Kent Football United 4-2 Sutton Athletic - We didn't want it as much as they did, admits frustrated Sutton Athletic coach Tristan Cropley

Kent Football United 4 – 2 Sutton Athletic
Location	Glentworth Sports Club, Lowfield Street, Dartford, Kent DA1 1JB
Kickoff	08/02/2022 19:45

KENT FOOTBALL UNITED  4-2  SUTTON ATHLETIC
Southern Counties East Football League First Division
Tuesday 8 February 2022
Stephen McCartney reports from Lowfield Street

SUTTON ATHLETIC coach Tristan Cropley questioned his players’ desire levels after the league leaders suffered a shock derby defeat at struggling Kent Football United.

Daniel Kelly’s side remain at the top of the Southern Counties East Football League First Division table, having collected 54 points from 25 games and the Hextable-based outfit arrived in neighbouring Dartford on an eight-match unbeaten run.

Ennio Gonnella’s side, however, turned the form book upside down, coming into this game on a seven match winless streak but they rose three places into thirteenth-place in the pecking order, with 28 points from 24 league outings to ease their relegation fears.

Kent Football United raced into a two-goal lead inside the opening 13 minutes, courtesy of the excellent left-winger Jerome Walker and attacking midfielder Georgi Steeds.

Both of Sutton Athletic’s goals were scored by defenders, with 31-goal striker Arlie Desanges enduring a frustrating night.

Left-back Kieran Hughes headed in a corner to bring Sutton Athletic back into the game before winger Jordan Samuels scored a peach of a goal against his old club to give the home side a commanding 3-1 lead on the stroke of half-time.

The second-half was a case of defend-versus-attack and Sutton Athletic bossed the possession stakes and centre-half Charlie Plummer slotted in the away side’s second goal before Kent Football United sealed the deal on the counter-attack with Steeds’ notching his sixth goal of the season.

“I think we were the architects of our own downfall.  You don’t give teams a two-goal head start so early in the game,” admitted a frustrated Cropley.

“They started quicker than what we did and for me that third goal just before half-time, that kind of made it more of an uphill task going in at 3-1. If it was 2-1 it could’ve been a different game.

“You saw that in the second-half. It was definitely attack-versus-defence and you just have to try to break them down and credit to them, they stood to the task and they battled and they condensed the pitch and they made it very difficult to play through.

“Derby games are like that. It’s desire versus I would say talent and I would say desire beat talent, unfortunately.  That’s frustrating. If you get beat by the better side you can take it. If you get beat by a side that works harder than you, that’s frustrating.

“What I would say is we played them earlier on in the season and you can see the difference that Sam McNeil has made to the management of the club in terms of structure, the way that they play, the discipline, the organisation so having Sam McNeil in the management you can see the difference it has made.”

Kent Football United’s assistant manager Sam McNeil added: “Delighted! When you play against the team who are top, you obviously have to make sure you do your homework and you set up in the correct way and I think we did that.

“Anyone watching tonight, we’ve shown exactly how you play against Sutton Athletic and they’re a very good team so you have to make sure you fill pockets and I’m very big on making sure you defend three zones of the pitch. We forced them into wide areas a lot and we roughly restricted a team who likes to play through the thirds and restricted them to crosses, long balls into the box and long throws, which is testament and how well we’ve done.

“I thought the finishes were fantastic and we looked very good on the break.  A thoroughly deserved performance and on the balance of it, especially as we had other chances as well to finish the game off even more, so in my opinion, a deserved three points.”

Sutton Athletic started the game at a very low tempo with goalkeeper Joe Hyde playing the ball out from the back and the usual pattern of play was for Hughes to play the ball inside to left-centre-half Richard Gregory, who would play the ball to Plummer, who would then feed right-back Tony Hill, who played the ball into holding midfielder Dan Gunner and McNeil explained why his side didn’t press Sutton Athletic.

“You should affect the game in the areas it’s going to hurt you and they’re going to hurt us when they get closer to our goal so if you come out of your mid to low block and you go pressing things that you can’t control then you leave yourselves exposed,” said McNeil.

“Football’s about playing to your strengths and playing to the strengths of the individuals and playing to everyone in the team.

“Both Bethel Gboda and Georgi Steeds in central midfield shielded the whole midfield extremely well and we prevented them playing through the lines in the first-half, which I think added to their frustration.”

Cropley added: “Low tempo, particularly for us, laziness, as Dan, the manager said, laziness.  We didn't want it as much as they did.

