Matt Gray welcomed Sutton’s stroke of luck after Will Randall scored direct from a corner to see off League Two strugglers Rochdale 1-0.

Randall’s first-half set-piece went straight in as the hosts ended their five-game winless run in all competitions.

His strike was Sutton’s first goal for in four matches and Gray was delighted with how his side held on to their lead.

“The togetherness of the group and the way we defended our box was outstanding,” the Sutton manager said.

“As an 11 the character and the desire to keep working hard and the ground that we covered to keep that clean sheet and get that win was really impressive.

“I was pleased to get the goal, we deserved to go in at half-time ahead. It was a good delivery swinging in there. We managed to get that bit of luck as well.

“We were dealing with the balls coming into the box. Ian Henderson is an experienced striker, he knows how to score, and Scott Quigley is a real handful but we dealt with them.

“We had blocks, headers, clearances. We were brilliant with our defending. The back five were excellent. I don’t just watch to praise them because we got the clean sheet collectively.”

Rochdale slumped to their fourth defeat in five games and Jim Bentley’s side sit just two points clear of the relegation zone.

Bentley’s assistant Nick Chadwick said: “It’s very frustrating, it’s a frustrating second half because we had plenty of the ball.

“We tried to get a goal back. The way we played first half was frustrating and I don’t think we can excuse that.

“We need more honesty in the performance, more quality in the performance and more endeavour in the performance.

“We didn’t do that first half, we showed very little. You can’t come to places like this and give teams a goal and expect to get something out the game.

“There was more in the second half, of course there was, but it wasn’t enough.

“We have to be better with the goal. I don’t think it is one of those things. When we first came in we identified a weakness with defending set-pieces. We improved on that, we’ve looked much more organised, but that’s creeping back in again.

“We have to defend that better. We felt they’d have a threat from set pieces and we spoke about that and we find ourselves 1-0 down in a game where there was barely a chance in the first half.

“It just gives us a mountain to climb and undid some good work we did in previous weeks.”