Rowe pleased with Khalsa’s patience

After a first half with a minimal amount of chances for either side, Rowe encouraged the lads to persevere and, after conceding in the 58th minute, Khalsa bounced back and equalised through Gurjit Singh within 10 minutes.

Rowe said: “I think it was two honest teams having a good battle and a good go with each other and a point was the right result.

“I thought we dominated the second half. They probably went ahead against the run of play, but we reacted well, scored a good goal and arguably could’ve had another couple after that. But then we could’ve lost it right at the death. On reflection, a point apiece is probably the right result.”

The pick of the few first half chances fell to Sutton when Jack Burgess had a shot cleared off the line with Khalsa’s best opportunity saw Tesfa Robinson have a header tipped on to the bar.

“We dodged a bullet after the shot was cleared off the line, they probably edged the first half,” Rowe added. “I said to them at half-time to try and be patient and play our way. Keep patient and it’ll come. The longer it went on, I felt the more we grew into the game.”

James Tague finally handed Sutton the lead just before the hour only for veteran frontman Singh to level with a low, drilled effort from the edge of the box. Rowe is also contending with a few selection issues up front and hopes that won’t derail their outside play-off hopes.

He added: “We’ve got a few forwards injured at the moment. We’ve only got one who we’re running with at the minute. Toumani Sidibe, my main striker, is probably another two weeks away with a hamstring issue. We’ve got 17 games left and to make the play-offs we probably need to win 14 of them.”