Ban promotion talk at the Pan

THE Rooks ended what has been a dismal February with a wretched performance as lowly Banstead emerged from their trip south with a thoroughly deserved 2-0 victory.

Manager Jimmy Quinn made four changes from the side which had drawn 1-1 at Tooting & Mitcham the previous Saturday. Ross Venables, Joe Clark and Tony Reid moved up from the bench into the starting 11, with Tony Chin and Lee Newman going the other way to accommodate them, along with Chris Dickson who was unavailable.

Justin Harris took advantage of a blank night for Eastbourne Borough to make his third appearance of his on-off loan spell, and returned to his customary midfield role in place of the injured Paul Kennett.

The game was in doubt right up until kick-off after two of the Dripping Pan floodlights failed, but, after consulting the two managers, referee Mr Meilack allowed proceedings to commence.

However, within two minutes his decision had played a part in the first Banstead goal. Wayne Finnie's prodigious long throws caused the Rooks problems all evening, and on this occasion the ball hurtled almost undetectably through the air in the gloomy area of the pitch, allowing James Greenaway to take advantage of the confusion and stab the loose ball home from close range.

The Rooks huffed and puffed for the remainder of the first half, but with confidence at rock bottom and the visitors buoyed by their early success, it made for a pretty awful spectacle for the home fans.

On 39 minutes Matt Allen got to a loose ball just ahead of Banstead 'keeper Paul Borg, but his header was acrobatically cleared off the line by Aaron Day.

The feat was repeated by Mark Leahy just after the interval when he cleared Harris's chip off the line after Borg had only half cleared a corner. At last there seemed cause for optimism, but on 62 minutes an uncharacteristic howler from Rooks 'keeper Russell Tanner presented Michael Beale with a second goal, and a brilliant save by Borg from Julian Curnow's header late on was about all Lewes could muster after that.

Should the Rooks fail in their bid for promotion, a scenario which is looking more probable with every passing game, they will obviously look back at the month of February as the turning point.

However, the truth is that their form in midweek league games has been poor right from the start of the season, with just two wins from 11 Tuesday night encounters to date. One of those was just four short weeks ago, a 7-0 demolition of Molesey which seemed to underline their promotion credentials.

Right now a win of any sort against Worthing tomorrow (Saturday) would do, and given that the Rebels are in a similarly wretched run of form, hope springs eternal.

See page 42 for more Rooks news, and visit the club's website on www.lewesfc.com.

LEWES: Tanner, Harper, Venables (Green 55), Harris, Hack, Cable, Curnow, Davis, Reid, Clark (Crumplin 75), Allen (Newman 55). MOM: Tony Reid