Experience combined effectively with youth on Wednesday as Sutton progressed to the last eight of the Surrey Senior Cup with more ease than they might have expected against a Corinthian Casuals side whose starting eleven contained eight players to have appeared for Sutton's reserves, with another two coming on as substitutes.
On a heavy pitch that made it difficult to play the ball along the ground over any great distance it was the home side who had the early chances as Danny Dudley volleyed wide from a corner when he might have done better, and saw a header from another set play saved by Wayne Shaw, Sutton scrambling away the rebound, but after their inexperienced attack had struggled to make any impact on the home defence in the early stages Sutton found a way through just before the half hour mark as a Casuals attack broke down on the edge of the Sutton penalty area and the ball rebounded to Fleetwood, who countered at pace through the middle before releasing a superb pass through to Wright, who took his time before firing low past Danny Bracken.
U's came close to extending their lead early in the second half as first Simon Downer, with a flicked shot from a corner, and then Wright had shots blocked on the line, and although they found themselves in several good positions too often the move broke down as low crosses failed to have the power to beat the first defender.
Midway through the half, though, Spence did well on the right to get to the by-line, and his cross this time took the aerial route towards the far post where Dillon crashed the ball past Bracken on the half volley to become the youngest scorer of a competitive first team goal for Sutton since Matt Gray in April 2001.
The 17-year-old striker visibly grew in confidence, although he did slightly blot his copybook with a needless booking for delaying a free kick with just under twenty minutes left, but Sutton were unable to add to their lead and with thirteen minutes left, after Juvean Spencer's shot had been diverted wide, Joe Hicks glanced in a header from the resulting corner to give Casuals hope.
Another header, from substitute Shaun Okojie, went just too high as they looked for the goal that might take the game to penalties, but with two minutes to go two of Sutton's own replacements put the game beyond their reach as Elliot Anderson battled down the left and crossed to the far post where Brown, with 21 goals to his credit in just 14 youth games this season, headed down and in to the net before staking his claim to the most acrobatic goal celebration of the season.
Corinthian Casuals: D Bracken, W Morgan, J Hicks, D Dudley, T Murray, B Johnson, N Wright(sub E Akokhia H-T), K Serbonij, M Reece(sub S Okojie 65), J Uzun, J Spencer(sub C Baker 88). Subs n/u C Mendy, J Davies.
After the game coach Ian Baird was full of enthusiasm for the performance of both the youngsters and the more experienced players. "It was a good evening for all of them. We told the older players that they had the responsibilty to set an example to the youngsters and look after them and I thought they were superb, while the younger players were tremendous in a difficult game that had an edge to it.
Reyon's finish on the half volley from Dan Spence's cross was top quality, and the other lads all did very well. We're delighted to come through, and the report back to Paul, who couldn't be here tonight, will be full of good things."
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