Late Rooks shock Rocks

Lewes welcomed Bognor Regis Town to the Dripping Pan for a Sussex derby. The Rooks had an unbeaten home record to protect, the Rocks were hoping to build upon their victory at Bowers and Pitsea at the weekend, and with three minutes to go it looked as if both sets of supporters would have something to take from the match- only for it to all go badly wrong for the visitors. Lewes went ahead in the very first minute, Gianluca Botti, making a home debut, opening the scoring and immediately becoming a Pan favourite. 

The hosts weren’t able to celebrate for long, however, as on ten minutes Jasper Mather levelled for the visitors- and that looked to be that, only, as it turned out, it very much wasn’t. There were only three minutes remaining, the Rooks on the attack, and the ball was played back to Matt Warren. He was quite a distance out, but that didn’t matter, as he hammered the ball home before running to celebrate with the fans behind the goal. The stunned visitors tried to respond, but three minutes into added time Botti was at it again, making it three-one, and two minutes later Danny Bassett added a fourth to make the win rather comfortable- his eleventh goal of the season.

Lewes climb to fourth, Bognor stay at the bottom, and the Rocks have now failed to defeat the Rooks in seven attempts. 

Chatham Town, in fifteenth at kick off, welcomed a Horsham side who are only one place and two points further up. We’d expected both sides to be fighting for a top five place, but so far they’d both been remarkably inconsistent- and the Hornets had seemingly developed some kind of travel sickness, as they’d won only once on the road. The match seemed to be petering out into a goalless draw, only for the hosts to rouse themselves in the closing stages. There were only eight minutes remaining when Sam Sene Richardson- who had only been on the field for ten minutes- put the Chats ahead, and three minutes later another substitute, Rowan Liburd, made it two.

Chatham climb to twelfth, whilst Horsham are in fifteenth. 

Hashtag United got back to winning ways in style at the weekend, hitting Chichester City for four in Sussex, and they were back at Parkside last night looking for more of the same, Dartford making the short trip across the crossing. As it turned out the Tags were similarly deadly in front of goal, but rather less secure at the other end, as the Darts left with a point.

Dartford took the lead eight minutes before half time, Sam Odaudu up from the back to give them the advantage- and it was an advantage they held until the sixty fourth minute, when Toby Aromolaran’s third goal in four matches drew the Tags level. Josh Rusoke then gave the hosts the lead, only for Denzelle Olopade to quickly bring the visitors level once more. Three minutes from time Ayo Olukoga looked to have won the match for United, but there was still time for Darts sub Olly Box to equalise. There was also time for the Tags to have another effort disallowed for offside, but the visitors left with a point. 

United are eighteenth, a point above the bottom four, whilst the Darts are eleventh. 

Two of our Premier sides were in Velocity Cup Third Round action.

Hastings United welcomed South East side Deal Town, and two second half goals saw them ease to victory. Tommie Fagg opened the scoring immediately after the break, and a red card for Deal’s Zak Hammond on sixty four minutes made United’s task a little easier. The home faithful waited quite a while for comfort to arrive in the form of a second goal, Davide Rodari scoring it five minutes into added time. United host Cray Valley PM in the next round. 

Wingate and Finchley have been in superb for, but much the same could be said about their opponents, North Division promotion chasers Tilbury- and the Blues ended the night as slain giants! It looked as if the hosts would be too strong for the Dockers after Ryan Lowe gave them an early lead, but Tilbury are nothing if not resilient, very much in the running for the title of comeback kings, and they did it again. As usual the architect of their victory was Alex Hernandez. The number nine got their equaliser on fifty seven minutes, and then ten minutes from time got what proved to be the winner, taking his tally as a Docker to a quite remarkable eleven goals- in eleven matches. Tilbury have never lost when he has scored. 

Tilbury have a similar trek in the next round, as they travel to Hendon.