I had intended to catch the last few minutes of Saturday’s match, writes Mike Wallis. Arriving at Lewes station around half four and seeing some Lewes shirted folk get on the train to Brighton I’d assumed we’d already been beaten and headed home myself.
Two late goals and a hike along a dual carriageway later we find ourselves back at the grand surroundings of Flamingo Park for a game of padel FA Cup replay.
Spinks and Allen forced to watch from the sidelines, the match ball has its own plinth and the Cray keeper has a proper 90s David Beckham tribute haircut.
The first half was a pretty even affair, Lewes creating chances which somehow managed to fall to full-backs who didn’t know what to do with them and Cray creating the odd chance, one in particular forcing a great save from Louis. Also some quite agricultural challenges, Tyres Owen with probably the worst, not even being shown a yellow for one that could well have been a red if a VAR was interfering. A late Lewes corner ended with four players and no ball in the net.
Last season they’d scored by the time we’d walked down here, said your editor as we walked down to the far end. Which was promptly followed by Lewes making a mess of clearing a corner and Cray’s number 9 flicking in the resulting cross.
Lewes had the better chances after that: Gondoh smacking one against the bar, Bassett smashing a shot into the golf course next door, Owen getting flattened in the penalty area and getting booked for a dive.
And apart from the weirdly fussy referee booking most of the players on the pitch, that was that. It feels like an awfully long time since we won an FA Cup game (Tony Russell was in fact the last men’s manager to do so), but at least it wasn’t a team from two leagues below knocking us out this year.
Lewes: Rogers, Cox, Mundele (Muirhead), Hamstead, Enkh, Owen, Briggs, Fisher (Garzon), Unwin (Bassett), Gondoh, Walker (Newson)
Unused subs: Richardson, Clarke, Christian-Law
Supporters Club player of the match: Big Ben Mundele, who flitted between back three and back four roles with aplomb, and roared forward like Sol Campbell on a couple of occasions.