Sutton United stoppage time survival in the FA Cup on Farnham Town’s biggest day

Farnham Town (1) 3 v Sutton United (1) 3

Sanders 2

Phipps 6

Sanders 48

Njoku 60

Owen Dean 61

Harris 98

By Kaz Mochlinski at the Memorial Ground

FA Cup

Fourth Round Qualifying

Sutton United will feel that they may have totally turned around their troubled season with one dramatic moment as a very late stoppage time goal earned them a draw at Farnham Town and avoided an ignominious early elimination from the FA Cup.

It took until the 98th minute of a compelling cup tie before Sutton secured a replay when Jayden Harris scored with U’s last attack of the match, after they had initially fallen behind just 105 seconds into the encounter.

Three times Farnham went ahead in front of a record crowd of 2,300 at a sold-out Memorial Ground, but three times Sutton managed to find an equaliser to prevent it from being a perfect day for the home club.

Nevertheless, it was the biggest occasion for Farnham Town since the club was founded in 1906, as they played in the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup for the first time, against one of the most famous non-league names in the competition.

Farnham and Sutton are separated by just over 30 miles across the Surrey ‘stockbroker belt’, and there are now only 30 places between them in the football pyramid, in the seventh and fifth tiers respectively.

Town are at the highest-ever level in their 119-year history, following two consecutive promotions, sitting fourth in the Southern League Premier South thanks to an unbeaten start to the season in their opening 14 games.

By contrast, Sutton have lost eight of their 14 matches in the National League so far, to leave them down in the drop zone at 22nd in the table and facing a second relegation in three seasons after their brief time in the EFL ended last year.

U’s are already onto their third head coach in three months, following the departure of Steve Morison in mid-September and his replacement on an interim basis by Jon Meeney, before the permanent appointment of Chris Agutter a week and a half ago.

In just his second game in charge, the new Sutton boss will have been very pleased about the resilience shown by his side, especially without their first-choice goalkeeper, Jack Sims, due to a back injury, plus two players absent on international duty.

Kane Crichlow was called up to play for Bermuda in Concacaf Qualifiers Matches for the FIFA World Cup against Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica, while Dillon De Silva is representing Sri Lanka in Asia Cup group games with Turkmenistan.

Agutter was helped by the return to fitness of Harry Phipps and Jack Wadham to link up as his central midfield pairing in a contest which was anticipated to be between Farnham’s 4-2-2-2 and Sutton’s 3-4-3, but settled into a predominantly 4-2-3-1 duel.

Being part-time semi-professionals facing full-time pros, Farnham will have wanted a fast start before any disparities in physical conditioning had an impact later on - and they managed to score right at the beginning of both the first and second halves.

Town took the lead in only the second minute of the match, and then again in the third minute after half-time, with the goalscorer twice being Darryl Sanders. Remarkably, each time they should also have immediately doubled their advantage.

Both in the third and 50th minutes, Owen Dean got clean through on goal but saw his shot saved by Sutton’s stand-in goalkeeper, David Aziaya. The Farnham forward still made an important contribution with an assist for the first goal and scoring the third.

All of the hosts’ three strikes came from right-wing crosses, the later two by Bobby-Joe Taylor. However, U’s twice kept themselves in the tie with quick equalisers, the first after being behind for little more than three minutes.

That was the solitary goal of the game from a set-piece and a header, powered in by Phipps, meeting Lewis Simper’s left-footed in-swinging corner. To level again in the second half, when all four goals were first-time finishes, Sutton needed a substitute.

Brandon Njoku had only been on the field for two and a half minutes before he connected with David Ogbonna’s left-wing cut-back to make it 2-2 on the hour mark. And within seconds he could have edged U’s in front as he broke clear away.

Despite rounding the Farnham goalkeeper, Zaki Oualah, Njoku’s shot was stopped by the Town captain, Ryan Kinnane, scrambling back - one of three times during the afternoon that Sutton had attempts on target cleared off the line.

Moreover, on this occasion they were on equal terms for just 85 seconds, as their tenacious and spirited opponents went the length of the pitch to score at the Clockend Terrace where the majority of Farnham’s fans are accommodated.

It was starting to feel as if U’s might not recover once more, when the six minutes of added time indicated initially were extended due to a Town injury and Agutter urged his team to produce one final attack.

His players responded by almost exactly recreating their second goal, this time with Njoku switching from scorer to providing the assist for Harris to send the 375 Sutton supporters in the Peperami Stand into rapture mixed with relief.

“These games, they’re incredibly challenging” acknowledged Agutter afterwards. “It’s one of, if not the biggest, games in Farnham’s history. TV cameras are here. Sutton have been on a difficult run. We’re fresh in the building. Everything to lose really.

“And, in the face of that, for us to have - against a very good Farnham side, by the way, they deserve a lot of credit, they’re a good side, as we said pre-match - but, in the face of all that, we’ve found a way to not feel sorry for ourselves, dig in, and earn the replay.”

Farnham have the consolation of being in the draw for the first round proper of the FA Cup for the first time ever. Sutton survive for now and can still harbour hopes of inflicting another giantkilling themselves to add to the Magic of the Cup.

Farnham Town: (4-2-3-1) Oualah - Jack Dean (Stepney 92), Kinnane, Jackson, Mason - Leggett, Mackenzie - Bobby-Joe Taylor, Owen Dean (Obi 81), Sanders (Cooksley 63) - Liddle (Evans 55)

Sutton United: (4-2-3-1) Aziaya - Jones, Tizzard (Dabre 81), Jack Taylor, Pruti - Phipps, Wadham (Njoku 57) - Simper, Harris, Ogbonna (Boutin 75) - Nadesan

Attendance: 2,300