Billericay Town 0 Sutton United 1

Sonny Cobbs got a deserved winner, superbly created by Danny Phillips, with 18 minutes left.

The ball spent too much time in the air during a scrappy first half, but the second half was more attractive with some lively wing play from first Anthony Joseph and then substitute Andre Costa, back at Gander Green Lane from his loan spell at AFC Hayes.

Although Danny Green set up some promising early positions for Billericay, cutting in from the right and firing a shot that keeper Kevin Scriven was well positioned to save, it wasn’t until the 20th minute that either goal was seriously threatened.

A Sutton free kick was cleared as far as Phillips on the edge of the penalty area, and his sweetly struck half volley crashed back off the crossbar with former Sutton goalkeeper Paul Nicholls helpless.

Three minutes later, Billericay should have been in front when Danny Charge beat Jason Goodliffe to a bouncing ball and raced clear on the right before cutting in, but wasted his previous good work with a wild shot which flew high over the bar.

Neither side found it easy to keep the ball down on another hard pitch which proved too much for Alan Pouton's knee, Steve McKimm replacing him after half an hour.

There was little to commend much of the rest of the half.

But, soon after the break, Cobbs, enjoying a storming run-in to the end of the season, battled through before slipping a pass through to Charlie Taylor, who tried to go round Nicholls but wasn't quite able to get his shot away before a combination of defence and goalkeeper forced the ball away for a corner.

Joseph began to test the home defence on the Sutton left and finished one run with a shot across the face of goal.

But there was still a threat from the home team, with Green remaining prominent.

He won a corner on the left which was knocked goalwards and required Scriven to go low to his left to save.

With just over 20 minutes left. Billericay should have been in front when a move starting with Nicholls and carried on by Dave Wareham ended with Harrison Chatting's cross from the right finding Green unmarked.

He could only direct his header straight at Scriven. It proved an expensive miss, because instead of leading Billericay found themselves trailing three minutes later.

Phillips held off a challenge on the right touch line before playing a neat pass through the defence and although Taylor, earlier the victim of one of two poor offside decisions against Sutton in the second half, this time looked as though he might have gone too soon it was Cobbs, bursting through from deep and definitely onside, who took the responsibility of going through and slotting the ball past Nicholls as he came out.

United defended their lead more comfortably than at Canvey Island on Saturday, with the Hawes brothers again catching the eye with some important interventions, Goodliffe and El-Salahi almost faultless in the middle and Scriven assured in goal.

At the other end, McKimm almost added a second with a powerful shot from the edge of the area following a half-cleared corner.

Costa took over from Joseph, whose warm reception from the U's supporters as he went off reflected his impact since returning to the club in February, maintaining the standard of play on the left, and might even have extended the lead on two occasions had his shots carried more conviction.

Billericay: P Nicholls, M Haswell, I Cousins, D Green, L Kersey, C Wild, G Street, M Hall, S Thomas (sub H Chatting 62), D Charge, D Wareham (sub M Marsh 83). Subs n/u R O'Rawe, J Cleaver, B Radley. Booked: Hall (88-foul) Sutton: K Scriven, B Hawes, J Hawes, J Goodliffe, K El-Salahi, S Cobbs, A Joseph (sub A Costa 78), A Pouton (sub S McKimm 30), C Taylor, D Phillips, B Woods-Garness (sub S Watts 71). Subs n/u C Dobson, W Shaw. Goal: Cobbs (72).

Referee: B Holderness (Hornchurch).

Attendance: 308