Grimsby Town stretched their unbeaten run to five games but were frustrated to draw 1-1 at home against League Two basement club Sutton United.
The Mariners looked in control to start the afternoon and took the lead inside the first 20 minutes through Rekeil Pyke, but bottom side Sutton pulled the game level with the last action before half-time thanks to a Harry Smith strike, with the second half not producing much goal-mouth action.
It was a quiet opening ten minutes, with neither team producing a genuine goalscoring opportunity, but Town did come close in the 11th minute as Donovan Wilson’s close-range effort was blocked after Toby Mullarkey got to the byline to cut the ball back.
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The visitors were forced into a change they would not have wanted to make as goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis pulled up without having a genuine save to make in the 15th minute with Steve Arnold coming on to replace him.
The chances were not flowing early on, but Town looked to be the aggressors with the ball, pushing it out to the wide channels at every opportunity with Mullarkey and Glennon looking to bomb forward and overlap to get crosses in.
The opening goal came when the former put in a beautifully shaped and weighted cross from the right, which landed at the feet of Pyke, who miscued his original shot but had a second bite of the cherry to tuck the ball away from close range.
Grimsby felt in control a goal up and Sutton were not having much joy going forward, but they almost equalised out of nowhere after a brilliant bit of individual control and skill from Aiden O’Brien, as he chested an aerial ball, swivelling on the spot to volley just over the bar from outside the area.
All of Town’s dangerous attacking play was coming from the wide channels, and they almost doubled their lead in the last minute of normal time in the first period. Arthur Gnahoua broke down the right and swung in a cross to the back post, where Jamie Andrews was waiting to knock the ball back in the centre of the box to Donovan Wilson, who could not get the power on his shot to beat the goalkeeper.
(Image: Jon Corken)
Town should have been going into the break ahead on the balance of play, but they were undone by another sloppy defensive moment, not winning key aerial duels and allowing Sutton to break through the middle with O’Brien, who fed the ball to Smith to score.
Harvey Cartwright was wrong-footed by the shot from just outside the area, diving to his right as the ball went left, arrowing inside the near post to bring the visitors back level.
The equaliser right before half-time looked to have taken the wind out of Town’s sails a touch coming out for the second period, as they were not able to create much in response for the opening 20 minutes.
Town looked to cause problems from set-pieces to regain their advantage, with Gnahoua seeing his goalbound volley blocked after Sutton had failed to clear the initial corner delivery. As the game wore on, Sutton grew in confidence, and they should have gone ahead when Smith was presented with a golden chance with 20 minutes to go.
The visitors worked the ball down the left side and got a cross in, with Smith getting ahead of his marker and heading goalwards from a couple of yards out, but straight at Cartwright who managed to just keep the ball out.
The second period produced very little overall outside of that bis Sutton chance, with Town having plenty of the ball and territory, but not producing much with it as they were forced to settle for a draw.
Original story at https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/
