Matt Gray praises ‘crucial’ Rob Milsom after his penalty clinched Sutton victory

Sutton boss Matt Gray hailed Rob Milsom for keeping his cool to fire his side to a late 2-1 win over Exeter.

The U’s made it four wins on the spin at Gander Green Lane as they propelled themselves into the League Two automatic promotion places.

Omar Bugiel opened the scoring with his eight-minute header, but Timothy Dieng quickly levelled with the first away goal at the ground for 313 league minutes.

But Milsom stepped up to clinch the points from the spot after Richie Bennett was fouled by Sam Stubbs in the box.

Gray said: “I probably wasn’t as cool as Rob Milsom was taking that penalty to be honest.

“It was a great penalty wasn’t it? He was calm, he’s an experienced pro.

“He’s a top lad, a crucial player in our dressing room so to step up and slot it home in the top corner was a great moment for us.

“He’s done really well since he’s come in to the club.

“We haven’t played for a couple of weeks and we had a few players who haven’t played for a while. So had Exeter.

“It was a strange game and a difficult day for both clubs really.

“They were hard to beat. At this time of year you have to scrap results out.

“I feel we are a flexible side in the way we can win games of football.

“It wasn’t pretty again today, but we’ve ground it out and found a way to win.”

The injury and coronavirus-hit Grecians slumped to their fourth straight defeat as they remained in eighth place.

Matt Taylor’s side were playing in their first game since December 11 due to the current Covid chaos sweeping its way through the fixture list.

And he said: “It hurts because I didn’t think we deserved to lose that game of football.

“I didn’t think we deserved to win it because we didn’t create enough in front of goal.

“We certainly held our own in terms of the context of the game.

“It feels pretty raw right now. It sounds strange for me to say it, but it’s still a positive day.

“For Sam Stubbs to play 90 minutes and the way the team went about their work in terms of makeshift positions and personnel who have not been on the training pitch yet, I’m really proud of them.

“Unfortunately we’re in a results business and we’re disappointed.

“It’s hard to be critical or judge the lads on that performance and I’m proud of the effort they gave.

“They were out on their feet, some players it was their first game for a month. There was a whole group of them out there who haven’t trained enough to be physically ready for a game of football.”