Sorry to start on a bad note, but there was troubling news of a derailment just before kick-off. The zip on Al ‘The Spreadsheet’ Sayers’ infamous yellow coat had come off the tracks.

That yellow coat has history. It’s served Al through three decades, two marriages, and five Turkish villas. Here it is making one of its hundreds of Rooks appearances at Worthing in 2021.

Other supporters have tried to take on the yellow coat mantle over the years, like this chancer at Whitehawk in 2023…

…but there’s only one yellow coat, and we hope that The Current Mrs Sayers and a £1.50 pack of replacement zips from Amazon can work their magic once again, and restore this historic garment to its rightful place on the terraces.

There was something of a mend-and-make-do attitude to team selection for the Rooks too, with the Rooks’ injury crisis showing no signs of receding. Hamilton Antonio, The Kaiser, Jack Enkh and now injury-time Trophy hero Alfie Allen were all racking up the Deep Heat expenses, meaning there were two new faces on the bench: defender Michael Elechi and forward Gianluca Botti. The latter of which sounds a bit like a fake sobriquet for Francesco Totti in Pro Evolution Soccer, before they licensed the proper names, but is actually a 23-year-old forward with a Joe Tayloresque strike rate.

Alas, a goal or two was all that was missing from a tremendous first-half performance from the Rooks, one that was every bit the equal to the first half at Cray Wanderers where we came in 3-0 to the good.

We created chance after chance after chance. Tolu Ladapo and Danny Bassett where getting behind their full-backs time after time, while Shay Hutchinson was bursting past the stodgy centre-backs in the middle. Ladapo gave his full-back such a hard time that he was replaced at half-time and sent for counselling.

Yet, try as we might, we couldn’t force the ball into the net. Ghannam hit the post from range, defenders blocked a couple of goalbound efforts on the six-yard box, and a couple of decent penalty shouts were waved away by the officials.

Even though the home side took the lead on nine minutes (a sweeping counter-attack that was prodded in by John Ufuah after Toby Bull saved the original shot) their manager was losing his swede. He was furious at the officials, furious at his own players, even furious with your correspondent for a minute or two, when we politely requested he stop moaning and return to his technical area.

Boyesy captured his touchline demeanour perfectly:

The second half started much like the first, with us continuing to press, albeit with a new left-back keeping a better eye on Tolu Ladapo than his predecessor. We were beginning to wonder if the equaliser would ever come when Marcus Sablier slalomed past his man in the penalty area and had his ankles whipped away from behind. It was such a clear penalty, even the home-baked officials couldn’t deny it.

Danny Bassett whacked home the spot-kick:

It all went very end-to-end after that, with both teams pushing for the winner. In fact, Danny Bassett was pushing so hard that he pinged his hamstring when making yet another break down the left, which means he will almost certainly be a new entry in the injury database for a few weeks.

But doesn’t it say everything about this squad’s character that, despite hobbling along with a hand on his thigh, Bassett joined the end-of-match hand slaps with the fans? I like this bunch. I like them a lot.

Lewes: Bull, Puemo, McIntosh, Mundele, Muirhead, Warren, Ghannam (Allsopp), Sablier, Ladapo (Williams), Bassett (Morris) , Hutchinson (Botti)

Unused sub: Elechi

Supporters Club man of the match: Marcus Sablier is like a metronome in midfield, he keeps everything ticking. Delightful through balls and winning the penalty edge him ahead of other strong contenders.