Pop-Gunners struggle as Sutton bridge gulf

Arsenal took 26 minutes to break through fifth-tier Sutton United’s resistance and the 12-time FA Cup winners were made to toil for a 2-0 victory over the tenacious nonleague side to reach the quarter-finals yesterday.

On the plastic patch at tiny Gander Green Lane stadium, the gulf in class between sides separated by 105 places in English football was not always apparent in the biggest game in Sutton’s 118-year history.

“It was not an easy game at all,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. “Every little mistake we made, technically they took advantage of.”

Apart from picking the ball out of his net twice, Sutton goalkeeper Ross Worner, a part-time picture framer for a sports memorabilia company, had few saves to make from the millionaire international stars from Arsenal.

“That was astonishing,” Wenger said. “They never stopped going until the end, and compared to 20 years ago these teams are fit now and can play at the pace of the Premier League. Maybe before, they would have collapsed in the last 20 minutes; that is finished.

“They kept going and we were never really in a position where we could really afford to have a little breather in the game.”

Far from sitting camped inside their own half to frustrate Arsenal, Sutton — playing in the fifth round for the first time — harried the more illustrious London side in the pursuit of a goal. The best chance fell in the second half when Roarie Deacon, a former Arsenal youth team player, hit the crossbar.

The goal never came from the team placed 17th in the National League but Sutton left the field — after being surrounded by fans who invaded the pitch at the final whistle — with their dignity more than intact.

“If you are 2-0 down you don’t want to get really hurt,” Sutton manager Paul Doswell said. “We have done the non-league proud.”

And having avoided embarrassment, Arsenal will face another fifthtier side in the last eight, Lincoln at Emirates Stadium.