Rooks overcome the elements to win at South Park – Lewes Community Football Club

Rooks overcome the elements to win at South Park


Rooks overcome the elements to win at South Park

Men's football news

Two goals in
three minutes at the end of the first half saw Lewes return to winning ways and
to the top of the Bostik South table with an impressive victory at South Park reports Tom Harper.

Darren
Freeman made two changes to the side that had come back from 2-0 down to draw
with Thamesmead on Saturday, with Jamie Brotherton and Jonte Smith replacing
Ronnie Conlon and Bouwe Bosma in the starting line-up.

Lewes made a
positive start and came close to taking the lead early on through Jonte Smith,
who saw an effort from just inside the area pushed round the post by Callum
Thomas after Charlie Coppola had a long-range strike blocked following a Gus
Sow free-kick.

South Park
were attempting a more direct style and looking to use their height and power
up front to cause the Rook’s defence problems.

Despite
this, the only chance they created during the first half saw Kieran Lavery
denied by a superb last-ditch challenge by Frankie Chappell as he was about to
get his shot away after controlling a long ball forward.

The Rooks
made the most of this by taking the lead after 38 minutes, with Smith hooking
an acrobatic volley over Thomas and into the back of the net after he was
picked out by an excellent James Hammond cross.

Lewes
doubled their lead just two minutes later through Billy Medlock, who latched
onto a perfectly-weighted through-ball from Sow and finished past Thomas from
close range.

The hosts
continued to get the ball forward quickly in a bid to find a route back into
the game during the second half, but were unable to get in behind a Lewes
defence superbly marshalled by Chappell and Lloyd Cotton.

The closest
they came to pulling a goal back saw Jack Mazzone just miss the target with a
free-kick from the edge of the area.

The game
became bogged down in midfield during the closing stages, with substitute Wilf
Grimaud being caught by a number of strong challenges following his
introduction.

Lewes
created few chances themselves second half, but did see Coppola have a
deflected free-kick well held by Thomas, before putting a close-range effort
over the bar at the end of an incisive counter-attack minutes later as the
Rooks looked to cap off a disciplined away performance with a third goal.

Two goals
proved to be enough though, as the Rooks saw out the final few minutes
comfortably to record an impressive away win and return to the top of the
table.

Lewes will
hope to build on this result when they host National League South side Truro
City in the third qualifying round of the FA Trophy on Saturday, kick-off at 3pm.

South Park: Thomas, McElligott, Lovegrove,
Pullin, Elliott, Gill, Windsor (Jackson 75), Moody, Lavery, Smith, Mazzone.

Unused Subs: Senior, Merchant, Rentry, Stone.

Booked: Lovegrove, Moody.

Lewes: Winterton, Brinkhurst, George,
Hammond, Chappell, Cotton, Smith, Sow (Bosma 70), Medlock (Reed 88), Brotherton
(Grimaud 68), Coppola.

Unused Sub: Hurley.

Booked: Bosma, Grimaud.

Referee: P Johnson

Attendance: 112