Sutton United 1 Billericay Town 0 (From Your Local Guardian)

Sutton United 1 Billericay Town 0

1:00pm Monday 6th September 2010 in

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Manager Paul Doswell was proved right in his pre-match assertion that Sutton United faced their stiffest test of the season so far on Saturday.

Bradley Woods-Garness gave Sutton three points, but the Essex side will have left Gander Green Lane feeling that they were well worth a point.

However, Sutton remain top of the Ryman Premier League and are still to concede a goal thanks to an outstanding defensive performance on a day that they struggled to hit top gear going forward.

It was a similar game to the previous week’s defeat of Folkestone, with Sutton protecting an early goat.

However, Billericay posed much more of a threat than had the Kent side with left winger Danny Charge the best attacking player on either side.

It is a testament to the way Sutton defended that only twice did Billericay have a direct sight of goal and on one of those occasions it was a case of Charge making something out of nothing with a brilliant 20-yard chip that hit the bar.

Sutton struck early on the counter attack. A corner was cleared to Fola Orilonishe, who helped the ball on for Woods-Garness to then release a first time pass that sent Richard Jolly through the middle.

Although he was crowded out on the edge of the penalty area, the ball ran loose and Woods-Garness, who had continued his run, reacted quickest to prod a shot past keeper Will Viner and give United the lead against his former club.

Lively early on, Sutton found themselves conceding more possession as the half went on and it was 11 minutes before the break that Charge, after Woods-Garness had given the ball away in midfield, produced his sublime chip that left Kevin Scriven stranded but came back off the bar.

Seconds later, the keeper had to be alert to prevent his unblemished record being sabotaged by one of his own players as a long throw from Adam Flanagan flicked off the head of Sam Page and Scriven had to react sharply to save to his left.

As the clock ticked round to 400 minutes without conceding a goal it was United who threatened again, a battling run from Craig Dundas ending with a foul which earned Dave Collis a booking, and Woods-Garness fizzing the free kick just wide.

Three minutes after half time United should have been two up when Orilonishe headed back a deep free kick from Jason Goodliffe, and Dundas rolled the ball in to the path of Tom Davis who couldn’t keep his shot from 12 yards down.

Again Billericay had plenty of possession, but United’s defence was playing in a manner befitting of its record so far.

Rob Watkins had an outstanding home debut, Goodliffe, Page and Karim El-Salahi produced solid headers to clear nearly every time the ball was played in to the danger area, and anything closer to goal was claimed by Scriven.

Despite being second best in terns of possession, United created the clearer chances, with Orilonoshe heading a raking pass from Kennedy Adjei back across goal and Jolly controlling well before shooting on the turn straight at Viner.

Sutton, who weren’t helped by having to replace substitute Adjei little more than 20 minutes after he had come on, had two scares.

Firstly, Charge made the most of a good advantage played referee Lee Venamore, and fired in a cross which Scriven could only tip on to the head of Junior Luke, but the ball arrived too quickly for Luke to be able to control the direction of his header which flew wide of an open goal.

The other moment came five minutes from time when Walid Matata, a lively replacement in the second half, appeared to be tripped by Page inside the penalty area but Mr Venamore awarded the free kick just outside the box, Matt Hall’s shot being blocked by U’s defensive wall.

Right at the end, United were almost gifted a comical goal when Ian Cousins beat the oncoming Viner with a back pass that rolled just wide of his own net, but it did allow Sutton to run the clock down in their opponents’ half and continue their fine start to the season, with a further boost of an attendance figure on National Non-League Day over 200 up on the previous home gates this season.

Sutton: K Scriven, K El-Salahi, R Watkins, J Goodliffe, S Page, T Dunford (sub K Adjei 56)(sub S McKimm 78), B Woods-Garness (sub A Costa 71), T Davis, C Dundas, R Jolly, F Orilonishe. Subs n/u S Watts, W Shaw. Goal: Woods-Garness(10). Booked: McKimm (82-foul).

Billericay: W Viner, G Oates, A Flanagan, D Collis (sub M Hall 73), C Wild, I Cousins, C Ngalam, M Hyde, L McKenzie (sub W Matata 64), D Charge, R O’Rawe (sub J Luke 58). Subs n/u G Street, S Cessay. Booked: Collis (40-foul).

Referee: L Venamore (Maidstone) Attendance: 733