SUTTON United boss Matt Gray said he was pleased for Omar Sowunmi after the defender scored a last-gasp equaliser at his former club Colchester United.
Sowunmi, who made 30 league and cup appearances for Colchester between 2019 and 2021, fired into the roof of the net in the fifth minute of stoppage-time to salvage a point for the visitors, in the 1-1 draw at the JobServe Community Stadium.
It denied Colchester a point after Arthur Read had put the hosts in front with a fine 80th-minute solo effort.
Gray said: "It was a great moment for Omar to come back to his old club and his home town and score like that, after his concussion and missing last week.
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“We certainly deserved it and I’m pleased for the lads, because it would have been hard to try and pick them up after.
“We’ve had a few late ones go against us that we haven’t deserved, like at Wrexham.
“They’ve shown great character, hunger and togetherness and a really good performance again on the road.
“It’s our first point on the road and there’s been many games where we’ve deserved something.
“I wouldn’t say their goal was against the run of play; I thought we were reasonably comfortable and I thought it was pretty even.
“It was a good bit of quality from Read to put them ahead but I thought the substitutions made a real impact for us and we had a great response to their goal.
“We had quite a few chances, set pieces and deservedly got the equaliser to get the 1-1 draw here, which was very pleasing.”
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Sutton's point was their first away from home in the league, this season.
They remain bottom of the table but are now unbeaten in three games.
"It's very easy to keep the spirits up," said Gray.
"It's not too hard at all, because they're a great bunch of lads we've got in there.
"The performances have turned and that's probably five performances now in a row where they've been right up there, from a couple of little tweaks that we've done.
"But there's been some really good performances which we've now backed up with three good results, in the five performances."
Sowunmi's equaliser when he fired into the roof of the net from close range, after Harry Smith had found out from Christian N’Guessan’s free-kick into the box.
"We do work on our set pieces a lot and we're very good at them," added Gray.
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"People might cloud that a little bit by thinking that we're purely a set piece team, which sometimes is a little bit harsh on us.
"We are a very good set piece team and we do look a threat and people will fear us, so I'm delighted that we have got one from there.
"But to be honest with you, I don't care where the goals come from."
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