Sutton v Barrow match thread

[SKIPPER]

Win at home draw away,you'll be in the mix at the seasons end. One of footballs' oldest sayings and to be fair we are currently matching it. The three draws at home are 'historical' some 6-8 weeks ago and all victories thrown away by late errors, hopefully eradicated since by Mr Cox.Away from home we've drawn at the likes of FGR and Wrexham as well as today three games I personally wouldn't have been surprised if we'd lost.The squad is still lacking in depth no doubt something that will be addressed if we are still around our current position at the end of the year and still in Cup competitions.. I'm happy,above where I expected us to be right now and still I believe below the radar which takes a little pressure off. Other teams are waiting for our bubble to burst,similar to Leicester last season.

[32mile_cul-de-sac]

I wish everyone would get off Joel's back.......another clean sheet today.....was it one missed kick?

Did any midfielder do any mis placed passes, any misjudged tackles that gave a free kick away?....Jesus wept.....

The unbeaten run continues.....when Edmo was here that would of been a heavy away defeat today....

Support the players, support the management and owner......get behind the team......sick of the witch hunt.....

Well done all, another great point today......Need to win our replay now and have a crack at a higher league team.....

Well said, looking forward to Tuesday night and see where we go from there, hopefully Bristol City and a tester against league 1 team, keep dreaming you just never know

Try Bristol Rovers

[Smoggie]

Well said, looking forward to Tuesday night and see where we go from there, hopefully Bristol City and a tester against league 1 team, keep dreaming you just never know

But we do know we won't be playing Bristol City though unless you're on about round 3?

Doh!!! To many Saturday night rums, puddles the brain - stand corrected

[russell_anderson]

How any sutton fan can watch games on that every other week ill never know.
If barrow ever got a plastic pitch that would be me finished.

Can you elaborate? I thought the ball ran true on an excellent surface.

The problem with all 3G pitches is that the balls runs much, much faster than on a normal grass pitch. It also bounces much higher. I was at the game today and players on both sides struggled to control the ball. Every single pass that was hit over the defence always runs straight though to the goalkeeper even if the strength of the pass is perfect. Every pass hit wide ran into touch unless it was hit directly to a player. There is almost no way to hit a pass so that a player can run onto it as they can never catch up with the ball on these pitches. These pitches don't produce good games of football which is why they aren't allowed to be used in the Football League or the Premier League. It may happen in the future but it will only be because of financial considerations which nowadays is the bee all and end all of football. I certainly would never regularly go to watch football played on a 3G pitch.

[russell_anderson]

Draw was the fair result, Sutton played well in the first half and Barrow shaded the second. You did look dangerous from corners not so convincing in open play.

I agree. First half shaded by Sutton and second half shaded by Barrow. Sutton better in open play but best chances falling to Barrow. Biggest miss by Diarra early on when he put an easy header miles wide when anything on target would have been a certain goal. Next best chance, a certain goal from Hannah stopped by a brilliant block by one of the Sutton defenders when a goal seemed certain. Couple of other great goal-saving blocks by Sutton defenders and also a couple by Barrow defenders. Not much football played by either side really for which I blame the pitch. Both sides tended to hit crosses into the penalty area and hope something would fall for them although Sutton did have 2 or 3 decent moves down the right in the first half with the number 11 looking particularly dangerous and hitting one terrific shot just over the bar.

[russell_anderson]

As some people have said already this was a good away point. Sutton are a decent side and must be more used to the 3G pitch although they seemed to struggle with it almost as much as we did. I've saw Dixon 4 times last season and I've seen him twice this season. This season I saw him today and at Woking. At Woking he almost gave away a goal with a sliced kick but got himself out of trouble with a superb block to stop the forward who had picked up the goal from his sliced kick scoring. Today he also sliced a clearance but the result was not as dangerous as the error at Woking. In both cases he sliced the ball because the back pass to him was played to his left foot and he attempted to run around and clear it with his right foot. I'm surprised the goalkeeping coach hasn't had him learning how to kick with his left foot so he is comfortable on that side. However, other than those 2 errors (which should be easily rectified) he has been faultless in both games I've seen. The pitch today is a nightmare for goalkeepers. The ball comes off the 3G surface like lightening and Sutton had several good efforts on target which although I wouldn't have expected to beat him could easily have been pushed out for an onrushing forward. His handling was perfect every time as was his handling on crosses. In fact, other than one sliced clearance he was faultless. In fact, the Sutton goalkeeper was even better as in addition to his handling and gathering of crosses being equally as good he also made a superb save from a Hughes free-kick early in the game. As well as Dixon it was another great performance from the back 4. Sutton had early danger down the right wing where Anderton had an uncomfortably first 15 mins but settled down well after that and Murray was faultless other than one complete mis-kick late in the game which could have easily cost us a goal had the Sutton forward not made a mess of it. The best players in the team once again were the 2 central defenders. Diarra headed everything that came near him as usual and missed nothing on the ground and Livesey was superb, solid as a rock and missing absolutely nothing. As the Sutton person said we did very little in open play but were dangerous from corners and long throws into the penalty area and very dangerous from free-kicks. Hughes had a beauty early on which produced a great save from the Sutton keeper, Hannah was foiled by a brilliant defensive block to stop a certain goal, Anderton had a great shot late on which produced another good save from the Sutton keeper and we had several other efforts stopped by great defensive blocks. However, Sutton also had their fair share of close things in the first half which also produced some great defensive blocks from our defenders. Other than set pieces, we produced very little. The midfield was pretty non-existent and Harrison and Hannah got little service. Williams put in some great free kicks but otherthan that did nothing at all and was one who really struggled with the pitch. Of the 2 games I've seen, we definitely played the best football when Turnbull and Wright were on the pitch. They both look players who want to keep the ball and pass it on the floor although the pitch was too much for all the players today.

[saltcellar]

Match Highlights

Official match highlights from @SuttonUnited v Barrow are now up and ready to watch!... https://t.co/tago3fxZgJ

[Lancaster Branch]

Wasn't a classic but nice to keep a clean sheet. A bit more guile in midfield would be nice. Thought the pitch was fine too.

Onwards!

[Jim]

A bit more guile in midfield would be nice.

It looked quite a good game from the highlights, plenty of incident and some good defending from both sides. I read an analysis today of England's game that said they lacked a midfielder who could thread a ball through a gap to the forwards. Same applies to us perhaps. Is Turnbull the most likely in the current squad?

[Arvo]

It looked quite a good game from the highlights, plenty of incident and some good defending from both sides. I read an analysis today of England's game that said they lacked a midfielder who could thread a ball through a gap to the forwards. Same applies to us perhaps. Is Turnbull the most likely in the current squad?

It looked a better game from the highlights than it did actually being there. At half-time I don't think you would have got good odds on a bet that the game would remain goal-less. We came into it more in the second half, but in a sense that half was all 'lowlights' (very poor floodlighting).

[McMark]

After a few days of pondering the lure of the big city suburbs finally reeled me in. A first trip into London by train for years, it's so efficient these days!

A quick journey down we were soon in reach of our first watering hole sadly it was shut so a quick detour by our tour guide for the day Dave Ingham and we were joining a largish Scottish contingent drinking their breakfast in the Rocket. Onward to Carshalton via St Pancras and the aptly named The Hope https://hopecarshalton.co.uk was soon to be enjoyed by all, great choice by our guide.

As kick of loomed a convoy of taxis soon whisked us of to Sutton United's plastic pitch for the serious stuff.

As others have said both sides appeared to struggled with the artificial surface but it was us who had the best chance first half through Moussa it looked a cert but it came off his head at the wrong angle chance gone.

Second half we came out with more purpose but clear cut chances were few and far between Ross Hannah having our best chance. Counted 82 Bluebirds at our end just before the second half kicked off but there were a few still in the bar so around 90 would be my estimate. A fair result in the end still not seen us lose a game thus far in the season.

A good day out a glimpse of tower bridge, the shard and the London eye fulfilled the sightseeing tourist in me.

[barrowfan_chris]

Yesterday cracking trip on the train some good ale supped and we didn't lose.

Disappointed with some on here back your players ffs we are in the play offs a few years ago we looked like we were heading for the evostick leagues.

Dixon isn't the best but hes ours so back him.

[Hadrian]

Football should be played on grass

Your opinion and that's fine but lots was played on mud in previous decades during winter, right up to the top level.

Modern artificial pitches are light years ahead of those conditions which had a lot of chance about them.

Interesting to hear Paul Cox's very balanced views in a BBCRC interview at some point over the weekend - prefers games to be played on good grass pitches but acknowledges the usefulness of artificial surfaces in poor weather situations and the income and use they can bring on to a football stadium outside normal match days for clubs at lower levels.

[McMark]

One or two of us were wondering what else the Sutton ground had been used for, some thought it may of had a dogs track other athletics. Apparently it had an athletics track around the perimeter.

People bemoan our floodlights or lack of bulbs, but the monopole lighting around the Sutton pitch seemed very poor to me, not sure what the players thought.

[russell_anderson]

One or two of us were wondering what else the Sutton ground had been used for, some thought it may of had a dogs track other athletics. Apparently it had an athletics track around the perimeter.

People bemoan our floodlights or lack of bulbs, but the monopole lighting around the Sutton pitch seemed very poor to me, not sure what the players thought.

The lighting was very poor. I saw a post in another thread on here which talked about the poor lighting at Holker Street. Surely it can't be as bad as Sutton's?