Despite losing 27-18 at Sidcup in this latest London Division One South match on Saturday, two late tries and final quarter domination by Sutton & Epsom gave rise to happier faces than of late.

The late introduction of two large men, Chris Jordan and David Crowest and a tightening of play saw Sutton transformed but unfortunately too late to change the result.

Sutton had two other outstanding players on the park, young flanker Joe Ridgely who made huge breaks and the break which led to Sutton’s second try and hooker Phil Williams, who made numerous carries always getting over the gain line and getting the ball away.

Sutton started the match well and went into an early lead following a penalty kicked by full back Steve Warnham.

Sidcup came back after this and made clever use of the boot to get behind Sutton’s blitz defence and their No8 Juilen Poff squeezed in at the corner from a five metres lineout.

The hosts went further ahead minutes later when again a clever chip over the defence was collected by lock Colin Cooper who made ground before putting his wing Steve Evans over in the corner, fly half Mike Ubee converted and a couple of minutes later Sidcup exteneded their lead following a great period of ball retention and patient play, Sutton eventually ran out of defenders for wing John Harris to score in the corner.

Sutton hit back but had to settle for a penalty from Warnham to go in 17-6 down at the break.

The second half started fairly evenly but Ubee kicked a penalty for Sidcup after 10 minutes before they managed to create to classic mis-match of a centre running at props and locks and centre Jamie Cutler slice through to score in the corner. Ubee converted.

After that it became one way traffic with Sutton manfully hammering away and when Crowest appeared to have scored the referee said held up.

From the resulting scrum Crowest picked up at the base smashed forward and gave the scoring pass to prop Chris Jordan on the loop. The conversion attempt dropped short.

Back came Sutton just before the end and a quickly taken penalty was taken on by Ridgely who gave the perfect pass to flying full back Warnham who went in under the posts. Replacement fly-half David Saunders slotted the conversion.

Despite their parlous position Sutton prove they have a sting in the tail if you relax against them.