It was a cold wet and windy afternoon at Coles Lane when Sutton took on Coleshill Town in this Southern League fixture. The team had only one change from the one that beat Cambridge City last time out, with McNulty coming in for Hearsey.

The game had not long started when disaster struck for Sutton with a straight red card for Smith for elbowing a Coleshill player in the face; Sutton faced virtually a full game with 10 men in terrible weather conditions.

Sutton started on the front foot, by not letting their mind set change because of the sending off of Smith. Nesbit collected a ball from Gwilliams and laid it off to Letford who ran into the penalty area with pace, but was stopped at the last minute with an excellent tackle from the Coleshill defender.

Minutes later, Letford had another great run from the half way line, turned his man but again, another good tackle saw the Coleshill goal stay intact. Sutton kept pushing towards the Coleshill goal, but Mitch Clarke uncharacteristically lost the ball on the half way line, and Molesworth took the ball the whole way but the final shot went straight over the bar. A close call for Sutton.

Sutton went on the attack again with Letford running into the area one on one with the keeper, but this time he decided to pass the ball when it would have been easier to shoot.

Nesbitt tried to find space for the shot, but got crowded out by the Coleshill defence who were on him like a swarm of wasps and the chance went begging. Coleshill had some good forward players and this was seen with Sandhu on the half hour mark, when he cut through the Sutton defence like a hot knife through butter. Luckily for Sutton, his final shot went just wide of the post.

Daniel Tymon went close for Coleshill minutes later when his curling shot had Gwilliams diving to his left-hand post keeping the Sutton goal intact. It had been a tough first half with playing conditions terrible, but Sutton were still in the game and had battled well.

Sutton started the second half brightly with Nesbitt dribbling the ball across the opposition’s penalty area, but his shot went wide of the far post. Nesbitt was on the ball again minutes later, but his shot, come cross went wide and Letford was unable to get onto it. Coleshill nearly took the lead when Sutton old boy Jackson, hit a curling shot which Gwilliams pushed onto the post and out.

Letford took the ball for Sutton, Cleverly chipped it over the oncoming defender, ran the ball into the box and slid a soft cross which evaded everyone. It was a shame when all it needed was some sort of connection for a certain goal.

83 minutes in and disaster for Sutton, a chipped cross into the penalty area evaded the Sutton defence and fell to the feet of Mat Jackson who calmly tapped the ball past Gwilliams.

Sutton made some late changes with Onyelu (JJ) and Hearsey both coming on for Nesbitt and McNulty. JJ had a chance to level the scores when he turned on the volley, hit towards the top corner but the keeper saved it easily due to lack of pace on the ball.

Sutton made their final change with Amartey coming on for Beresford who had picked up a slight injury. Sutton worked hard to try and get that deserved equalizer, but it was not to be, JJ and Amartey linked up well towards the end, but with 10 men it was always going to be a tough task, especially with the conditions they were playing in.

Our next game is against Bedford Town which is on Saturday 22nd at 3pm; let’s hope for a better result and hopefully some better weather.

Come on you Royals.