3-2 win at Sutton Coldfield.

Considering the 4G surface it was an excellent game.

Stour started slowly,Sutton by far the better team in the first half and showing good nous in getting their crosses in nice and early without even bothering to go past our full backs,only some poor misses and excellent keeping ( again! ) from young Gould keeping us in the game.

Poor defending allowed them the lead but our first quality move of the half earned us a fine equaliser from the old boy Hawley who proved to be a couple of classes ahead of everyone again tonight.

We woke up in the second half and for much of it we dominated,a lovely move and a fine finish by Lait followed by Hawley's second,resulting from a punt up field and a piece of "pub team" defending from their cumbersome number six and Karl firing in on the half volley which gave us daylight.

It's fair to say their number six won't be getting an invite onto Strictly come dancing anytime soon,he reminded me of one of those top heavy body suits they used to put people in on It's a Knockout back in the 70's

They got one back from a superb free kick but after that we managed the game well with SP and young Hull proving very solid as were the whole team.

A word also for a super away following tonight,we must've had over 100 there,a great effort on a bitter night.

Momentum is starting to build and if we keep the effort and concentration of tonight's second half i can see us finishing in the top three.

Thought the new boys made a real positive contribution last night. Hull & Gould both looked solid & quietly efficient. Ashley Vincent is proving to be an excellent player coming off the bench and making a big difference. It may not be long before Gary starts him up front.
Hawley was yet again my man of the match, thought he stepped up his work rate after scoring his first goal.
I too thought the Stour support was great last night. I actually thought we out-numbered the home fans.
Now just the small matter of Darlington on Saturday. Should be a great game. Onwards & upwards.

Man of the match voting was as follows,

Karl Hawley 20 votes

Sean Geddes
Joe Hull { 2
Kristian Green

Leon Broadhurst
Matt Dodd. { 1
Stuart Pierpoint

Wine was won by Paul Knowles

Thanks to everyone who took part.

Think when we look back in April, the last two results, in particular last night, will be vital.

First half an hour we were poor. Very, very poor. You could see a defeat from a mile off and it wasn't a surprise when they took the lead. However, immense credit to the lads for how they fought back from that. By the end of the game I'd say we deserved the win.

It isn't easy playing on those 4g pitches but the lads did excellently. Hull has came in and done very well in the two games he's played. Gould was excellent again, as well.

For me, Hawley is far and away the best player I've seen in a Stour shirt. He is too good for the level above, and the level above that. He's going to continue to be a massive player for us. DA has been a vocal supporter of him, and once again, Justin was excellent. He's actually got a fairly decent goal return, but the work he does is worth 2/3/4 goals more a season. Hawley and himself are an excellent combo.

I don't actually think we've seen the best of Sean yet. Don't get me wrong, that isn't a slight on him or his levels of performance, just that we know quite how good he has been for us in the past. Having said that, I've not been to as many games recently as before so I may be off the mark on that! He is still playing well, but we know the Sean that can dictate a game. Once we get that Sean back, we'll be even better.

Saturday is a massive game for us. I honestly think we can get something from it. We usually turn up for these big games, and it'd be good to put a solid marker down for rest of the season.