Men's football news
Written by: DanielL
It’s now been two and a half months since Craig Nelson returned to Lewes as the men’s first team manager.
A lot has happened since then, from a partial rebuild of the squad with lots of new signings to dramatic stoppage-time winners at The Dripping Pan.
As the season shifts into 2026, with the Rooks sitting 10th in the Isthmian League Premier, we checked in with Nelson to reflect on the start of his second tenure with the team.
Q: Pitts, how do you feel about where the team is right now, both in terms of the league table and as a group of players?
CN: I think we’re getting there. They’ve worked really hard over the time that I’ve been here.
We’ve had a few changes, but I feel now we’re ready to compete. We look a lot stronger and fitter than we have been.
That sets the foundations of what we need to do.
Now, it’s about implementing the way we want to play over the coming weeks to ensure we’re improving on that front as well.
Q: What would you say has been the highlight of your second spell as manager so far? On or off the pitch!
CN: It’s felt great to be back. A lot of emotion.
I took over a team that was 10 games without a win, a bit low on confidence, so I feel bringing back the spirit has been a key achievement off the pitch.
On it, we’ve steadied the ship a little bit. We went three unbeaten in December, which put us back in a position to look up the table a bit more.
But we’re under no illusion that we’re not out of the woods yet. We need to make sure we can maintain our composure and put some wins together.
We’ve got a really tough January and February, but hopefully we can look back through the season and be proud of what we achieved this year and lay the foundations for the future.
Q: What are the main things you’d like to improve about how this team plays during the next phase of the season, leading up to the spring?
CN: I think the fluidity. We like high-energy, attacking football. We’re there sometimes but not enough for our liking.
We’ve got the fans off their seats at home by scoring last-minute winners; too many for my liking! If I had a pacemaker, I’d be in trouble.
But it’s about consistency. If we’re able to get both of those things right, we will be a hell of a team and hard to beat, which is what we want to be.
Q: Away form has been a bit harder to obtain so far. Can that be put down to anything in particular?
CN: The squad is still settling. The conditions when we play away are not like when we play at home. We have to adapt to that.
But, if we want to be a team in this league that wants to compete, we have to go away and win games of football and not use anything as an excuse.
We’ve got boys in here who we feel can win games of football regardless of what the conditions are, and it’s just about making sure they’re ready for what they’re about to face.
It’s all about execution on the day. I feel they’ve got a bit more togetherness to develop, but that comes with time.
Q: In the first game of 2026, Lewes lost 2-1 at Burgess Hill Town. What was your assessment of the performance in that local clash?
CN: For us, we were really disappointed, mostly in how we tailed off in the performance. We haven’t had to say that this season.
I know, on paper, we only lost one local derby. But for me, [the game against] Whitehawk [on 27th December] – although the lights [failing] did us a favour there – those performances back-to-back were below the expected standards.
Our fans deserve a lot more, so we’re making sure we can hopefully put that right.
For us, those [local] games mean more than anything else.
We have to go and be a bit more front-footed in those environments.
But credit to Burgess Hill. I thought in the latter half of the second half, they were the better side.
But from our perspective, it was two poor goals conceded that we felt we could have done better with.
We could have left there with something, even if it was a point, but we were highly disappointed, not only for the players, but for the fans who travelled to support us.
Q: Looking ahead, we’ve got back-to-back away fixtures in January against Canvey Island and Ramsgate. What can we expect from those opponents?
CN: Canvey Island will be one of the tougher games that we have. Sometimes the sides that are down there and fighting for something are harder to play against.
At Ramsgate, the surface will be different, but it’s still going to be a very tough game.
They’ve got a lot of quality down there and have brought in a lot of new boys recently as well.
Different styles to those games; both are ones that we can go and win. But we have to be on it from minute one in both, because they will be physically demanding battles.
If we win those battles, hopefully we can come away with three points.