EFC Reserves 0-3 Sutton United

EASTLEIGH: Joe Morrison, Scott Gilham (c), Sam Stannard, Aaron Martin, Lewis Hunt, Phil Cousens, Sayem Kabir, Lee O'Connell, Macs Sampays, Zach Glasspool, Leroy Swaby

SUBS: Ryan Woodford, Craig Barlow, Andy Weston

Report by Jamie Montigue

From the off, Eastleigh never really looked at ease and came under pressure on several occasions. In the second minute of the game goalkeeper Joe Morrison appeared very hesitant and failed to deal with a routine catch as the ball bounced over his head, and Sutton were denied by a good clearance.

Eastleigh's Sam Stannard, who has now returned to full fitness, had a header that cleared the stand from a Lee O'Connell left wing delivery early on.

With striker Ben Ngwa going to university at Bristol, Eastleigh have taken on a very able replacement in Leroy Swaby. From a long drop kick from Morrison, Swaby brought the ball down well before spinning past his marker and getting his shot in from distance that only just went wide of goal.

Sutton United then struck the cross bar from a corner. However when the home side played the ball to feet they proved to be a lot more effective as it very nearly showed when a Zach Glasspool effort came close following good build up play involving Lee O'Connell and Leroy Swaby.

With the scores level at half time, Sutton United came out of the blocks very quickly after the restart. It took them just two minutes to beat the shaky, unconfident Morrison. The defence were cut open and a flick to the left from the 18 yard box led to an easy finish to beat the keeper and to break the deadlock.

United's Zak Graham had a superb volley palmed out for a corner as Morrison did well to react to such a well hit shot.

Ten minutes into the half, Ryan Woodford replaced Aaron Martin at centre half. Meanwhile, livewire Leroy Swaby continued to make something happen for the Spitfires. His powerful run at goal led to an Eastleigh free kick 25 yards out. Zach Glasspool struck it well enough with his left foot but the slightest of deflections sent the ball of course and out for a corner. From it Lewis Hunt's looping header forced a save out of the Sutton keeper who had to get across his goal quickly to stop the effort.

Glasspool made way for Craig Barlow just after the hour mark.

Ryan Woodford had a free kick inside his own half on the left hand side and incredibly nearly scored. The keeper had to backtrack as it nearly bounced over him on its way to goal to cut out the effort.

Swaby was involved in the build up to another good Eastleigh chance that came the way of substitute Craig Barlow. Swaby played it to O'Connell who cut back on to his right foot before delivering a good cross however the header from Barlow was a poor effort and the move deserved more.

Eastleigh continued their brief spell of pressure, this time with Sayem Kabir bringing the ball in from the right hand side and letting fly with a powerful drive that only just went the wrong side of the near post.

In the last five minutes of the game, Sutton were allowed to score two soft goals to wrap up a 3-0 win, which sounds a lot worse for Eastleigh than it actually was. The fact is another two goalkeeping errors from Joe Morrison led to the late goals just when it seemed Eastleigh could maybe get an equaliser and a point.

The second goal came from Zak Graham easily rounding Morrison and with the keeper out of goal, from a tight angle Graham chipped the ball into the six yard box. Sam Stannard chasing back to try and deal with the danger found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time as the ball bounced straight off him and into the net, and to make matters worse the defender got injured in a tangle with the goal net.

Seconds later Morrison misjudged a through ball racing out of his goal with no chance of beating Sean Rivers to the ball who simply lobbed the ball past the keeper who was in no man's land.

FULL TIME: Eastleigh Res. 0-3 Sutton Res.