide. Sutton, have missed a few chances now; but will they suffer the consequences of this?

Gresley have a rare attack on 27 minutes from an O’Connell free kick, but Gwilliams stands resolute in the Sutton goal and plucks it out of the air.

Letford tries his luck with a speculative overhead kick only to see his effort fly wide of the post. He followed this up with a mazy run down the wing taking on the Gresley defenders only to lose control in the penalty area.

On the 35th minute, Gresley hit back again through a clumsy free kick given away needlessly, but Smyth, and fortunate for Sutton, heads it straight over the crossbar. So far so good for Sutton, but they just need to kill the game off. This first half saw Nadat causing Gresley all sorts of problems with his pace.

Nadat starts the second half where he left off, running at the Gresley defence and drawing a foul, but sadly the free kick comes to nothing.

Gresley make a change in the 55th minute, Steadman comes off for Lee, they are starting to make changes to get back into the game. Gresley just couldn’t get a foothold, but Sutton couldn’t afford to sit back.

In the 63rd minute Sutton start to make changes with Letford going off for Haughton. Gresley start to come back into the game now with a few more runs into the box, but Beresford was a colossus for Sutton winning every ball.

On 70 minutes, another sub is made by Toothy which proves to be a masterstroke later on in the game with Howell coming on for Ben George. Gresley were caught out by Haughton after he collected a ricochet before running to the touchline and threading a ball through for Nadat to touch home and claim his just deserts.

Minutes later and the Sutton fans could relax, game over; Les Brown ran down the wing and his cross was met by fellow substitute Harvey Howell. With minutes to go now, Sutton just had to keep things tidy to see the game out. It was our first win and boy; did it feel good.

Man of the match today (as mutually agreed between my son Harrison and I) is Jordan Nadat due to his tireless running, and scoring the goal which effectively wrapped up the game for us.

Next up is Bromsgrove Sporting who will be a tough test but let’s hope for our first points of the season.

COME ON YOU ROYALS.