Sutton United vs Notts County preview: It is every part time footballer’s dream to be live on TV against one of the English footballs top teams. For Sutton United this dream has become reality as they face League one outfit Notts County for the second time in three years in the FA cup second round this Sunday at Borough Sports Ground. The match will be the third time the two sides, separated by three leagues, have met, the previous two both being won by the Magpies, 3-2 in 1994 and their last encounter in 2008 which ended 1-0, at a time when both teams were re-building after poor starts to the season. Since then the league one side have turned themselves into play-off contenders and Sutton have escalated into the Blue Square South. Notts go into the game with only two defeats in their last nine games in all competitions. However, they will be without veteran striker Lee Hughes after he picked up his fifth booking of the season in last week’s 3-2 triumph over Scunthorpe. Centre half Sam Sodje will be hoping for a recall after he continues his return from injury and the only long term absentees for Martin Allen’s side are Rob Burch and Stephen Hunt. Sutton, who have battled their way to the second round after playing five FA cup games already this season, are still without the injured Alan Bray and Neil Jenkins and will be looking to produce the same squad that tasted defeat last weekend to Basingstoke Town. However, for two of Sutton’s players this occasion will not be the biggest game they have played in. Three years ago both Kevin Scriven and Tony Taggart were part of the Havant and Waterlooville team that led Liverpool at Anfield in the fourth round. The Magpies will surely know a lot about Taggart who coincidently scored a winning goal against Notts County in the same round three year ago for Havant and Waterlooville, his substitute appearance triggered the commentary line of "Off comes the van driver, on comes the bin man". Notts County will also be fully wary of United frontman Leroy Griffiths after landing the Player of the Round award following his four goal contribution in Sutton’s 5-1 win over Dulwich Hamlet. The game will be televised for the first time in Sutton’s history, live on ESPN, and Sutton will be looking to emulate a previous great act of ‘Giant killing’ after they knocked out Coventry City in 1989. Coventry were a top flight club at the time and had previously won the prestigious trophy two years before. The non-league side will be hoping to get a good draw for the third round with the prospect of an away trip to the likes of Old Trafford or Stamford Bridge an actual possibility.
For Notts County the same principles apply as they look to carry on their cup campaign. The FA Cup providing the club with arguably their highest honour of becoming the first ever team outside of the top division to win the Cup.
Match report: Sutton United failed to make a new entry into the History books to accompany their magnificent triumph over Coventry City back in 1989. Two clinical strikes from top scorer Jeff Hughes ensured a 0-2 win for Notts County who will now enjoy an away trip to Doncaster Rovers in the third round of the FA Cup. The game was full of incident, complete with injuries, a missed first half penalty at one nil from Sutton frontman Leroy Griffiths and a late sending off for substitute Karl Murray which ultimately abolished the optimism of the home crowd at Borough Sports Ground. With the prospect of an away trip to a Championship side both sets off fans were in full voice a good hour before kick-off. But it was the Sutton fans who were to be on their feet first as Griffiths’ low drive prompted Stuart Nelson to execute a smart save down at his near post in the fourth minute. Ten minutes later and Nelson was again called into action to save a powerful low header from Harry Beautyman. The fast paced start from the hosts soon fizzed out and it was Notts that went ahead in the 35th minute. Good build up play on the edge of the box between Alan Judge and Karl Hawley ended in Hawley unleashing a strike that never looked like troubling Kevin Scriven, not until the alert Hughes was on hand to divert the ball into the net, leaving the goalkeeper wrongfooted. County nearly doubled their lead eight minutes later when Ben Burgess was played onside by Sutton captain Karim El-Salahi. The striker neatly rounded Scriven but El-Salahi managed to recover the ball and Scriven frantically gathered. This turned out to be the last involvement for El-Salahi as he limped off with a knee injury, Karl Murray being his replacement. The substitution had an immediate impact and one minute from time a through ball from the lively Chris Piper saw Craig Watkins fouled inside the box by returning centre back Sam Sodje. Griffiths took on the responsibility of the spot kick and his tame effort was saved by Stuart Nelson. United made another energetic start after the break and Griffiths whipped in two good crosses within the first ten minutes, Sutton again failed to capitalise and both efforts, from Beautyman and Watkins, failed to hit the target.
County were then forced into making a double substitution due to injuries to Sodje and Burgess, IshmelDemontagnac and Mike Edwards were the replacements. The away team then sat back and made Sutton attack. Despite the home teams valiant attempts, no clear cut chances were presented to Sutton and although the odd chance presented itself to County on the counter, finishes were far from clinical throughout the second half. In the closing stages Sutton resorted to a “Hail Mary” style approach and Karl Murray picked up two bookings for fouls within as many minutes and saw red. By the letter of the law the referee had to send him off. A sense of foreboding then spread among the United fans and any hope of a replay was finally diminished when in stoppage time, a brief scramble in the box ended in Hughes smashing the ball into the net. Sutton United: 1. Kevin Scriven , 2. Simon Downer, 5. Karim El-Salahi (43 Murray), 6. Sam Page, 7. Anthony Riviere, 8. Craig Watkins, 9. Leroy Griffiths, 10. Harry Beautyman, 12. Paul Telfer (80 Orilonishe),14. Craig Dundas (69 Taggart), 17. Chris Piper. Subs – 4. Karl Murray (Sent off), 11. Fola Orilonishe, 15. Tom Kavanagh, 20. Romone Mccrae, 21. Wayne Shaw, 22. Bradley Woods-Garness.