"They had such a low block, which meant we had a lot of the ball in our own half and when it came to transitions, we were up against a brick wall. We weren’t streetwise enough in the first half to get around that brick wall, which was frustrating.”

However, Sutton Athletic were to be punished for their slow start as Kent Football United took the lead with nine minutes and 46 seconds on the clock.

Steeds picked the ball up in the middle and had close control of the ball as he headed towards the left touchline and must have went on a 30-yard run.

He played a sublime 15-yard reverse pass to release Walker, which saw Joby Smith open the gate for Walker to cut into the box before placing a right-footed shot inside the bottom near corner from a tight angle from 10-yards.

McNeil said; “We broke the line. I think that was coming in that period of play. They couldn’t even get into our attacking third in that first 15 minutes. When that happens and you compact the game you force teams to try passes which they don’t want to play.

“Jerome’s a very talented player, he’s cut inside and got his shot off and scored.”

Cropley added: “I think we had two attempts to stop him, either stop him getting into the box or stopping the cross or shot. It’s just frustrating.  It was almost a carbon copy of the second goal.  The winger got in behind the full-back, he’s got some pace on him, found a yard and delivered and for us it was poor defending and a good strike.”

Clinical Kent Football United doubled their lead with 12 minutes and 57 seconds on the clock.

Sutton Athletic’s central midfielder William Huckle lost the ball to a pressing Alimm Sesay on the halfway line and his dinked pass released Walker down the left.

Walker easily shifted the ball past Hill down the left and cut into the box and reached the by-line before whipping a cross towards the back post where Steeds ghosted in to tap the ball into the bottom right-hand corner to leave the league leaders in disarray.

McNeil said: “We highlighted very early on in the game that we had a lot of joy down our left-hand side and when you’re playing in a low block it’s important that you can control and get into areas that you can affect the game quickly.

“Jerome was a threat all night. He could’ve scored four himself.  If you can’t score we ask them to put the ball into a good area and there’s Georgi with a third-man run, netting it home.”

Cropley added: “We switched off again. The balls come over on the same side, the winger’s got the pace. He’s got in behind our man and he’s able to deliver the ball.

“It was a case of playing against a team with a low block that had pace so whenever they got the ball on the break they used that pace and got behind us.

“I thought after the second goal their threat on that side was nullified.” 

Hill was being terrorised by Walker during the early exchanges and Kent Football United striker Bethal Gboda fed Walker, who easily outmuscled Hill some 35-yards from goal before the winger cut into the box before drilling his shot into the base of the side netting.

Kent Football United missed a glorious chance at the halfway point of the first-half following the second of five corners.

Antonio Gonnella’s left-wing corner was cleared out to Gboda, who lashed his first-time left-footed drive high over the crossbar from 15-yards.

“We’re 22 minutes in and we’re talking about opportunities that we’ve created. Yes, we blazed it over but it’s great to see us create opportunities,” added McNeil.

“Some people will say Kent Football have played a very defensive game. A footballing person will go they’ve controlled the game.  I’m a firm believer that you don’t have to have all the possession to control a football match and I felt in the first half, especially despite not having as much possession as our opponents, we controlled it because we forced them where we wanted them to go.

Sutton Athletic took nearly half-an-hour to create their first opening, following their second of nine corners.

The ball came in from Conor Evans and winger Ijah Currie-Wilson found a pocket of space at the near post and buried his header past the near-post only for the referee Nicholas Derrane to incorrectly award the away side another corner.

Sutton Athletic continued to play at a slow tempo but they pulled a goal back with 37 minutes and 30 seconds on the clock following their fourth corner.

Evans swung in a quality delivery from the left towards two of his team-mates at the far post and Hughes buried his downward header into the bottom right-hand corner from four-yards.

Cropley revealed: “Kieran’s not known for his heading offensively or defensively so to score a header, very impressed with that.  It was the night for defenders, two of them scored tonight.

“You keep mentioning Conor Evans, someone’s going to come and get him if you mention him every match that we play in.”

Evans was outstanding for Sutton Athletic tonight and was the driving force going forward from his number 10 position.

McNeil added: “I think that’s the most disappointing thing. After having the best of the first half, to concede against a team where we’ve tried to prevent them playing through the pitch, for them to score from a set-piece is disappointing.

“They’re the sort of areas where we need to make sure that we’re not lapsing in concentration otherwise the hard work that we’re going to do will be undone.”

Sutton Athletic clicked into gear and produced a sweeping move which should have brought the equaliser in the 41^st minute.

