It seems there is never a dull moment for Sutton United these days.

Just four days after their back-up goalkeeper Wayne Shaw resigned following the Piegate scandal, the U’s were forced to play defender Simon Downer in goal for 75 minutes of their National League match at Torquay United following an injury to first choice goalkeeper Ross Worner.

Shaw had been sitting on the bench for United all season without being called into competitive action before his departure and the irony wasn’t lost on the world’s media who were quick to poke fun at the U’s with Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan leading the charge on Twitter.

But United, who had just gone a goal behind, had the last laugh eventually winning 3-2 thanks to goals from Roarie Deacon (30mins), Maxime Biamou (48) and Dean Beckwith (79).

Sutton manager was obviously delighted with how his team battled hard in tough conditions. Speaking to SUFCtv, he said: “It was action-packed. We went through a range of emotions throughout the game.

“The strong wind led to Ross’s injury. He slipped and it looks like he’s torn his groin so now we’ve got to deal with that quickly.

“It was a great short corner routine between Adam Coombes and Roarie Deacon to get us back into the game.

“At 1-1 we felt we were in the ascendancy but as I was walking down the touchline we went 2-1 down. It was incredible really.

“Then, a minute later, we back level through Max’s header. Then Beckwith goes and grabs the winner which was thoroughly deserved in my opinion.

“We’ve had a lot of bad luck away from home this season, so we deserved everything we got today.


Doswell was full of praise for stand-in goalkeeper Downer and his defence who kept the Devon side at bay to secure what was Sutton's first league win on the road since victory at Lincoln City on August 13.

“We spoke about it at half-time and said don’t let the ball go anywhere near Simon.

“I don’t think he even had a shot to save or a cross to collect, which gives you an idea of the dominance we had in the second half.

“He was loving it in the dressing room afterwards, saying he’s kept us in it for the win.

"He was the first one to stick his hand up [to go in goal] and it is either him or Jamie [captain, Jamie Collins] and they do go in goal sometimes in training and they’re both half-decent goalkeepers. But they didn’t put us under enough pressure to find out if he was or wasn’t.”

Doswell handed a debut to new signing from Welling United, striker Adam Coombes, and was impressed with what he saw: “Adam and Max [Biamou] looked like a good partnership. They worked really hard and held the ball up well. The work rate of the whole team was first class.

“We travelled down last night and enjoyed a walk along the seafront this morning [Saturday] rather than travel on the day and everyone felt together. The cup run has helped us to do that and it really makes a difference, there’s no doubt about that.

“There’ll be a lot of calls made before we get a goalkeeper."

United are in National League action again on Tuesday night when they host mid-table side Boreham Wood (kick-off 7.45pm).