Club news
Written by: Jack
Speaking ahead of tomorrow’s game against Brightlingsea Regent, and on the back of Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Corinthian-Casuals, Tony Russell reflected on his teams performance at the weekend.
“Going into the game, probably my biggest fear was complacency, and in my notes, you could probably understand that point. And unfortunately, I think you could see that during the game. I thought our energy levels were not what they were or have been, so it meant that we made that first half hard work, and did a lot of work without the ball, although we did some good pressing which we have been getting some joy from lately”
“Outside of that it was frustrating I’m not going to lie, we had some real honest words at half time, I just felt that we have set ourselves up to high standard in recent weeks, we can’t go back to way it was before.
“Although I thought it was an improvement in the second half, and we probably left some goals out there, it was still below the levels we expect. And we reminded the players of that at full time. We congratulated them on the win and keeping a clean sheet, but we can’t go into games with that mindset.”
Speaking on the some of the chances The Rooks created on Saturday Tony shared: “I thought we deserved the win, we scored two and hit the bar a couple of times, but Ryan Gondoh had a good chance in the second half, and Joe Taylor’s goal that was given offside, looked onside to me when I watched the replay back.
“I think it is testament of how far we have come as a group. We wasn’t overly happy about it after the game, and that shows that we can’t afford to play like that again tomorrow.”
It’s a similar scenario for the Rooks tomorrow, playing a side at the bottom end of the table and Tony has reminded the team standards have to be met.
“Once again this is a dangerous fixture, similar to Corinthian Casuals. They’ve signed a few players, their performances have improved. They played Billericay away, one of the best sides in the league, they had a lot of chances in that game.
“They beat Bishop’s Stortford at home 2-0, they’ve then played Hastings and lost 3-2 after being 2-0 up, but I hear they played well in that game and not many teams create that much against Hastings.
“That’s testament to them and they also have a forward with five in five so it’s a dangerous game. They’re fighting for their lives to stay up and putting in good performances in the process.
“We’ve spoke to the players again about the right mindset. That wasn’t the right mindset in the first half of Saturday because if we do that again we’ll lose, there’s no doubt about that.
“I’m hoping the lessons have been learnt, we try to learn from every game. We trained Wednesday night and worked really hard, worked on new patterns, we took the forward boys away for some work on decision making stuff.
“We think the gameplay has been set, it’s just executing it now and like I said, making sure the mindset is right. That’s our main focus now, all on us, our personal expectations and also as a group as well.
“It’s a big game, they’re all big now, the games are getting interesting and we’re on a good run. It’s really important we continue that.”
Tony often speaks about the need for strong support and has spoken of his delight at the difference the fans made last week.
“I hope to see everyone there again. The fans really played their part last week, we could hear the singing from minute one to minute 90.
“We love the new songs, the players were talking about that in the dressing room, just keep bringing that, create a carnival atmosphere. The players really feed off it and hopefully we can keep rewarding you with three points.”
Lewes FC vs. Brightlingsea Regent tickets
The match on Saturday is at 3pm. You can buy Lewes FC tickets for the game online and skip the queue at the gate. Online ticket prices are as follows:
Adults – £12
Concessions – £8
Kids U16 – Free
Beach Huts – £110
COMMUNITY TICKETS
HALF SEASON TICKETS
Photo: James Boyes