Plummer slid the ball into Muckle’s feet inside the Kent Football United half and he swept a ball out to Smith on the right wing and he whipped in a great cross towards the near post for Desanges to guide his header straight into the hands of Daniel Carpanini, who made a comfortable catch at his near-post.

Cropley said: “just about sums us up. It was as though it just wasn’t to go in today.  He normally buries them and he has done in recent weeks.”

McNeil added: “You know Arlie is a goalscorer, he’s got 31 goals and we’ve restricted him to a 15-yard header, moving backwards. That’s testament to Harry Sargent and Joshua Burrowes, average age 18 and a half between them.  They were fantastic throughout the whole game, marshalled him extremely well and Arlie hardly had the ball at his feet in the whole first half. He was restricted to scraps and that’s testament to how well we defended.”

A clinical Kent Football United outfit raced into a 3-1 lead, one minute and 16 seconds into stoppage time.

Set-piece specialist Gonnella, the Kent Football United central midfielder, floated in a corner from the right and Samuels’ first touch inside the box was exquisite, trapping the ball before placing a left-footed drive through a crowd of players into the top far corner from 15-yards out.

McNeil said: “Do you know what? For Jordan Samuels that’s going to be a sweet one because he’s a former Sutton Athletic player this season. He’s come here from them and I’m really pleased for him.

“I’ve been working with Ennio for a month now and Jordan’s been one who has really adapted to the changes that we’ve tried to make in terms of structure. He’s worked extremely hard. 

“He has a chance against Tooting Bec in the last minute one-v-one that we drew one-all and was gutted that he didn’t put that one away, so to bury that one sweetly was a nice positive moment for him and for us.”

Cropley admitted: “Desire. Desire for me in terms of they wanted it more than we did.  We were in a zonal position, everyone looks at everyone else, nobody followed the ball or the man and Jordan can score those goals. He’s done that before so hats off to him, it was a good finish.”

Sutton Athletic were forced into replacing centre-half Gregory at the interval with a knock to his shin that he sustained in the 30^th minute following a strong challenge on him by Samuels.

Darren Wheeler slotted in beside Plummer at the heart of defence and both full-backs were pushed further up the pitch as Sutton Athletic dominated possession in a game of defence-versus-attack with Kent Football United only crossing the halfway line with rare counter-attacks.

Both were asked their thoughts at the break.

McNeil said: “At the break it’s half a job.  Chessington at the weekend was highly disappointing but the game was exactly the same as today where we dominated the game in terms of the ball and just couldn’t score (and lost 1-0).

“The difference is we put the ball in the net. We’ve taken our chances.

“We knew that Sutton were going to change and come flying out. We already saw in the last five minutes (of the first-half) they pushed their full-backs really, really high so it meant that Jordan and Jerome would have to work extremely hard defensively and we asked for honesty, an honest, hard shift in defence making sure we’re staying compact, we’re working hard, supporting each other, not lapsing in concentration or not getting lazy and not cheating and we did that.”

Cropley added: “Laziness, frustration in terms of how well we’ve done so far and how well we’ve done recently in the fact that we keep going and we shouldn’t turn up and be complacent. There wasn’t any complacency from the management, there might have been some complacency from the players but you could just see from the first half that they wanted it more.

“Every time we got the ball, there were two or three blue shirts around us. Every time they got the ball we just let them have it and Dan just said ‘we can’t be lazy. We’ve got to work hard, have a bit of pride in yourselves.’

“Even if we lose four or five-one, at least go out in the second half and half a go and we did.

“Richard Gregory had to come off. He landed funny. I think it was his shin.  He got up and carried on to the half but when it’s this cold and he’s had 15 minutes of rest, you kind of seize up and we brought on the attacking players to try to get back into it.”

A poor clearance from Kent Football United’s right-back Amari Kpodo was put back into the mixer by Hughes and Hill ghosted in at the far post to drill his shot past the foot of the near post after the ball bounced over a jumping Desanges in the middle after 132 seconds.

Sutton Athletic started to play at a much higher tempo and they moved the ball a lot quicker than they did during their lacklustre performance underneath poor  floodlighting during the first-half.

Wheeler played the ball up from defence straight down the middle of the pitch and Smith was in space to flash a right-footed drive flashing past the left-hand post from 35-yards.

A poor sliced clearance from holding midfielder Sesay allowed the impressive Evans to travel 10-yards with the ball at his feet before stroking a left-footed drive towards goal from 25-yards, which was comfortably saved by the on-loan goalkeeper, who allowed his defenders to drop too deep.

