(Picture: Action Images via Reuters)
By Sam Elliott
Sutton United boss Paul Doswell is famous for having unwavering faith in his players – but even he didn’t think they could pull off another miracle result last night!
Gander Green Lane was jumping at the full time whistle as nearly 2,000 U’s fans saw them come from 1-0 down with the minutes running out to seal a fantastically frantic 2-1 win over Macclesfield Town.
When hope looked lost, substitute Moses Emmanuel popped up to draw Sutton level in the 84th minute before highly-rated Tommy Wright, seconds later, thrashed a loose ball into the Silkmen net.
It caused wild celebration. Sutton, who had beaten Tranmere Rovers away from home on Saturday, now have nine points from a possible 12.
On a night of high drama around the grounds, even the wonderful entertainment elsewhere last night couldn’t match up to that 45 seconds in south west London.
Dowsell told The NLP: “At one point I had just given up, I knew it wasn’t going to happen for us. Too much was going against us and I’d pretty much accepted that it wasn’t going in.
“I didn’t think it was going to happen for us, I thought it wasn’t going to be our night. When their goalkeeper is having the game he is and you get a perfectly good goal ruled out for offside, you think it’s not going to happen.
“The Macclesfield keeper has made five or six unbelievable saves he really has, I just didn’t think it was going to go in for us.”
The offside call regarding Kenny Davis at the start of the second half was not the only grumble the Sutton manager had about the match officials.
Dowsell added: “I’m perfectly convinced as well that we should have had a penalty, I’ve seen a photograph of Nicky Bailey being a yard inside the box when he is brought down – all these things add up, I didn’t think we were going to find one goal, let alone two.
“I half expected a tired start from us because of the energy we put in on Saturday but we came on strong and we did fantastically well to keep at it.
“We camped in their half for the whole of the second half and didn’t let them get out. It was a great performance, and it means we’ve made a really good start.
“They scored an early wondergoal from Scott Wilson, we know all about his quality, but we reacted superbly. Games like that you need to show your character, we showed what a great dressing room we’ve got.”
Is Doswell concerned by other clubs’ views on Sutton United’s style? Find out more in Sunday’s Non-League Paper!
