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Sutton United 2; Birmingham Citadel 2 (Simon Black, Marc Richardson)

Citadel returned to the ground where they had been comprehensively between for the last two seasons with a point to prove. And in some respects they achieved this by putting on their best performance for almost a year. However the underlying problem of not taking our chances again cost us the result we deserved. Yet again Citadel started the first half slowly, and went behind when David Maybury was out muscled by the Sutton striker who's flick on was turned in on the half volley. Soon however the defence began to get to grips with the Sutton forwards and this lead to Citadel being able to play some football of their own. Citadel began to pass the ball around well, but without really creating any chances of note for a while. The game was counter attack after counter attack by both sides without either really threatening. The breakthough came for Citadel though when Shane Hopkins and Marc Richardson combined to set Simon Black through. Si took one touch to control the ball, and with his second buried it in the bottom corner. Still both teams played good football without any real end product and the half time whistle came. HT1-1

For once, Citadel actually started the second half well. Very well in fact. They began to dominate the game but the final ball was letting them down. Then as is the way with Citadel, we conceded. A mix up between David Maybury, Paul Dickinson, and Stuart Stanley resulted in the ball being out in his own net by Paul. However that just made Citadel push on more. Steve Buchan was pulling the strings from midfield with Gareth Murphy (a first half sub for Craig Mack) and Richard Black causing all sorts of problems down the wings. Suddenly chance after chance was being created. Shane twice missing really good chances, one of which he blazed over from around 6 yards. The goal had to come though and it eventually did when a corner from Shane on the left wasn't cleared properly. The ball fell to Marc about 12 yards out who turned and hit the ball firmly past the keeper. There was still no let up from Citadel though and more chances came and went due to lack of composure in front of goal. Sutton also had a few break away chances, and nearly stole all three points when their sub broke through and chipped it over the on-rushing Stu in goal. The ball agonisingly crept wide however. Citadel kept pressing and twice nearly got the win they deserved at the end. And twice it was the same combination. Shane taking corners from the left picked out the near post runs of Gareth and he in turn went close, once with a header and once with a deft flick. When the whistle went for full time there were mixed emotions. We had finally put in the performance we were capable of at Sutton, but couldn't help feeling that it was 2 points lost rather than 1 point gained. All in all though a superb performance from Citadel, which has definately banished the nightmares of the game against Crusaders. FT2-2

Team:
Stuart Stanley
Chris Black
Jack Wilkinson
Paul Dickinson
David Maybury
Marc Richardson
Craig Mack
Steve Buchan
Simon Black
Shane Hopkins
Richard Black