ETHAN RIFLES HOME LATE LEVELLER

The 19-year-old's strike cancelled out a 65th minute Jordan Whittaker opener for the hosts and earned a deserved point for a depleted Grove side who stepped up to the plate against a very good Sutton team. The result sees Jamie Hillman's side sitting in tenth spot, level on four points with five other teams in the early league table.

With holidays, injury and work commitments taking their toll, Hengrove made four changes to the side that beat Cheddar 3-0 at the AVB Stadium on Tuesday night. Missing from that midweek win were Carl Bush, Aidan Jones, Connor Kingdon and Jacob Grinnell & they were replaced by Jackson Brown, Harry Lucas, Regan Burton and Ethan Hardy.

The first half ended as it started, goalless but with the Grove ahead on points but after the break, Sutton pushed on and took the lead on the 65 minute mark through sub Jordan Whittaker. However Hengrove refused to buckle and with two minutes left of normal time, the ball ran loose outside the Sutton penalty box for Ethan Hardy to slam an unstoppable drive into the top corner of the net.

Sutton then tried hard to find a winner but to no avail and the spoils were shared in front of a healthy crowd of 81.

Next up for the Grove is their third home league game of the season already when they host AEK Boco tomorrow night (Tuesday), kick off at the AVB Stadium is at 7.30pm.