05/9/09

A strong performance from Lewes this afternoon belied the nineteen places between them and opponents Basingstoke Town with a hard-earned goal less draw

The Rooks halted their run of two consecutive defeats with another draw, but what was more important was the manner of their performance.

Fielding a changed side due to a combination of injuries and suspensions, Lewes worked hard and the defensive quartet of Ryan Timms, Anthony Barness, Ross Sutton and Andy Pearson all put in a fantastic shift to keep Basingstoke chances to a minimum.

Ryan Storrie had a first half header cleared off the line whilst a superbly timed tackle from the excellent Pearson prevented Steve Laidlar from putting Town ahead.

The visitors had a couple more chances in the second half but Rikki Banks and Timms thwarted Rob Watkins and David Pratt.

In injury time, David Wheeler had a great chance to steal the three points but his shot at the near post was met by keeper Ross Kittridge.

Lewes manager Steve Ibbitson was pleased with his team's performance after the match and said: "We played really well. The margins between the top of the league and the bottom are very narrow and if we had won some of our drawn matches we would be up near the top ourselves."

"I've told the players that we can't always play well for ninety minutes and Basingstoke had a good second half spell . We've got to make sure that we stop teams at those times, until we get ourselves playing again."

"We had two or three chances and I think we were the better side over all."