football rambles

 Last Saturday I was down in London so decided to go to Wingate & Finchley v Lewes in the Isthmian Premier. At the start of the day the two teams were placed in 8th and 9th, so it was always likely to be a close game. At the start the poor weather conditions made it hard for either team to dominate, but Lewes at least to me looked the more assured of the two teams. Therefore when Wingate & Finchley took the lead on a counter attack on half after half an hour it did come as a bit of a surprise. However, the Finchley scorer Ogo Obi made it 21 for the season so far, so it definitely doesn't pay to give him a chance. The remaining 15 minutes of the half were played in atrocious conditions which seemed to suit the hosts more as they tried to build on their lead and could have if there hadn't been a foul on the keeper and Obi hadn't missed another good chance ( despite what I just said!). The second half continued to be fairly even, and Lewes looked pretty tight in defenc...

After beating Woking 3-2 at home, then losing 4-3 away to Histon and then drawing 2-2 at home with Kidderminster the game between Burton Albion and Lewes always promised to be a goal fest and we weren't disappointed. Burton started off as if they meant business and nobody was surprised when Greg Pearson fired the Brewers ahead after just 10 minutes with his cleverly picked out goal, which was his 5th already this season. However, the lead didn't last for long and Scott Taylor levelled things due to a defensive error on 15 minutes. Another Burton mistake led to Lewes going 2-1 up just 4 minutes later, when Adam Yates, who is on loan from Morecambe fell over and handled the ball in the box. Michael standing levelled from the spot. Nigel Clough, the Burton manager has said that although he is happy that Burton seem to be able to get goals from anywhere, he isn't happy with the number of errors the team are making defensively and today would have been no different. At the same ...

Today's visitors to Burton are Lewes FC, and the Rooks, as they are known, must be suffering from a nose bleed as the Conference National is the highest league they have ever been in. Lewes were formed in 1885 and prior to 1920 they played in the West Sussex League before being promoted to the Sussex League where they stayed until 1965 when they were promoted to the Athenian League Division 2. In 1968 they won promotion to Division 1. In 1977 they were again promoted, this time to the Isthmian League division 2 and 3 years later made it to division 1 where they remained until 1991 when a rot set in. Two years later they found themselves in division 3 of the Isthmian. In 1998 the former Northern Ireland International, Jimmy Quinn, took charge of the club and steered them to 2 consecutive promotions up to the Isthmian League Division 1 South. In 2003-2004 Lewes won promotion to the Conference South and at the end of last season finally managed to get into non-league's promised la...