Lewes Men's 1s go down to Georgians

This season Georgians signed James Tindall, a Great Britain International of recent vintage and his firepower, especially at penalty corners, has put him top of the league scorers and Georgians close to the top of the league. If Lewes were able to boast such a player they would resolve a lot of their current problems because it is in attack that they are coming unstuck.

The opening exchanges showed each side testing out the other but it was Georgians who took an early lead after an attack resulted in a penalty corner which was duly converted. Lewes countered and in a goalmouth fracas the Georgians keeper was yellow carded for a foul and the resulting penalty corner saw skipper, Matt Needle, drag-flick the ball to rattle off the upright into the back of the goal. This gave encouragement to Lewes and the half backs gave a supply of good ball to the wings only for attacks to die out because of inability to complete in front of goal. Georgians had no such problems and a foray into the Lewes half saw them take the ball into the circle and score through a mess of players. Another penalty corner gave them a two goal advantage at half time.

Lewes rallied at the start of the second half but despite penetrating runs down the wings they were denied the goals they desperately sought by a mix of good goalkeeping and a tendency to give the ball away when put under pressure by the defence. Georgians remained steady and from one attack they were awarded a penalty stroke which they converted to end the scoring.

After the game Lewes Skipper Matt Needle commented “I’m generally happy with the way we played against good opposition and I feel that with each game we are developing as a unit and showing signs of improvement.” On Saturday Lewes are at home to second placed Sevenoaks – 1.30 at Southdown Sports Club.