PAUL Doswell says he is to blame for Sutton United's embarrassing 4-1 defeat to Cray Wanderers after allowing the squad a social night out in Manchester two days beforehand.

The U's boss shouldered responsibility for the Easter Monday reverse having let his team attend David Haye's world title fight against John Ruiz last Saturday.

Sutton players travelled up to the MEN Arena after their 2-1 loss against Kingstonian which brought to an end their unbeaten run.

They had been due to go out as a team at Christmas but their indifferent form persuaded Doswell to veto any celebrations.

The manager consented to Saturday's trip however as a reward for going 15 games without defeat in all competitions, but he admitted with hindsight it had not been a good idea.

"To have two defeats over the Easter weekend is not what we planned and I take the blame for that," he told the Sutton Advertiser.

"It's a result of me letting the lads go to Manchester for the weekend. I said beforehand that they deserved it, and they did, but you can't do what we did over the weekend.

"I thought we played well against Kingstonian and deserved a point, but against Cray we deserved absolutely nothing.

"We have had a good run of 15 games unbeaten and now it's up to us to lift ourselves for Saturday (away to Canvey Island).

"I think 68 points will confirm our place in the play-offs and we have four away games and one at home to do it. I think we will be ok.

"I'm not going to start having a go at them because they have lost two games, but we still have to get those two wins as quickly as we can."

Sutton's performance on Monday was encapsulated in the moment that effectively sealed their defeat.

With the U's already 2-1 down and chasing the game, centre-half Jason Goodliffe underhit a back-pass to goalkeeper Kevin Scriven and Cray striker Leigh Bremner nipped between them only to be brought down by Scriven's hand.

Karim El-Salahi had got back on the line but Bremner surely would have scored, so out came the red card for Scriven and Goodliffe donned the gloves for the remaining 24 minutes.

Sutton had started sluggishly and fell behind after four minutes when Lewis Perkins tapped in from five yards after George Porter had crossed low into the goal area.

But the hosts began to come back and on 27 minutes Steve Perkins cancelled out his namesake's opener by heading Craig Dobson's free-kick into the bottom corner of the net. Cray were soon back in front however as they were first denied a penalty when Bremner appeared to be body-checked in the area and then were given a much softer decision seconds later when Porter went down under a challenge.

Full-back Colin Luckett side-footed the spot-kick to Scriven's left and did the same in the second half when Goodliffe was the new keeper.

Doswell was furious with referee Michael O'Keefe for dismissing Scriven and eventually found himself banished to the stand. Porter wrapped up the win for the visitors on 75 minutes, slotting home the rebound after Des Boateng's shot was well saved by Goodliffe.

Adding to Sutton's woes was a medial knee ligament injury to Steve Perkins and Doswell believes the heavy, sand-patched Gander Green Lane pitch could be to blame for their lengthening injury list.

"We have all talked about the difficulties of the pitch and it could be causing a few of our injuries," he said.

"We played on it three times last week and it takes a lot out of the lads."

Sutton: Scriven, B Hawes, El-Salahi, Goodliffe, Perkins (J Hawes), Cobbs, Dobson (Joseph), Quarm, Watts (Harding), Taylor, Phillips. Unused subs: Gold, McKimm.