The home side enjoyed a brief spell around the hour-mark and Walker cut in from the left before drilling his shot just over the crossbar from 20-yards.

“When you’re playing a compact shape you have to make sure that you’ve got a threat, otherwise you have got no chance of winning the game,” explained McNeil, who manages the club’s Women’s side, currently bottom of the table in the fourth tier.

“We defended our third of the pitch extremely well. We’ve scored four goals and I think everyone will agree we could’ve scored six or seven.

“We always said we needed one more goal to finish the game off and we were hoping it would come early, which it didn’t.  It was a good performance from him – he had the defender in stitches all night.”

However, patient build-up play from Sutton Athletic resulted in Muckle putting a left-footed cross into the box, the ball was flicked on by Currie-Wilson (who was now playing in the centre of the pitch) but Desanges stabbed his shot across goal and past the far post.

Sutton Athletic’s dominance was rewarded when they pulled a second goal back with 23 minutes and 49 seconds on the clock, following a set-piece.

Muckle launched a long throw into the box and the ball was cleared out to Evans, who recycled the ball back into the box and Plummer was lurking at the near post and the former Lordswood man placed his right-footed shot across the keeper to find the bottom far corner.

Cropley said: “Good goal by Charlie. Defenders got the goals tonight. He’s been due one in terms of getting up in the box and he’s been setting up goals this season from corners. Obviously, he’s a big lad so he’s good aerially and physically and he’s got the goal that he deserved.”

McNeil added: “That goal was just frustrating. The ball comes out, it’s gone back in, deflected three or four times and found its way but going back to the theme of you’re playing against a footballing team and they’ve scored from a corner and a throw and two defenders have scored, its testament how well the unit has done, how honest they played and it’s one we could’ve done better with.”

Carpanini was called into making a two-handed save inside the final 15 minutes to frustrate Kelly’s men.

Hughes fed the ball into Evans, whose right-footed drive from 18-yards was destined to scream into the top left-hand corner, only for Carpanini to raise both of his hands above his head to push the ball over his crossbar.

McNeil said: “Dan’s been great. He’s come in on loan from Fisher. It was a position that we needed to strengthen.

“Nathan Boamah did fantastic in goal. He played a lot of football for Kinetic and I think he’s got an injury so we brought Dan in and he’s had good experience.  He's played Step Five and he’s got great hands, a great communicator and it’s a great save.

“Look, when you play against teams at the top of the league you need players to step up at the right times, at the right moments and Dan did that.”

Cropley added: “Great save wasn’t it, absolutely great save. All you can do is appreciate the shot and appreciate the save and we congratulated the goalkeeper at the time.”

Steeds took a touch before drilling a speculative right-footed drive through a defenders leg from 35-yards out but his attempt was not going to trouble Joe Hyde in the visitors’ goal who grew even more frustrated as he called out the timewasting antics from his opposite number.

Sutton Athletic kept plugging away and they missed a glorious chance to equalise with seven minutes remaining.

Plummer drilled a long ball out of defence to release Muckle down the right-channel and was in space to whip in a deep cross towards the far post but substitute winger Harry Main stopped in space to plant his header just past the left-hand post from six-yards out.

“It’s a shame. It was one of those where he maybe could’ve taken a touch or maybe he could’ve hit it first time but he was in a good position so you can’t argue with that,” added Cropley.

Kent Football United clinically grabbed a fourth goal, on the counter-attack, with 40 minutes and 9 seconds on the clock.

Reon Sailes, a big target-man, who came off the bench for Gboda, kept composed to stab the ball some 20-yards out to Samuels inside his own half.

Samuels sprinted down the right before whipping in a deep cross from right to left. The ball was knocked down by a towering Walker, putting it on a plate for Steeds, who cut inside and drilled a left-footed angled drive sweetly into the bottom far corner of the net from 16-yards.

McNeil said: “Georgi hasn’t started the last couple of games, he’s been unused sub a couple of times. He’s a real talented young player and we’ve said to him we want him to show his best football. We felt he needed to have a more professional outlook in terms of how he was playing and he was superb tonight.

“He’s good on the ball, defensively excellent and the thing I look for is how honest they can be without the ball because you spend more time off the ball than you do personally on it and he’s got two goals tonight. He had a great performance.”

Cropley added: “Poor defending, poor defending and that was the story of the night. As well as we were offensively in their half we was as poor in our own half and that’s not criticism of the defenders. We defend as a unit and we didn’t and that’s very unlike us in the last few weeks.  We’ve been keeping clean-sheets, our defensive transitions have bene very good but tonight it just wasn’t to be.”

