Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Weapon

After completing the second half of the season undefeated in all away league fixtures, Lewes 2s hosted a determined and dogged Horsham 4s team that boasted some older, wiser and better drilled players compared to their pre-Christmas 12-1 trouncing. With arctic conditions descending on a snowy yet perfectly clear Southdown pitch, the 2s toughest challenge was motivating themselves to step out onto the pitch and this proved to be in vain as a keen Horsham pounced on a slow starting Lewes early on and took the lead through a quick break away attack.

The goal sparked the the men is green into action as they started to pepper the Horsham goal, hitting the post and having two shots cleared off the line. Yet it was a erratic short corner injection that lead to the leveller as stopper Peter Thomas collected on the strong side and hit a powerful strike past the Horsham keeper. The midfield of Tom Clinch, Oli Loader, Jamie Cooke and Sam Rea now took complete control with Rea especially unlucky not to put Lewes ahead as his reverse strike dented the left post.

Having scored 99 league goals this season, the 2s surged on looking to hit three figures and a five minutes before half time, captain Seb Daniels crowned the come back with an unstoppable reverse strike that flew in the top right hand corner of the goal from the left of the D. A fitting way to notch up 100 goals for a Lewes 2s team that has been scintillating going forward this season.

Half time gave the 2s a renewed purpose and they came flying out the traps as the defence of Matthew Denham, Peter Thomas, Guillaume Green and Theo Whiting didn’t give Horsham an inch. It was the defence that started Lewes’s third as a superbly worked - five pass - two touch move was smartly finished off by Harry Devonport.

Joe Rideout, keen not to be outscored by Daniels or Devonport in his last game before travelling to Thailand, soon made the score 4-1 by fooling the Horsham keeper with a cleaver dummy for a simple tap in. A fine season for Joe Rideout, scoring 27 goals in attack, having played as a right back last season.

However... cometh the man, cometh Harry “The Weapon” Devonport. With five minutes left The Weapon decided that passing is overrated and using a mixture of skill and anti-skill dribbled from the half way line past two Horsham players and smashed the ball in the bottom left, rounding off a determined 5-1 win.

Unsung hero of the day goes to keeper Billie Palmer who remained alert despite not seeing much action. Next week the 2s face a tougher test as they host 4th placed Brighton at 3pm.

MOM: Harry Weaponport

Report by Seb Daniels