Men's football news
Written by: Stuart
A superb second-half goal from Michael Klass saw Lewes move into the play-off places with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Carshalton Athletic at the Pan, reports Tom Harper.Tony Russell made two changes to the side that lost 2-0 at Bishop’s Stortford in the FA Trophy on Saturday, with Bradley Pritchard and Iffy Allen replacing Ayo Olukoga and Deon Moore in the starting line-up.The visitors started brightly and came close to taking an early lead through Daniel Bassett, who saw his powerful effort pushed away by Lewis Carey after finding space in the area.Lewes were enjoying plenty of possession but finding it difficult to create any clear-cut opportunities, with a Taylor Maloney free-kick going just wide being the closest they came to opening the scoring before the break.Carshalton always posed a threat in the final third and Carey had to be alert to keep out a close-range effort from Lewis White, before making a smart save at his near post to deny the same player minutes later.The final action of the half saw Tommy Bradford clip the outside of the post with a strike from a tight angle for the visitors.The early stages of the second half were dominated by Carshalton, who saw both Bassett and Paris Hamilton-Downes denied by Carey.The pressure continued to mount from the visitors, with Daniel Hector curling an effort just wide from the edge of the area, before White hit the post with a strike from a similar distance.The introduction of Joe Taylor and Razzaq Coleman De-Graft just after the hour immediately gave Lewes more of a threat going forward, and saw them enjoy their best spell of the game.The Rooks nearly took the lead with just over 20 minutes remaining, as good play down the left from Ollie Tanner ended with him cutting the ball back for Maloney, whose strike was blocked on the line before De-Graft sliced the rebound wide.Lewes continued to push for the opening goal and scored it on 74 minutes through Michael Klass, who unleashed an unstoppable shot from 25 yards which flew past Lloyd Thomas and into the bottom corner to score his first goal for the club.The Rooks saw out the closing stages comfortably and had opportunities to add to their lead, as a De-Graft half-volley was well saved by Thomas, before Maloney dragged an attempt wide in injury-time after being played through by Taylor.
More pictures from the game can be found from James Boyes here.
You can read last night’s Progcast here.
Highlights of the game thanks to Your Instant Replay can be viewed here.
Next up for Lewes is a second successive Saturday trip to Bishop’s Stortford, this time in the league, kick-off at 3pm.Lewes: Carey, Yao, Carlse, Salmon, Nelson, Pritchard, Maloney, Klass, Tanner (Moore 90), Allen (De-Graft 64), Parker (Taylor 64).Unused Subs: Weaire, Olukoga.Booked: Nelson, Maloney, Allen.Carshalton Athletic: Thomas, Hamilton-Downes, Price, Jones, Cheadle, Williams, Sessegnon (Ottaway 69), Bradford (Bennett 82), Bassett, Hector, White.Unused Subs: Sankoh, Read, Adenyi.Booked: Hamilton-Downes, Hector.Attendance: 455