Sutton Doing It Their Way

Slough supporters have to accept that their team must move further towards playing the Sutton United way if they are to win anything.

It is a sad fact that the strictly disciplined, physical brand of non-football practised by the Vauxhall-Opel League champions is what seems to capture trophies these days.

Happily Rebels boss Alan Davies does not feel teams should sink quite to Sutton's depth of negativity. But there are certain aspects of their play that the Rebels must adopt if they are to be successful.

Too often this season they have played high quality football in the big matches, only to lose because of a moment or two's lack of discipline. Such was the case against Orient, Kettering and last Thursday against Sutton at Wexham Park.

Davies commented: "I think Sutton could play more attractive football than they do. It is not entertaining to watch but they are one of the most professional sides in the league. They have the players who do a job to the best of their ability and they are happy with that. I wouldn't like to play their system. I would like to play a little attractively than that. But you can't take it away from them. What they do they do well and it works for them. You need that kind of discipline. “

Sutton achieved exactly what they set out to do on their visit to Wexham Park for a long awaited return match following their 4-1 victory last November. They defended stoutly, usually in large numbers; gave Slough little room for invention; stepped beyond the bounds of legality when they felt it was necessary; and snatched a winning goal out of nothing on the break.

All rather unsatisfactory to behold, but regretfully effective. It could have been very different, though, if Rowan Dodd's second minute shot had not slowed down in the end-of-season mud and been cleared off the line by John Rains.

“We started well and were unlucky not to go in front," said Davies. "If Rowan's shot had gone in it would have put them under pressure. They would have had to come at us and we could have got behind them more. “

As it was Sutton dug themselves happily in and watched the Rebels play all the evening's football. Davies was certainly justified in saying: "We deserved to get at least a point. It was no disgrace to lose like that we matched them in every way. We made more than enough chances in the last 10 minutes to have got on terms, if not to snatch a win. “

Those supporters attracted to the game by the scent of blood after the way Rebels 'keeper Graham Cox had his arm broken at Sutton were treated to the sight of two sets of highly motivated players throwing themselves into every tackle as if it were a personal test of their manhood.

The quality of the football inevitably suffered and there were a couple of flashpoints involving Sutton 'keeper Ron Fearon and first Kenny Wilson and then Slough substitute Jock McLeod.

Slough’s gamble on giving injured Tony Knight a one-off return was not particularly successful. He looked nowhere near match fit always a yard too slow even to achieve what seemed like his main aim of exacting some sort of revenge for Cox's horrific injury at the hand of Lennie Dennis.

It was almost inevitable that Dennis, the villain in November, should have the final say, scoring Sutton's 59th winner. A Sutton header in midfield ran into his path wide on the right side of the penalty area and he turned a brilliant first time shot past Trevor Bunting just inside the far post.

Davies felt that defender John McDaid had been caught a bit square on that occasion, but if he was it was his one fault of the night. McDaid, such a verbal influence on the team, let his football do his talking for him. He was the player who best portrayed Slough's commitment to the match, covering all over the place at the back, winning important tackles and headers and making dangerous moves forward. For his sake more than anyone it was a shame Slough could not get an equaliser in a final 15 minutes that saw them constantly at Sutton's throat.

The ball never ran kindly for the Rebels as Wilson put a good chance wide and Jimmy Brown had a shot from Jacobs' low cross blocked by a defender. After three minutes from time Fearon made a good save after Wilson's cross had ricocheted goalward off Rains and Brown.

Finally, it was also a shame that such a needle match was so disappointingly refereed by Alf Rogers, who let too many people get away with too much. too much.