Sutton Athletic missed a further two chances deep into seven minutes of injury-time, with Kent Football United hanging on for the majority of a one-sided half.

Gunner clipped the ball into the penalty area and Evans’ shot from a tight angle deflected off Kpodo’s arm and the ball kissed the near post.

Gunner floated in a free-kick from the right towards the back post where substitute James Sutherland somehow headed over the crossbar from underneath the crossbar at the end of the game.

“James Sutherland was underneath the goal and then the ball hit the inside of the goal and came back out.  It’s one of those games where we’ve probably had seven or eight shots on target and they had five on target and they scored four and we scored two. We just wasn’t clinical enough,” admitted Cropley.

McNeil added: “When you’re playing against teams at the top, they’re going to put you on the back foot. We were two goals ahead and I felt that we managed it really, really well and if you have said to Sutton what sort of chances do you want to create, they were not been those chances.”

Sutton Athletic are four points clear of second-placed Stansfeld, who have three games in hand. 

Tooting Bec (47 points from 25 games), Snodland Town (44 points from 25 games) and Bridon Ropes (41 points from 23 games) also make up the play-off places tonight.

Sutton Athletic are next in action next Wednesday, 16 February, when they travel to eleventh-placed side Rochester United.

Cropley said: “That’s football, it happens up and down the country at every level. Kent are in a relegation scrap. They started the night in the bottom five, they’re fighting for their lives so they’re scrapping for every point.  It was just pure desire particularly in that first half and we just didn’t match it but in the second half we raised it and we matched it but we’ve got to take these type of games, they’re dangerous because they’re fighting for their lives.

“I think between now and the next 13 games there’s still going to be twists and turns (in the title race).  There’s a lot of games to play, there’s cups to play in between. There’s going to be a few twists in it, especially those creeping into the play-offs.

“Personally I’ll be on a beach in Lanzarote, which is nice. The team will go to Rochester full of confidence in terms of we’ll take heart from the second half with the way that we played. We’re always in games, even if we lose we know that we can score goals.

“We’re aware of how they play, they know how we play so it could be who wants it the most in that type of game.”

Gonnella and McNeil make the trip to Cobdown to play bottom-three side Greenways on Saturday.

McNeil said: “You hear comments like us being near the bottom of the league and scrapping for our lives. We’re not scrapping for our lives, we’ve been a bit inconsistent.  We’ve got some very good players here but we know we’ve got a group of good young footballers here and it’s about building something for us for the future.

“It’s unlikely that we’re going to make a push for the top end of the table this season, we won’t be near the bottom, so by the end of April it’s to make sure that we’ve got a great base to work on.

“Tonight’s a great performance for the team, for the club and for all the people who help and support and I think one message that Ennio would’ve definitely said – it right’s the wrong from Saturday.

“The players were amazing and gave us honesty, commitment and discipline. There were players out there that ran themselves into the ground for the cause.

“Greenways are down the bottom end as well.  On the 3G surface at K Sports we’ll be able to exhibit a different style of football.  We need to go there and make sure we carry on the momentum from here because this will mean nothing if we don’t go there and win and back this up.

“We’ve then got a very busy schedule in February, which includes a trip to Stansfeld as well, which will be a tough game but this will put us in good stead and give belief to the players whoever we play this month that we’ve got the ability to win games.”

Kent Football United: Daniel Carpanini, Amari Kpodo, Luke Markey, Alimm Sesay, Joshua Burrowes, Harry Sargent, Jerome Walker, Antonio Gonnella (George Harris 76), Bethel Gboda (Reon Sailes 68), Georgi Steeds, Jordan Samuels.
Subs: Daniel Lopes, Javen Palmer, Steven Karkari

Goals: Jerome Walker 10, Georgi Steeds 13, 86, Jordan Samuels 45

Booked: Reon Sailes 72, Amari Kpodo 90

Sutton Athletic: Joe Hyde, Tony Hill, Kieran Hughes, Dan Gunner, Richard Gregory (Darren Wheeler 46), Charlie Plummer, Ijah Currie-Wilson (Harry Main 63), William Muckle, Arlie Desanges, Conor Evans, Joby Smith (James Sutherland 68).
Subs: Dekklund Wallace, Harry Bradford

Goals: Kieran Hughes 38, Charlie Plummer 69

Attendance: 52
Referee: Mr Nicholas Derrane
Assistants: Mr Derek Peck & Mr Haniel Whitmore