On another disappointing away day, surprisingly, Sutton 1st XV slipped to a second defeat of the season with a lack lustre performance against an inspired Lymm side. The host team played well above their lowly 13th place in the league to stun Sutton, who were in 3rd place going into the game but it was the lively home side who rose to the occasion and they punished every mistake by their regarded visitors who failed to live up to their reputation and crashed to an unexpected 22-0 defeat.

The defeat pushed Sutton down into 5th place and improved Lymm by one place leaving them third from bottom... but with the top two teams also losing on a day of surprises Sutton missed a golden opportunity to move up the table and keep in close contention with the leaders. However, with the way the other results fell, in spite of their lapse Sutton are still in the mix and still capable of challenging for the title after just 5 games, if they learn from this bitter experience.

In mitigation, for a third week running Sutton were forced to field a much changed team due to injuries and availabilities, starting with another new centre pairing of Alex White and Ewen Tweedie and second row partnership of Steve McCormack and David Merlin plus positional changes and a new look back row combination, which was changed at the last moment when in form flanker Simon Millard suffered a hamstring injury in the warm up and summer signing Luke Stewart, making his first appearance, stepped up from the bench to start at blind side flanker with Jack Woodcock moving to no8 and Marcus Harewood continuing to impress at open side flanker.

Whether it was the team changes or the journey that unsettled Sutton but they made a tentative start and it was Lymm who took an early lead when centre Tom Bray raced through a gap in the Sutton defence to score by the posts for full back Andy Rowley to add the conversion giving the home side the perfect start with a 7-0 lead after just a few minutes of play. Sutton tried to repair the damage and produced a period of sustained pressure but still their game was littered with handling errors, poor execution when kicking from hand and loose play. Typically, mid way through the first half Sutton created an excellent attack down their right wing but the final pass, which should have given Sutton a try in the corner was intercepted 5 metres out and Lymm's left wing Nolan Cormack raced 95 metres to score under the posts. Again full back Andy Rowley added the simple conversion with 20 minutes played and Sutton found themselves trailing 14-0 against the run of play.

Unfortunately, from this point on Sutton were chasing the game and they lacked their normal fluency and control as Lymm gained in confidence going into the break. Sutton tried to make an impact at the start of the second half but still nothing would flow in their favour and 10 minutes after the break Lymm had a chance to extend their lead with a 30 metre penalty and fortune again favoured the home side when the Andy Rowley kick went over via the upright leaving Sutton 17-0 adrift. Then the final nail was driven into the Sutton coffin when they mounted an attack running out of their own half but the ball went to ground through a loose pass on the Lymm 10 metre line. Lymm pounced and the ball was driven through into the right corner and then scrambled over for a try by prop Jordan Widdrington extending Lymm's lead to 22-0.

On reflection, the Sutton pack performed reasonably well in the set play, scrums and lineouts producing decent ball and good play created scoring opportunities but although Sutton came close on many occasions their vision and finishing was unusually poor and chance after chance was missed handing the initiative back to their eager opponents who worked hard to punish the Sutton mistakes.

With 20 minutes left to play the game petered out without further incident and Sutton were left to rue their missed opportunities whilst Lymm had good reason to celebrate a deserved victory and although Sutton did not play well, all credit to their hosts who bounced back from a heavy defeat the previous weekend to record a remarkable win.

Sutton now have to regroup and reflect on the lessons they might learn from the unexpected loss. They seemed to have slipped back into the old failing from seasons long ago when Sutton had a tendency to play down to the lower teams at the foot of the table whilst raising their game against the top teams. This weekend they have the chance to leave all that behind them and put their league campaign back on track with a win over Newport (Salop), who sit mid-table and are the visitors at the Roger Smoldon Ground, Walmley Road on Saturday. All supporters will receive a warm welcome. KO 3 pm.

Sutton other team results:

Unfortunately last Saturday proved to be a dismal day for SCRFC as the Sutton Development Side suffered a disappointing 36-0 defeat away to Old Patesians, Cheltenham and the 3rd XV failed to raise Sutton spirits as they lost 15-55 at home to National 2 side Bromsgrove 2nd's. However the Sutton Ladies enjoyed a good day's rugby when they hosted a Ladies Tournament at the RSG, Walmley Road on Sunday 6th Oct. Well done the Sutton senior girls for whom the good times are coming and with the introduction of an under thirteen girls side the future looks good!!