What’s he meant to do? Seriously, what’s he meant to do?

It’s the 90th minute and Dulwich have won a corner. We’ve been under the gun for the past 15 minutes, ever since Danny Mills bulleted in a header from a previous corner, but we’ve defended well. Real bodies on the line stuff, which is saying something after the hideous injury Marcel McIntosh picked up on Saturday.

The corner lands at the feet of Luke Wanadio, who’s been a proper pain in the arse all evening. Wanadio cracks it on the volley, straight at Jerry Puemo (I called it as Tolu Ladapo on commentary and on the forum earlier – apologies to both) who is standing five yards away. Puemo’s arms are tucked in by his side. He doesn’t move his arm towards the ball, it just whacks him, at speed, at almost point-blank range. I ask again: what is he meant to do?

I’ve watched the video a dozen times and can’t see what’s even entering the referee’s mind. The ref only sees it once, of course, but even 100 yards away in the commentary box, I called it a travesty at the time. The Dulwich fans chatting in the bar afterwards said they would be fuming if it were given against them. The only person in the entire ground who thinks it’s a penalty is the one who counts.

How’s your luck? By rights we should be five points better off than we are currently. We’d as good as won the game on Saturday, but in all likelihood it will be played afresh, with Cray Valley wiping out two goals and the most deserved red card you’ll ever see, because a player with a broken leg couldn’t be moved.

And, in all likelihood, we would have taken the three points here if it wasn’t for the referee’s brain fart.

Now, to be absolutely fair to Dulwich, they arguably deserved to get something from the game. They gave us a torrid opening five or ten minutes and they bossed the last 15. In between, I thought we looked largely in control, even if we weren’t exactly peppering their goal with shots.

That’s all the more impressive given the make-mend-and-do back four we had out. Josh Spinks, newly recruited for imploding Haywards Heath, had a superb debut alongside Puemo. Matty Warren was at right back, before he had to shift over to the left to cover an(other) injury to Big Ben Mundele, who tweaked something just before half-time. That meant Alfie Allen – recently returned from the physio’s bed himself – had to fill in at right-back. So that’s two midfielders at full-backs and the 142nd centre-back pairing we’ve fielded this season, and yet we still played bloody well for large parts.

The Boy Botti is settling in, too. He grabbed a brace here, both from close range, although that doesn’t do justice to the quality of the finishing. The first came from Matty Warren’s whipped cross from the left, even though he was nominally right-back at the time – his heatmap looks like a football pitch ablaze. Matty’s cross had plenty of weight on it and Botti did really well to slide in and prod it home from thigh height.

The second was started by a brilliant tackle from Puemo, which set Bassett free down the left, and his brilliant back-stick cross was prodded beneath the keeper by our eager Anglo-Italian.

Dulwich hadn’t forced Bull to make a save in the second half, until Danny Mills – a Lewes nemesis over the years – emerged from the bench and headed home a corner at the near post. We could barely make two consecutive passes in the final stretch, but it looked like we were going to hold out until, well, that thing happened. Grrr.

Lewes: Bull, Warren, Spinks, Puemo, Mundele (Allen), Muirhead, Sablier, Allsopp (Ghannam), Ekpiteta (Hutchinson), Bassett, Botti (Ladapo)

Unused sub: Maliq Morris

Supporters Club man of the match: Several strong contenders, but given it was his debut and a step up in quality from where he’s spent the past few seasons, Josh Spinks made a very assured start.

Video highlights from Your Instant Replay:

Boyesy’s brilliant photos: