We huffed and we puffed and we got over the line

A first trip to Redditch M2 for a league game for M3 and they made rather hard work of it. Sutton dominated possession in the first half but it was the home side that scored first. A counter attack led to a short corner, Sutton failed to clear after captain Bill Heywood made a log save and Ben Dunnington was unlucky to be hit on the hand as the ball was flicked goalwards. Heywood got his stick to the resulting penalty but could not keep the ball out of the bottom corner.
Sutton kept up the pressure and Dunnington forced the Redditch keeper into two saves from Sutton short corners before a different routine saw him cross the ball to the back post for Harvey Kang to get his second goal in two games. He could have had a second but couldn’t repeat the trick when another ball came to him across the goal.
The second half did not start well, a long ball into the D was not cleared by Heywood and although Sutton were convinced it had crossed the back line before being squared for Redditch to take the lead again against the run of play.
Sutton pushed hard for an equaliser and eventually some neat approach play by man of the match Louis Bowker and good retention in the D by Lee Medlicott allowed him to pick out Dan Porter who drew Sutton level.
It looked as if M3 would have to settle for a frustrating draw for the second week running but they finally got a short corner routine right and Andy Coultard dinked a shot into the right corner.
A tense last few minutes saw green cards for Arjun Malhi and a Redditch player as both sides finished with 10 on the pitch.
3 points was what Sutton deserved, there was lots of good hockey and they worked really well as a team to break down an experienced and committed opposition.