Super South Stun Sutton!

South visited the well appointed Sutton Coldfield club in the leafy suburbs of Birmingham for the first time in recent seasons. They were determined to give a good account of themselves after a sub standard display versus Derby.
They undoubtedly did just that!
Dan Hurst came in for the unavailable “little” Stu Bale to play alongside the outstanding Will Ward. Simon Johnson came in at no7. Will Keeling replaced the injured Connor Smith, while Andy Gates and Gareth Clarke also returned.
The bench was made up of Danny Graney, Aaron Langan and Len Fincham.

South started off at a pace uphill and could have scored two early tries putting the much vaunted home side under the cosh. Joe Glover slotted an early penalty which was scant reward for the concerted effort of the visitors especially in the tight exchanges of play. However, Sutton came more into the game as they capitalised on South’s mistakes to lay siege to the South line in the bottom corner.
Tries by Josh Groom, converted by Alex White and Steve McCormack pushed Sutton into a 12-3 lead as half time approached. Glover saw a late penalty kick land just wide which would have narrowed the gap. It wasn’t to be although Will Cave and Sutton’s Jamie Sutton saw yellow in that period.
South’s line out had been stuttering and the backs were less than precise throughout the half, but South’s scrummage was dominant. South should have been rewarded with penalty after penalty as the home eight went backwards under considerable duress. Unfortunately the referee was intimidated to some extent by sections of the vociferous home support.

Sutton resulted to the use of the boot to get themselves out of trouble causing some initial consternation in the visitors ranks while pressuring the South line.
They, however, weathered the storm and responded in kind. A series of phases in midfield lead to the backs moving the ball left to Sam Greasley who ran over and through his opponent for a fine try wide on the left. Unfortunately Glover wasn’t able to add the extras.
Within minutes some devastating forward drives with Luke Coltman, Chris Bale, Dan Hurst and Keiron Stone to the fore gave the backs the space to attack on the right. Will Cave rounded his opponent and chipped over the full back into the massive in goal area and won the chase for the touchdown. Glover added the extras to take South into the lead for the first time in the game 15 -12.
The visitors now had their tails up and the home side seemed to fall away as South fronted up at every opportunity. Complete domination up front gave the referee no choice but to reward the dominant side going forward and Glover converted two penalties to push South’s lead to out to 21-12.
Sutton scored through winger Nathan Birchall in the very right hand corner although White couldn’t convert leaving South ahead by four points.
They then tried every trick in the book to put South under pressure in the final few minutes including the cynical uncontested scrummage trick to negate South’s dominance upfront, but it didn’t work, South closed out the game and Sutton had been beaten at home for the first time in, apparently, thirty five games.

Collectively South were magnificent and got better as the game progressed. The hosts are obviously not used to being under continuous pressure and didn’t seem to possess a plan B to counteract a team prepared to inflict such damage up front.
The home crowd certainly aren’t used to their team losing and they became very quiet towards the end, where earlier both the opposition players and the referee were on the receiving end of some more than critical vocal contributions.

It would be churlish to pick an individual for man of the match, but Keiran Stone came of age in this game while his forward colleagues were the match winners – even though both South’s tries were scored by the backs!
Will Keeling and Andy Gates put in a sterling defensive display to negate the power of the home midfield backs.

Squad: Clarke, Cave, Keeling, Gates, Greasley, Lord, Glover, Bale C, Johnson, Miller, Hurst, Ward, Stone, Coltman ©, Harris, Graney, Langan, Fincham.