Sutton 1 Leeds 0: Non-league minnows pull off massive FA Cup giant-killing as Jamie Collins’ penalty sparks jubilant celebrations

IT had all the ingredients of a good old-fashioned FA Cup giant-slaying.

The non-league team’s captain, a part-time builder, netting a spot-kick to knock out the Premier League promotion hopefuls in front a packed house at a modest old ground amid the suburban semis of Surrey.

But as Sutton United joined Lincoln City in the fifth round – the first time since the current format of the Cup was instigated in 1925 that two non-league clubs have reached the last 16 – there was an uncomfortable feeling that this wasn’t quite the real thing.

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A magnificent achievement by Paul Doswell and his semi-pro side, for sure.

But true romance? Hardly.

Thanks to Leeds boss Garry Monk making ten changes to his starting line-up, this felt more like a bunch of flowers from a petrol station and quick fumble at the bus stop.

Monk was only following the current fashion – and his fellow Championship high-fliers, Rafa Benitez of Newcastle and Brighton’s Chris Hughton made the same decision with the same result on Saturday.

Leeds are interested only in promotion, they must visit Blackburn Rovers in the league on Wednesday and so England’s historic knock-out competition can go hang.

Reaching the fifth round is still some feat for a National League club and Jamie Collins’ second-half spot-kick will be long cherished in this corner of metropolitan Surrey.

But nationwide, it is not going to rank alongside the time they toppled top-flight Coventry City in 1989 because that was Coventry’s first team.

And it didn’t have the same sense of occasion as Sutton’s meeting with Don Revie’s great Leeds team – who won 6-0 here at Gander Green Lane on their way to an epic 1970 Cup Final defeat by Chelsea.

No, this result – like so many others – feels as though it should have an asterisk against it.

Or perhaps it should read ‘Sutton United 1 Leeds United XI 0’ – as they style these things in pre-season friendlies when glamorous visitors send the stiffs.

Monk claimed he was ‘not devaluing the Cup’ and was adamant he had made as many changes in the EFL Cup, where Leeds had reached the quarter-finals.

This is also a very modern kind of non-league club. Doswell, who basks in the limelight and has taken to performing laps of honour BEFORE kick-off, is a property magnate who has sunk £500,000 of his own money into the club.

And Sutton perform on a controversial artificial 3G pitch, which allows them to hire out their playing surface for community use seven days per week – but also annoys the hell out of visiting teams, who claim it gives them an unfair advantage.

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