Club news
Written by: Stuart
A professional performance, along with first-half goals from Jaydn Mundle-Smith and Joe Taylor, saw Lewes move to within three points of the play-off places with a comfortable 2-0 win over Brightlingsea Regent at the Pan, reports Tom Harper, pictures James Boyes.
Tony Russell handed a debut to new signing Jayden Davis, who has joined the club on loan from Crawley Town, with fellow new arrival Ryan Huckle, most recently at Bowers & Pitsea, named on the bench.
There were also starts for Ayo Olukoga and Razz Coleman De-Graft in place of Bradley Pritchard and Ryan Gondoh.
Lewes saw a lot of the ball early on, moving it quickly and stretching the play as they looked to open the scoring.
Despite this, the first clear-cut chance of the night fell to the visitors, with Samuel Jeremiah running onto a through-ball before drawing a smart save from Lewis Carey.
The Rooks continued to press though, and took the lead on 14 minutes, Mundle-Smith meeting an inswingng De-Graft corner from the right with an excellent glancing header across Charlie Turner in the Regent goal and into the far corner to score his first goal for the club.
Lewes doubled their lead 15 minutes later, as a goal-kick from Carey played Taylor through on goal, and he nodded the ball past Turner before rolling it into the empty net.
The remainder of the half saw Lewes continue to dominate the game, with debutant Davis producing a particularly impressive display.
Turner had to be alert to turn a powerful De-Graft effort over the bar, and was then did well to prevent a Jake Thompson own-goal after the defender had miscued his attempted clearance from a Taylor cut-back.
After an entertaining first half, the second saw far fewer chances at either end.
De-Graft stung the palms of Turner a few minutes after the break, but large periods of the remainder of the half saw Lewes dominate possession without being able to break down the Regent defence.
The closest the visitors came to a consolation goal saw Carey comfortably field a long-range strike from substitute Connor Barnby.
Lewes then nearly scored a third in the final meaningful action of the game, Pritchard just missing the target from the edge of the area at the end of a patient passing move.
Highlights of the game from Your Instant Replay, can be found here.
The match progcast can be read here.
More photos from James Boyes can be found here.
The Rooks will hope to build on this result when they travel to Folkestone Invicta on Saturday, kick-off at 3pm.
Lewes: Carey, Tamplin, Mundle-Smith, Champion, Young, Olukoga, Hyde, Davis (Murrell-Williamson 84), De-Graft, Moore (Pritchard 69), Taylor.
Unused Subs: Hall, Huckle, Gondoh.
Booked: None.
Brightlingsea Regent: Turner, George, Day, Durling, Thompson, Littlejohn, Locke (Conway 90), Russell, Jeremiah (Hatch 79), Allen (Barnby 73), Anderson.
Unused Sub: Skinner.
Booked: None.
Attendance: 506