The road to Wembley has officially been closed for this season.  After the capitulation to Chertsey Town in the FA Cup back in September, the Rooks crashed out of the FA Trophy to another lower league team who simply wanted it more than they did. 

It is also worrying that for the second Saturday in a row Lewes conceded two penalties in the second half of the game.

Steve King was able to field a stronger squad today, with Jamie Cade making a welcome return to the bench after some weeks absent through injury.  However, it was Michael Malcolm who missed out, with Booth and Draycott leading the line.

After an open half an hour it was Lewes who took the lead when Draycott bounced on a well saved header by keeper Bossu to drill the ball home.  Against the run of play maybe, but a goal is a goal.

For some strange reason as the clock got to 3:55pm we were still playing the first half.  There hadn't been an injury, and whilst we had a minute's applause pre-match for the commemoration of a local fan's death/life, it was only a minute.  It wasn't the only bizarre decision from the official during the afternoon as we would soon see.

Most fans just got out of the bar in time to see Draycott fire in a magnificent second from the edge of the area.  Two nil flattered Lewes and so it was no surprise when thirty seconds later the home side got a penalty. Apparently the official had seen skipper Steve Robinson handle the ball, although few else in the ground had and Danny Brown smashed the ball home.

Now it was the turn of Lewes to be on the back foot. Harlow had a goal disallowed before another soft penalty was awarded, this time by the linesman for a push-come-shuv in the area, and yet again Brown dispatched the penalty into the back of the net.

With Sussex Senior and Ryman League Cup games coming up in the next few weeks, Lewes could've really done without another replay but the dozen or so Rooks fans expected our side to go on to try to win the game. 

Instead the midfield pairing of Nicholas and Somner were simply over run by Harlow and with just ten minutes to go James Bunn found himself one on one with the Lewes keeper and finished with style.  Bugger - two-nil up, three-two down.

With full time whistles gone all the way up and down the country, and James Alexander Gordon already through the first reading of the results, we were still playing.  Ciardini had hit the bar in the second half but apart from that we couldn't think of one other chance we had mustered.

The Harlow celebrations at the final whistle were well deserved.  They had beaten a team from a higher division and were £3,000 better off.

Stuart Fuller