The Morning After the Night Before

Despite the clocks turning back, an extra hour in bed was not long enough to recover physically or mentally from the game the day before or the well timed social (thanks Tapping). A home first round draw in the national cup vs local rivals Crawley who beat us for promotion last year promised to be a game to remember. And so, it began, a 12:30 meet wasn’t met by anyone, but with a free pitch before we had plenty of time to get ourselves ready for the game. It wasn’t long after the starting whistle that Lewes managed to score with Tom Clinch bundling it over the line. In what was already looking like a very open game, it was Lewes who scored the second. Pat Alvgren returning from a long break from hockey found himself with plenty of time in the D to slap the ball past the keeper into the bottom corner. As the half went on and a few green cards for Lewes later, Crawley scored twice to level the game 2-2. Before the half was up the unthinkable happened, Theo Whiting charged down the wing from right back and eventually found himself with the ball on his stick in front of the keeper. Surely, he couldn’t? But he did. Slipping the ball passed the keeper he turned to see the Lewes players and crowd in disbelief of what they had just witnessed. What a game this was shaping up to be, Lewes 3-2 up at half time. A half time team talk about standards and desire wasn’t enough to keep out a well worked Crawley goal to level the score once again. As soon as the goal went in Lewes quickly bounced back and put the pressure on, and Lewes regained the lead once more. Charlie Cooke slapping the ball from the top of the D took a looping deflection that caught the keeper unaware and dropped in just under the bar, 4-3. As the game continued the Lewes counterattack became a real threat and eventually it paid off, Ollie Amos with the ball out wide left struck it across the D, it seemed like it was passing everyone until Pat Alvgren slid in on the P spot for his second and Lewes’ fifth. 5-3, the game must be out of Crawley’s reach now? And it was, with a couple of minutes left the Seb Daniels, clinical as ever, slotted the ball past the keeper to complete Lewes’ 6-3 win! 9 goals, 5 cards and 15 hangovers, that’s what the cup is all about.
Man of the Match – Billie Palmer, could have been far more goals had he not commanded his D, pulled off incredible saves and taken the ball to the face.