Frozen

Another cup match, another sub standard performance from Maidenhead United to leave the Magpie fans as frozen as the pitch at the final whistle. The scoreline may have only been 1-0 but it could have been a lot more with the Magpies offering little or no hope of even salvaging a replay. Once again David Pratt was absent from a key Cup tie and his replacement in the lone forward role Alex Wall was left to chase hopeless causes all night as the ball was fruitlessly pumped high and long in his direction, a tactic which was meat and drink to a Suttton defence well marshalled by Simon Downer. Thus attacking wingers Lee Barney and Harry Pritchard saw little of the ball leaving most of the play to take place in the Maidenhead half with the Magpies clearing off the line, and Jesse Joronen pushing a shot wide from the impressive Stefan Payne before Sutton took a deserved lead. Harry Ottaway was the scorer, applying a deft touch to a cross from Simon Rents which split the Maidenhead defence.

For their part Maidenhead had one good chance, a Wall drive being parried by goalkeeper Kevin Scrivens, whilst the Magpies were forced to rearrange their defence when Joe Crook departed injured just before the goal, James Regis coming on, which led to captain Mark Nisbet moving forward into the midfield with neither Daniel Brown on Bobby Behzadi on the bench.

One consolation of the half time scoreline was that Maidenhead were still in the game with the powerful weapons of Reece Tison-Lascaris and Pratt on the bench. Yet their introduction midway through the half did little to raise hopes of a goal and Sutton ran out comfortable winners. Both sides came close to scoring on one occasion, Nisbet having a header cleared off the line by Stuart, whilst Joronen made a last ditch save to deny Craig Dundas, however even with four minutes of stoppage time the end result was in little doubt, leaving Maidenhead with only their league future to play for this season. The two games to be played before Sutton United return on 22nd December need to yield points to keep the Magpies' heads above the relegation mire.