SUTTON UTD 4 HORNCHURCH 1

John Purdie returned after injury to the starting line up, and Jon Green came into the squad to replace Soz Yao, who today is reported to have played for Boreham Wood.
Urchins had to kick into the face of a very strong wind in the first half, and struggled to cope with the swirling conditions. They fell behind in the fifth minute when home keeper Scriven hit a long wind assisted ball upfield and this was only partially cleared to ANTHONY JOSEPH, who then ran through a retreating defence to fire a low shot past Darren Behcet. Four minutes later it got worse when Joseph combined with Phillips and although Michael Spencer tackled well, his clearance went back to Phillips, who made ground on the right and hit over a good centre and STEFAN PAYNE headed the ball onwards and under the bar for the second goal. A Phillips free kick was saved by Behcet and Urchins began to recover some composure.

A good pass by Purdie found Janney who raced down the wing and won a corner. Joe Stevens took the kick and the ball was played back out to Tomlinson, whose shot skimmed the bar. And a minute later Donny Barnard hit a long high ball into the goalmouth where the referee immediately awarded a penalty for hand ball. Mark Janney’s penalty kick was directed too close to Kevin Scriven who had a relatively easy save to make. Two down, and with an increasingly hostile home crowd, Urchins continued to come forward, and Sam Higgins turned well to send Janney away on the wing. Bray tackled to concede another corner, and Stevens again took the kick, but sent the ball too far over and it was cleared by Hawes.

An Elliot Styles free kick saw Higgins get in a good header which was deflected out for a corner. Stevens this time picked out Paul Shave whose header went the wrong side of the near post. A neat throw in to Sam Higgins enabled a quick inside pass to Andy Tomlinson whose shot was a fraction too high. Alan Bray was the first home player to go into the book, followed a minute later by Matt Hann, whose tackle left Donny Barnard motionless and in need of lengthy attention. Ironically it was this incident which led to the farcical third goal. Matt Hann had also received attention, the referee waiting patiently for him to get up before brandishing a yellow card, and Hann was jumping and down on the touchline, wanting to come back on, backed by a very vocal, but not very knowledgeable, home crowd, who was screaming abuse at the referee for doing his job correctly. This led to a long discussion between referee and home bench, with the linesman now coming in for loud abuse from the home crowd. Eventually BILLY HAWES, long throw expert, was allowed to take a throw in, and his wind assisted forty yard throw was helped into the net via Paul Shave, with the Hornchurch defence in complete confusion.

Farcical or not, Urchins were three down, but they again came back when Tomlinson took a free kick which El-Salahi deflected for a corner. Stevens took the kick but it was over hit. With Urchins piling on the pressure, Sonny Cobbs became the third home player to go into the book, and in stoppage time two successive Joe Stevens corners were scrambled away.

So half time losing three nil, but winning by six corners to nil – but it’s goals that count. The wind dropped noticeably at half time, and although Hornchurch continued to press forward the home defence had little difficulty in repelling the series of high balls that came their way. A good pass by Janney sent Barnard in from the left but his cross cum shot was cleared by Goodliffe. A long free kick by Behcet was headed out for the seventh corner of the match – all to Hornchurch – by El-Salahi and Stevens saw his inswinging kick go begging across goal. It was perhaps not a surprise when Sutton went further ahead, when a long run down the wide open right wing saw the ball turned across to STEFAN PAYNE who cracked in an excellent low shot for the fourth goal.

Time for changes and on came Billy Coyne, to give some cover on the left, Mark Goodfellow, to bolster up the middle, and Gary Bowes, who went up front along with Elliot Styles, with Sam Higgins moving over to the inside right position. And this made a marked difference, with Bowes into the action right away when he ran on to Billy Coyne’s incredibly long wind-unassisted throw, turned and hammered in an excellent shot, which Scriven saved at full length. Sutton almost scored again when Barnard was dispossessed near to the half way line and Payne raced goalwards, hitting a good shot against the post, with Purdie clearing. Sam Higgins became the only Hornchurch player to be booked, and then it was Janney to Barnard whose cross led to yet another corner. Stevens floated the ball over and Goodfellow was inches wide with his header. A long throw from Billy Coyne was headed past his own post by Bray, and this time it was Tomlinson who took the corner, which was headed out from under the bar. This led to Urchins’ tenth corner of the match, and Billy Coyne swerved it in and Elliot Styles met the ball with a powerful header which cannoned off the post and back out.

Sutton continued to look dangerous, and Phillips found Bradley Woods-Garness who laid the ball on to Hawes, and his low cross was saved by the diving Behcet. A long throw from Coyne led to corner number eleven, which Coyne took but no one was close enough to touch the ball over the line. A Stevens shot was charged down and Tomlinson’s follow up was well saved by Scriven. At the other end Joseph broke through but hit his shot into the side netting, whilst a Tomlinson free kick saw Stevens head over. It was some excellent work by Andy Tomlinson that led to Urchins only goal of the match, when he sent GARY BOWES away and Gary neatly chipped the keeper, Simon Parker style, to score his first goal for his new club. Seconds later Urchins swept downfield yet again and Sam Higgins opened up the defence, but his cross went begging, and then, with just 51 seconds added on, the referee blew for time.

So eleven corners, but only one goal. And Sutton – no corners, but four goals.