Match Report - Cleethorpes Town 2 - 2 SCTFC

It was a tough away trip to Cleethorpes Town in a game which Sutton, on paper, some might not expect to get anything from. But as we know already from this season, it’s often when Sutton are at their most lethal.

The team for the first game of 2020 was as follows GWILLIAMS, GEORGE, DWYER, SHAW, MUTTON, GANLEY, OKORO, MARTIN, MARSELIA, LEEK and GIBSON.

It was a cold breezy afternoon up north, but everyone was in the mood to start the new year on a high.

The game kicked off with Cleethorpes straight on the front foot causing Gwilliams to make the first save of the game which was a low drive by Flett had Gwilliams diving to his right.

Minutes later and Gwilliams is called into action again, with Flett firing a curling shot to force Gwills to save at the far post.

Cleethorpes on top, and it was the frontman again who turned a fired towards the Sutton goal forcing Gwilliams to push the ball away to safety.

Sutton took hold of the ball through Okoro, who ran down the wing beating the defender to run across the box and draw a foul. Leek stepped up for the free kick, and fired into the box towards Marselia who was just shy of making the connection to put Sutton in front.

Sutton were getting more into the game after a slow start. Leek ran down the wing, beat two defenders, before laying a ball off to Marselia whose shot was deflected for a corner which Sutton failed to make use of.

Gwilliams was again called into action to keep Cleethorpes at bay yet again, before Okoro took the ball from a crossfield pass by Marselia. He ran the second half of the pitch, beat two defenders before running into the box. He played a ball through the defenders legs, which he latched onto before sliding the ball under the keeper and into the corner of the net. 0-1 Sutton.

It was a great individual goal by Okoro who had been unplayable at times in the first half.

Sutton, buoyant from the goal towards the end of the first half started the second straight on the attack. Leek, had his shot on goal cleared off the line following great work by Gibson on the right.

Sutton were still pushing forward with Marselia, who threw a ball to Gibson, but his shot was parried by the keeper to deny Sutton a second.

Marselia hit a curling shot which forced a world class save from the Cleethorpes keeper who dived to his right to push the ball just over the crossbar. How Sutton were not 2-0 up was anybody’s guess.

67 minutes in, and Gibson made way for Ahenkorah who had come back to us from Boldmere due to illness, injuries and suspensions.

77 minutes and against the run of play, Cleethorpes got the equaliser, after some pressure and a close-range effort which Gwilliams could not keep out. From a corner, the ball was not cleared and it was Lacey who reacted quickest to get the equaliser.

Toothy made a change soon after bringing off Leek and giving Will Jones a run out.

Martin tried to get Marselia in, but his shot was kept out.

Toothy made the final substitution of the game bringing off Martin to be replaced by Milligan.

89 minutes in and just when it looked like finishing a draw, Milligan played a lovely ball through to Edwin to fire across goal into the far corner of the net to make it 2-1 Sutton.

The two substitutes combined sent the supporters into raptures with dreams of a big scalp in this league.

In the 97th minute, and well after the 4 minutes of injury time indicated (go figure!) Cleethorpes performed a smash and grab equaliser totally against the run of play to take the draw at 2-2.

Sam Topliss was the scorer from good work in the box by Fett.

It was a fantastic result from Sutton who were so unlucky not to have taken all three points today, but on reflection, a draw is a result which we would have taken at the start of play, but it did feel like we had been robbed in the end.

Cleethorpes are a good side and we wish them well for the rest of the season. The Royals are now on an unbeaten 4 league run which is our best of the season so far. If we keep up with this form the play offs may even be possible especially with all our games in hand.

Next up is Carlton on Saturday. We hope you will join us in cheering the lads on for another three points.

Come on you Royals.