Notts County: 17. Stuart Nelson, 2. Julian Kelly, 3. Alan Sheehan, 5. Krystian Pearce, 8. Karl Hawley (90+2 Hamza Bencherif), 10. Neal Bishop, 11. Jeff Hughes, 14. Alan Judge, 18. Sam Sodje (59 Ishmel Demontagnac), 22. Ben Burgess (59 Mike Edwards), 31. Gavin Mahon. Subs – 21. Liam Mitchell, 4. Mike Edwards, 6. Hamza Bencherif, 7. Ishmel Demontagnac, 12. Jude Stirling, 19. Charlie Allen, 26. Haydn Hollis. Goals: Hughes (35, 90+1)
Quote led re-write: Leroy Griffiths has taken on full responsibility for Sutton United’s FA Cup second round defeat to Notts County. Griffiths missed a first half penalty with the score at 0-1 and the game ultimately ended in a two nil defeat for United. "I take full blame on this occasion," said Griffiths. "If I score the penalty we can go back to their ground and have a go and attack, but you need to be a man and stand up and I stand up and take responsibility.” "I could have stuck my penalty away. I had what I had in mind but other people I spoke to told me not to do what I wanted to do. "The manager and other people said don't do that, just smash it. "I wanted to chip it in the top left corner but everyone told me to change it and it didn't pay off this time. The score line flattered the visitors, who ultimately walked away with the win thanks to two Jeff Hughes goals either side of the interval, the second coming after Karl Murray was sent off for the hosts, and County manager Martin Allen said before the game: "We don't want to be the nation's entertainment". He certainly achieved this but the nonleague outfit did have their chances: "We rode our luck a bit at times but you have to give an awful lot of credit to our players," said Allen, “Mentally it's very tough to come to these games, with the crowd behind the team, the players finding a little extra, the supporters finding that little bit extra. Thankfully we weathered the storm and Jeff Hughes picked up a couple of goals. Fair play to Jeff” said the Notts County Manager. Their performance warranted a victory, and Allen was full of praise for everyone associated with the club. “All the players have played their part and all credit to them, the staff, and the supporters who stood out there in the rain. These are tough days. Trust me, these are tough hard games." But for United defeat was not completely sour. The team left the pitch to a standing ovation from the home fans and it’s fair to say the players did their manager proud: "This was our cup final," said Paul Doswell. "I've just said to the players: 'You've done the club proud, you've earned us the best part of £200,000.” “But this is one adventure finished and now another one begins.”
"Hopefully this run has reinvigorated people. This is my fourth season now. But what you hope is for us to keep a few hundred that have been here today, because they've seen a real decent, committed quality team and I think they should be very proud of them." The win means that Allen’s men will face Championship side Doncaster Rovers in the third round of the FA cup, a clash that both sides can look forward to.
Inquest Piece: When the two sides clashed Notts County were clear favourites and Sutton United had the task brandished by the media of trying to “Giant Kill”. The League one side who are a full time, professional club, edged it in terms of quality, technique and overall determination to force themselves into the third round against Doncaster. This quality would have been installed in them, after all they do train fulltime compared to the Non-league outfit who would train no more than three times a week and their players forced to have a full time job at the same time. The home crowd were clearly up for the game, and those lucky enough to be in the seated stand were on their feet, this led to the home teams fast start either side of the half and could also be down to the fact that most of the home crowd had not experienced a game of this calibre for their beloved team and were causing enough of an atmosphere to inspire the home side. The man of the match was Alan Judge of Notts County, and the class that saw him able to be at clubs such as Blackburn rovers in the past soon started to show. He was involved in many chances that were created throughout the game and was involved in the build-up to Jeff Hughes’ opening goal, Sutton’s midfield could not get close enough to him and he continued to find the gap between centre half and fall back throughout the game. The only statistic that matters in a game of football is the amount of goals scored. Notts County scored two and Sutton United didn’t manage to score. This therefore suggests that because both teams were able to create chances throughout the game that there was a clear difference in how clinical the finishes were. Hughes’ strikes were clever enough to beat the keeper on two occasions and that is what you would expect to be the difference between a striker that plays in the Conference south and one that plays in League one division football. The match was the home team’s cup final. Towards the climax of the game, the players instinctively gave it their all and started to commit more men forward, leading to a “Hail Mary” style approach of hoofing the ball towards the opposition goal. A couple of later counter attacks from the away side led to Karl Murray picking up two bookings in as many
minutes. His tired legs meant that he was late with a couple of challenges that left the referee with no choice but to send him off. The match was not filled with exciting compelling football and this was down to the pitch that it was played on. Far too many bobbles saw players from both teams miskick or lose the ball needlessly when not under any immense pressure leading to far too many long balls being attempted in order to split the defences. By Daniel Faulkner