Horsham 2 Sutton United 1

In the rather lower key surroundings of a cold and misty Gorings Mead on Tuesday a much-changed Sutton side, having taken the lead, went down to two goals in a seven-minute spell midway through the first half.

Manager Paul Doswell had already expressed his intention to give a number of their younger players a chance in the competition, and it was no surprise that only two of the starting line-up at Edgar Street - James Hawes and Bradley Thomas - were in the XI that took the field on Tuesday.

Promising reserves Jazz Gold and Elliot Mitchell were given debuts, while a number of the players whose involvement so far this season has mainly come from the substitutes' bench were also given a chance to impress.

Winger Stefan Cox probably did his cause most favours, particularly in a lively first half, while an otherwise sound showing in goal from Paul Smith was ruined only by the one serious error which gifted Horsham what proved to be the winner.

United were off to a flier as Danny Phillips put them in front after only four minutes, finding space as the ball broke to him in the penalty area to fire in to the net.

They almost had a second soon afterwards when Cox's pace took him past the defence and he lifted the ball over the advancing Rob Frankland only to see the ball scrambled away inside the six yard box by former Sutton winger Delando Smith.

The game turned midway through the half, though, as Alex Haddow, who owed his place in Horsham's starting line-up only to the delayed arrival of leading scorer Claude Seanla, struck a superb dipping volley from 25 yards for the equaliser.

Smith had little chance with that, but seven minutes later was more culpable as he got himself in to a mess trying to deal with a backpass and was dispossessed by Gary Charman, who played the ball across goal to give Jack Page the simplest of tasks of rolling it in to the empty net.

Smith redeemed himself with a decent save from another Page effort from outside the penalty area, and United came close to levelling before the break as another darting run from Cox was ended illegally just outside the penalty area but Frankland dived to his right to push away Jerson Dos Santos's free kick.

Seconds later Cox again threatened but failed to match the approach work with the finish, shooting high and wide.

Smith made another good save early in the second half, turning away a shot from Pat Harding, but Harding as unlucky with 16 minutes left when he did shoot low past the keeper but saw his shot come back across goal off the inside of the post.

At the other end Cox's low shot from the edge of the area almost caught Frankland out, the keeper seeing the ball late and diving low to save, but otherwise the solid and uncompromising central defence partnership of Anthony Acheampong and Sam Page always seemed to have the measure of Sutton's attack.

Dos Santos was rarely able to beat the tall Acheampong and Page blocking Anthony Joseph's shot as well as dispossessing Phillips with a well judged tackle.

United struggled to test Frankland, who was limping from the effects of a challenge which saw Dos Santos booked.

The reserves' leading scorer Daniel Harding made his debut with eight minutes to go but had little time to translate his Suburban League form to the higher stage, and it was Horsham who came closest to changing the scoreline when Seanla, now on as a substitute, turned in a low cross from the right but was ruled offside.

Horsham: R Frankland, D Smith(sub T Nwachukwu 62), J Nicholls, A Acheampong, S Page, L Carney, S Sargent, J Page, A Haddow, P Harding, G Charman.(sub C Seanla 59). Subs n/u A Hutchings, S Davies, I Payne. Goals: Haddow(23), J Page(30). Booked: Acheampong (71-foul).

Sutton: P Smith, J Gold, J Hawes, K El-Salahi, B Thomas, E Mitchell(sub T Kavanagh 65), A Joseph, S Perkins, D Phillips, J Dos Santos, S Cox(sub D Harding 82). Sub n/u S McKimm Goal: Phillips (5) Booked: Perkins (50-foul), Dos Santos (63-foul).

Referee: D Cook (Gosport)

Att 144

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