The Dripping Pan is consistently voted the loveliest, most welcoming ground in the country. Cuddlier than a Sunday night on the sofa with Cat Deeley and the Andrex puppy. Well, yesterday, it lost some of that fluffiness.
This game had an underlying current of aggro, and it started before a ball had been kicked. Just watch the young mascot paired with keeper Louis Rogers in the pre-match handshakes at the start of the highlights video:
My word, that lad’s got some sass. He’s virtually taken the lino’s hand off with the opening fist bump. No wonder the major decisions went against us. The officials were too busy wondering if they’ll ever play guitar again.
It wasn’t only the mascots who were a bit mardy. There was aggro between Ryan Bernal and the opposition after goals were scored. And there was a kerfuffle between the benches which (I think) resulted in our kit man getting sent off and assistant manager Ben Austin getting in a tangle with our ex-manager Tosh, now in charge of Cray.
You can see Tosh getting the Ben Austin side-eye in this brilliant Boyesy photo. No wonder Tosh is making sure there’s a few of his players between him and Stone Cold Austin. That look could break Putin.
Meanwhile, if the kit man did see red, club sec John Peel will be busy examining the implications of him sitting out a three-game touchline ban. What happens when we need to bring a sub on? The club will have to invest in one of those T-shirt cannons, so he can fire on the kit from the stands.
Of course, the bit of aggro that swung this game was the red card for Kaan Bennett (mysteriously omitted from the highlights video).
Manager Brad defended Bennett in his post-match interview, said he thought the red card was harsh. Brad, of course, is the loveliest man on Earth and he’s going to defend his player, but I’m not sure I agree. Granted, I didn’t see Bennett’s first yellow, apparently earned for a tussle on the halfway line. But minutes later he lost control of the ball and then lunged into a challenge to try and retrieve it, one of those challenges that instantly makes you wince like Eric Morecambe.
Off he went for a second yellow and the game swung, with the Rooks’ 2-0 lead suddenly looking decidedly iffy. It’s a shame, because up until that point Bennett and the entire team had been brilliant. Last week’s cup collapse was quickly erased from memory, as we started brightly, creating more decent chances in the opening ten minutes than we did in the entire game against Flackwell.
Arezki Hamouchene had already tested the keeper once before the tricksy little midfielder gave us an 11th minute lead. He gobbled up the ball from Bennett, cut inside past the defender and planted the ball low past Harry Seaden to give the Rooks a deserved lead.
We dominated the first half with slick passing and rapid counter attacks, with Hamouchene, Bennett, Bernal and Morgan all looking dangerous every time we got the ball. Cray, meanwhile, were reduced to lumping hopeless long balls that brought back distant memories of Tosh’s less-than-glorious reign at the Rooks. And if we’re talking about double bookings, Cray’s family-sized no.5 was somewhat fortunate to escape a first-half first-dibs on the Radox of his own, when he pulled back the breaking Bennett having already chalked up a yellow card moments earlier.
It was no travesty whatsoever when we doubled our lead just after the half hour. A corner had turned into a WWF wrestling match, but ignoring all the limbs lying prostrate in the box, the ball fell to Finlay Chadwick who struck a magnificent Thunderbastard into the top-left corner.
The game could have been out of sight by the time the red arrived, had sub Devonte West’s Chadwick-like effort not been superbly tipped over by the keeper at the start of the second half. But as soon as the red card was flashed, it became an uncomfortable backs-to-the-wall job.
To be fair to Tosh, three half-time changes had already given the visitors more threat. And it was the most threatening of them all, winger Ashley Nzala, who pulled the first goal back on the 78th minute, his low shot creeping under Louis Rogers. The keeper won’t be adding that one to his Insta reels…
The equaliser had a looming sense of inevitability about it, especially when ten minutes were added on. And so it came on the 95th minute, Quade Taylor bundling home a scruffy, deflected effort.
Still, all’s fair in love and draw. And Tosh even got a warm hug from Stone Cold Austin at the end. Told you we were the cuddly club.
Lewes: Rogers, Asiedu, Gayle, Burchell, Bernal (Erskine), Morgan, Chadwick, Christmas (Swainston), Hamouchene (Maguire-Drew), Bennett, Figueira (West)
Unused sub: Walker
Supporters Club man of the match: Several strong contenders, not least wonder-goal scorer Chadwick and Antonio Morgan, but Arezki Hamouchene just seals it for tying Cray’s midfield in knots – until one of their industrial centre-backs kicked him out of the game.
Boyesy’s brilliant photos:
