Desperate match yesterday not surprisingly due to it being contested by two teams desperate for points to stay up. My day seemed to be reflected by the changing weather. Beautiful Spring sunshine on the train down to the coast, a slight detour via Brighton due to engineering works having the benefit of going through Falmer and seeing Albion's impressive new ground. Reports say that season ticket sales for next season are well into five figures which must have non league clubs across Sussex worried about losing their floating support to the Seagulls who have timed their title season well.
Not that Lewes will be too worried as their location is attractive enough to lure supporters from beyond the county line. Despite their ongoing struggle to stay up the Rooks have undergone a renaissance off it since becoming a community owned club last summer. The list of patrons in the impressive programme is peppered with names from the media and arts which with its egalitarian ethos resembles the way football clubs in the former Eastern bloc were set up in the name of certain professions or industries. Perhaps they should twin with Polonia Warsaw, the Polish capital's club originally set up by white collar intellectuals, and who have lived long in the shadow of larger neighbour Legia. Anyway the changes had not stopped the Harveys flowing in the bar so as far as I was concerned it was business as usual.
The game itself was instantly forgettable but will be remembered by all present for the significance of the result. For the record Lewes' winner came in stoppage time from the penalty spot and that was about it in terms of goalscoring opportunities as the sun went in and the chilly wind got stronger. The two clubs have the two worst scoring records in the division which signals why both are struggling. On the evidence of this afternoon little will change this season. Lewes though will live to fight another day, whilst the Magpies are looking for the sort of revival led by Dennis Greene six years ago to have any hope of going into the final game with the chance to stay up. Otherwise its back to weekends visiting nice places and watching poor football in the Zamaretto League. Like the Harveys the journey home left a bitter taste.
2 comments:
“The list of patrons in the impressive programme is peppered with names from the media and arts”
All well and good, but have they got a patron with royal links, stretching back over 1000 years, to every single reigning and non-reigning Royal Family in Europe, like Prince Sid of Withington?!
“the Magpies are looking for the sort of revival led by Dennis Greene six years ago to have any hope of going into the final game with the chance to stay up”
The (relative) revival under Greene (9 points out of 12 prior to damp squib defeat at Newport on the last day) did, of course, include a 1-0 win over last Saturday’s opponents, albeit at York Road rather than the Dripping Pan.
I wonder if history will repeat itself, with the Magpies staging a revival (of sorts) before the season ends in disappointment, only for us to be reprieved in the summer (as we were by Hornchurch’s demotion in 2004/05).
Any possible candidates to save us from the drop this time around, even if we were to finish in the relegation places?
“Otherwise its back to weekends visiting nice places and watching poor football in the Zamaretto League”
As opposed to weekends visiting nice places and watching poor football in the Blue Sq Bet South, as per last Saturday?!
Well on the basis of last Saturday's evidence Lewes will also be playing in a lower division next season, unfortunately that will probably be Ryman rather than Zamaretto.
All the AGM Cup news seems to be about clubs in the Premier coming down one division so no help to us. The only one in our division in desperate trouble are St. Albans
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