Sutton Town AFC 2-2 Gedling MW

East Midlands Counties League - venue The Fieldings, Sutton.

Bonus game, but unfortunately Mrs. Kev is a bit under the weather so Kev stayed in to administer some TLC. He didn't miss much!

Left click to enlarge

Not a very clear pic - line-ups were:

Sutton:West, Atkins, Hollingworth, Short G, Kitchen, Hewitt, Gillatt, Fields, Grayson, Sherlock, Rhodes. Subs: Doolan, Giles, Guest, Ross.

Gedling MW:Mountain, Bradley, Korol, Robinson, Stanley, Heath, McDonald, Westcarr C, Westcarr J, Jones. Subs: Newton, Durham, Neil, Mawer, Evans.

The Fieldings is looking  a bit worse for wear at the moment - building work is ongoing to replace the demolished changing rooms. 

When I arrived at the entrance, I asked how much and the guy in the turnstile said he was sorry, but it was £4 now.  £4 is the usual EMCL entry fee so no need to apologise for that - he should apologise for charging £1 for the programme. 12 pages of which no fewer than 6 were full page adverts! Just a few weeks into the new season and we already have a contender for the worst programme..

                   
Met up with Richard Lane and "Bury" Paul near to the dugouts, but on the Wanderers' advice we re-located to the stand behind the goal. Richard said it was going to rain and it did -  persistently!!

The football wasn't very really much to write home about, but a good crowd had turned out for the game  - maybe other clubs ought to try Friday night games, must have been 150 present.

The games first goal came in the 20th minute. CARL WESTCARR was played in on goal and rounded veteran keeper Neil West before slotting home. The scores were level on 31 - MARC SHERLOCK will be credited with the goal, but his effort took a wild deflection before looping over James Mountain in the Welfare goal. 

Gedling were guilty of shooting themselves in the foot in the first minute of first half stoppage time. Instead of clearing their lines they decided to try and play out of defence. Somehow it all went wrong, leaving NEIL GRAYSON with an empty net to fire into from the edge of the box, and the journeyman striker is not going to miss an opportunity like the one that was presented to him. H-T 2-1

Sutton should have wrapped up the points early in the second half, but poor finishing let the Snipes down badly. Richard Guest actually cleared one effort of the line, much to everyone's amusement. 

Not so funny though when 41 year old West retired injured and was replaced in goal by 46 year old Grayson. Gedling had the majority of the rest of the game, but failed to really test the stand-in keeper, and it took until the third minute of second half stoppage time before Grayson was eventually beaten. CARL WESTCARR was again the man on target, firing across the keeper from wide left giving him no chance.  F-T 2-2

The Referee was S.Abbott - over fussy towards the end, other than that fairly anonymous. 

Admission £4

Programme £1

Attendance TBC