Hat-trick hero Hickman earns Lewes their first league win of season
On a blustery and grey day at Christ's Hospital School, Lewes knew that 3 points were a must to get their stop-start league campaign off and running. Their opponents Horsham, sat bottom with Lewes just a point and two league positions above.
(Hickman 3, Gill, Wycherley, Waller)
The match got off to a quick start with Lewes dominating possession and creating a few good chances. However, it was Horsham who struck first with a quick counter-attack down their left-hand-side resulting in a well-worked deflected goal.
In other games, Lewes may well have panicked but did well to keep their composure and continued to create space and opportunities. From a well-worked move down the right-hand-side James Fuller’s shot was deflected into the path of Sam Gill who finished with aplomb to make it 1-1. Lewes continued to push for the second before half-time and with Horsham starting to make mistakes at the back, a resulting short-corner was expertly worked and deflected in by William Wycherley to send Lewes into the break 2-1 up.
If you could describe the perfect start that Lewes would have wanted to the second half, Matt Hickman provided it. From the push back, he turned, drove at the Horsham midfield and defense, beating 4 or 5 players before being up-ended just outside the D and a short-corner was awarded. Harvey Waller stepped up and his accurate flick into the bottom left-hand corner saw Lewes move into a 3-1 lead. Within 10 minutes of the second half, Lewes were running riot and 3-1 very quickly became 5-1 thanks to two well-taken goals from Hickman to put the game seemingly out of Horsham’s reach.
However, Lewes don’t always do things the easy way and Horsham struck back twice in quick succession to leave the game in the balance going into the last 10 minutes.
The next goal was crucial and an aerial out from the back through James Callaway, with Horsham pushing up in search of another goal, led to a counter-attack in which Jonny Rea’s superb pace and vision led to Hickman finishing off the game, alongside completing his hat-trick. Horsham did manage to grab a consolation with a few minutes to go, but it was too little too late, and Lewes held on to a crucial and well-deserved 3 points.
Lewes host London Academicals on Saturday 2nd November at the Southdown Club with an 11:45am pushback, where they will be looking to make it 2 out of 2 wins and continue their climb up the league table.