Sutton started brightly against a very experienced Harborne side and had the best of the opening exchanges. However, they failed to press home their advantage and it was Harborne who struck on the counter attack, catching Sutton on the back foot. Undeterred, Sutton continued to push for the equaliser and had a couple of good chances. However, Harborne repeated their quick counter attacking hockey and again caught Sutton over-committing to the attack, basically passing the ball into the back of the net and giving keeper John Garvey no chance.

Sutton continued to attack, but seemed unable to grasp the concept that trying to dribble past a flat stick was actually quite tricky and Harborne robbed them of possession time after time. A third goal came when an under hit pass was intercepted and yet another quick counter attack allowed them to once again pass the ball into the net. Sutton actually had sufficient players back to prevent this, but the concept of marking an opposition player appeared to elude them.

An attempt by the skipper at half time to address the issues of taking the ball into contact too much and marking space rather than players didn’t amount to much. Although it was Sutton who scored first in the second half when man of the match, Simon Villanueva wisely ignored the fact he’d kicked the ball and continued to play, forcing the ball past the Harborne keeper. Confusion abounded for a few seconds as the umpire didn’t signal anything, but Sutton lined up for the restart and the goal was allowed to stand.

Harborne struck back almost immediately with a sweet deflection from a crashed ball going into the bottom corner and a bit of hapless defending allowed them to complete the victory a few minutes later. Sutton did score (actually a valid goal this time) but the umpire blew and signalled for a short just before the ball crossed the line.

Overall though, it was not a bad performance and Sutton continued to play some nice hockey even when the game was obviously lost. There were some good performances from the younger players, namely Matt Hawtin, Zak Smith and Spencer Grey on this debut for the 6ths. Mariusz Zagorski again looked sharp up front and his pace caused Harborne some issue, although no wonder goals were forthcoming this week.

Sutton entertain Warwick on Saturday who put 12 past Solihull Blossomfield, so are going to have to be on their game and much tighter in defence.