Men's football news
A dominant performance saw Lewes record their third consecutive victory with a well-deserved 4-0 win at Brightlingsea Regent, reports Tom Harper.
Tony Russell made one change to the side that won 3-1 at Merstham in midweek, with Kyron Richards replacing Killian Colombie in the starting line-up.
The Rooks dominated proceedings early on and took the lead after ten minutes through Ollie Tanner, who finished into the roof of the net after a Razz Coleman De-Graft cross had been helped into his path by Ayo Olukoga.
Lewes doubled their lead just four minutes later, Taylor holding the ball up well before playing in Taylor Maloney to finish from just inside the area.
The Rooks were looking comfortable in possession and continued to press for a third goal, but Regent held firm.
The hosts came close to pulling a goal back themselves later in the half, with Lewis Carey denying Marcus Goldbourne twice in a matter of minutes to keep the score at 2-0 approaching half-time.
Lewes nearly added to their lead with the final action of the half, but saw a lob from Tanner just miss the target after a diagonal ball to the left had caused confusion in the Regent back line.
The second half started in similar fashion to the first – with Lewes creating chances – as a quick counter-attack from a Regent corner ended with Olukoga clear through on goal but being denied by Turner.
The Rooks scored the third goal their performance deserved on 54 minutes, as a goal-kick from Carey was misjudged at the back, and Taylor beat Turner to the ball before finishing past a defender on the line.
Lewes dominated the remainder of the game, with De-Graft missing his kick at the far post from a Tanner cross with the goal at his mercy, before seeing a curling strike from the edge of the area clip the top of the bar on its way over.
The hosts were reduced to ten men with 11 minutes remaining, as captain Chris Ribchester was shown a straight red card for a high challenge on Tanner.
The resulting free-kick taken by Maloney was pushed round the post by Turner, who then had to be alert to push a Michael Klass header over the bar, keep out a shot on the turn from Taylor and deny Iffy Allen as the Rooks finished the game strongly.
Lewes scored a fourth goal during injury-time at the end of the game, as an Olukoga ball in from the right was well left by Taylor, allowing Maloney to take a touch and finish past Turner to send the Rooks fans home happy from their longest away trip of the season
More pictures from the game can be found here.
The Rooks are back at The Pan next Saturday when they host Hornchurch, kick off 3pm.
Brightlingsea Regent: Turner, Smith-Walter, Wales (Ager 65 mins), Durling, Ribchester, Thompson, Goudlbourne, Bradford (Booth 46 mins), Feyi, McDonald, Gilbert (Byrne-Hewitt 64 mins)
Subs: Bennet, Clowsley
Booked: McDonald
Sent off: Ribchester
Lewes: Carey, Richards, Carlse, Weaire, Nelson, Coleman De-Graft (Allen 75 mins), Olukoga, Pritchard (Colombie 85 mins), Maloney, Tanner (Klass 83 mins), Taylor
Subs: Klass, Parker, Allen, D’Arienzo, Colombie
Booked: Weaire, Maloney
Attendance: 183 (approx. 25 travelling Rooks)