At the risk of sounding like one of those Sky pundits who have nothing other than a thick wodge of clichés to offer, this was one of those games that needed a spark. A flare up, a coming together, a spot of fisticuffs. It arrived late in the first half and it turned the game.
From my perch on the Philcox, it looked like a Hastings forward led with his elbow in a challenge with Jack Enkh. Our bench were – understandably – furious, and it triggered a minor free-for-all with almost every player and both benches involved. The kind of scenes that “nobody wants to see” that everyone actually loves to see.
None more so than the kids right behind the dugouts in the main stand:
Look at their faces. Just look at their faces:
After a conversation that lasted longer than a Kevin Costner film, the referee took the “Christ knows what happened there” option of booking one player from each side and both managers, leaving the elbow swinger out of his notebook completely. Baffling, but the spark had been lit.
Because, frankly, up until that point we’d been flatter than a week-old pint of Guinness. We just couldn’t get going, not helped by conceding a soft goal in the opening few minutes. Big Ben Mundele – covering for the crocked Jerry Puemo at centre-back – tried to hook a through ball away, but he could only bang it into the chest of the onrushing striker, Vigar, who planted it past the stranded Toby Bull to give Hastings a fourth-minute lead.
Big Ben almost made amends at the other end, when he jinked his way into the box and slipped a ball into Danny Bassett, who shot just wide, but until the flare-up, that was really all we managed to scrape together in an attacking sense.
With the crowd roused by the push-and-shove, however, we suddenly sprang back to life. Moments after the restart from the contretemps, we broke down the right and the crossed ball struck the outstretched arm of a Hastings defender. A stonewall penalty, but again denied. Then Bassett broke free down the left and forced a decent save from the Hastings stopper.
Half-time came at the wrong time, to lapse back into the Sky pundit phrasebook, but though we didn’t start the second half with the same momentum, we were definitely on top. Hastings tried to sit deep and hit us on the counter, their two best chances coming from their full-backs galloping forwards, but we had the lion’s share of the ball.
We thought the equaliser had arrived midway through the second period when Bassett broke free again down the right and bore down on goal. Everyone was expecting a shot, everyone that is apart from Danny himself, who squared it to substitute Nabeel Ghannam with the goal gaping. Unlike the Labour front bench, Ghannam couldn’t accept the gift, and the chance trickled to agonising safety.
The equaliser did arrive late on. Shae Hutchinson was a bundle of energy when he emerged off the bench, and he set up the goal magnificently. He chased a lost cause into the far corner, kept it in and darted past the flagging Jack Dixon before cutting the ball back to Bassett, who prodded a low shot past the keeper.
A point well earned, and with almost everyone else at the trophy end of the table failing to win, we still sit three points clear at the top, despite not winning a game for almost a month. Funny old game, as a pundit once remarked.
Lewes: Bull, Warren, Mundele, Kaiser, Enkh, Allen (Ghannam), Muirhead (Morris), Sablier, Allsopp (Hutchinson), Ladapo (Williams), Bassett
Sub not used: Olds
Supporters Club man of the match: Danny Bassett’s bursts behind the Hastings back line caused them problems all afternoon. Well, most of it.
Video highlights from Your Instant Replay:
Boyesy’s brilliant photos:
