Stockport boss Dave Challinor got the response he wanted from his Stockport side after their midweek FA Cup exit but admitted he felt sorry for Sutton after the 8-0 League Two thrashing.
Ryan Croasdale’s brace plus Kyle Wootton and Paddy Madden’s efforts put County four ahead by half-time.
The rout was completed afterwards by Madden and substitutes Joel Cotterill and Isaac Olaofe, plus the former’s injury-time penalty which completed a hat-trick for the Irishman as County maintained their place as League Two leaders.
County were stunned after being dumped out of the FA Cup by non-league Aldershot in midweek, and Challinor was pleased by the response from his team against the League Two bottom side.
He said: “I’m much happier in one instance.
“I take great pleasure and great pride out of the result and on the flip side, not great pride in the fact that Matt (Gray) and his staff are probably the most honest group that we’ll mix with and I feel really sorry for them today because that’s not them.
“They’re probably the most hardworking and most honest group that have got success based on that and we’ve been really really clinical today and bounced back from Wednesday.
“I know he’ll be feeling exactly the same as I was feeling on Wednesday and hopefully he can get the same reaction from his players because they’ve been on a decent run. No one, me included, would expect them to be in the position they are in the table.
“I think regardless of the result – and I know that’s easy to say after you’ve just scored eight – the performance is much, much better.”
Sutton boss Matt Gray admitted he was left embarrassed by the worst performance and result in his managerial career, with the U’s now six points from safety.
He said: “This is my fifth season as a manager and I’ve never apologised to my supporters ever and I certainly would apologise to them for today.
“It’s the worst scoreline and performance of my managerial career so it’s a really hard one to take.
“The teams were worlds apart. They’re a wounded animal from Wednesday night with their performance and result.
“I warned the players about that as well, so the start of the game was horrendous from us and to concede the goals that we conceded in the opening 20 minutes of the game was just totally not acceptable – the game’s lost and out of our reach.
“I don’t know if I can answer what went wrong right now. I’ve said the start of the game and the goals we’ve conceded but they came out firing off the back of a result on Wednesday and we looked like a team that hadn’t played for two weeks.”
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