After a first half on Saturday that was best summed up by manager Paul Doswell's decision to make two substitutions at half time, Sutton produced a better performance after the break, but when they went behind nine minutes in to the second half, then saw high-profile signing Glen Southam's debut brought to an ignominious end by a second yellow card with twenty five minutes still to play, it looked set to be an afternoon to forget. A minute after Southam's departure, however, Jessy Reindorf, one of the half time introductions, crashed home an equaliser and set up an exciting last quarter to a game that at that stage would have done little to entice first time Non-League Day viewers back for a a second helping.
Reindorf and fellow substitute Kane Haysman brought an energy to U's second half performance that had been lacking before the break, when for long spells U's were unsure, hesitant and with only the rarest hint of a threat to goalkeeper Jamie Butler. The tone had been set early on when Callum Hart allowed himself to be shrugged off the ball by Steve Cawley as he tried to head clear, and the Concord striker, the liveliest attacking player on the pitch until Reindorf's arrival, drilled a shot across goal. The visitors showed little ambition early on, which made for a turgid first half hour, but when they did they broke quickly, and just before the half hour mark Cawley combined with Gary Ogilvie in a quick counter attack which ended with Ogilvie's deflected shot beating Alan Julian and rolling towards goal until Charlie Clough got back to clear off the line. That wasn't Clough's only important intervention before half time, as he cut out a low cross from Sam Collins in the six yard box with Steve King at the far post waiting for a tap-in, and Sutton's best attacking moments were confined to a sixty second spell just after Clough's first clearance, with Jamie Taylor failing to clear Butler with an attempted chip after the defence had failed to cut out Hart's long pass, and Alex Woodyard then producing a fine clearing header at the far post as Marvin Williams tried to get on the end of a good cross from Ricky Wellard.
After that it was anyone's game, with Concord's defence becoming the latest to find out quite what a handful Reindorf can be as he put a powerful header wide and was denied by a combination of Butler and Danny Glozier as he went looking for a second. The best chance fell to the third substitute, Nick Bignall, when Clough headed a free kick back across goal and Reindorf's challenge unsettled Butler, but Bignall found the bounce and the angle too much to overcome and sliced his shot wide. Equally impressive for U's in the later stages, though, was goalkeeper Julian, who made two superb saves to ensure that his side ended with something for their efforts, tipping over a fierce Collins shot after a well-worked free kick move, and then similarly denying substitute Lewis Taafe's powerful volley after a ball over the top had caught U's out.
Goal scorers: Reindorf 66 Chiedozie 54
Competition
Vanarama Conference South
Attendance
628
Referee
Paul Kelly(Chatham)
Lineup
1 Alan Julian 2 Jack Evans 3 Matt Lockwood 4 Michael Spillane 5 Callum Hart 6 Charlie Clough 7 Ricky Wellard
H-T Reindorf 8 Glen Southam 9 Craig Dundas 10 Jamie Taylor 72 Bignall 11 Marvin Williams H-T Haysman
12 Kane Haysman 14 Jessy Reindorf 15 Kevin Amankwaah 16 Nick Bignall 17 Jamie Lawrence
Concord: J Butler, A Woodyard, D Glozier, G Ogilvie, S King, J Lampe, J Gardner (sub R Percil 76), J White, J Chiedozie(sub L Taafe 72), S Collins, S Cawley (sub T Stokes 88) Subs n/u C Alexander, J Cleaver. Booked: Lampe(37-foul), Ogilvie(54-aggressive attitude)
For all details of the club go to http://www.suttonunited.net/