Lewes beaten by Chatham – response needed in Sussex derby at Horsham

It was disappointing after the previous week’s win at Hastings and meant they slipped to 11th in the Isthmian Premier table.

Lewes will hope to respond when they visit Horsham on Saturday.

Tony Russell made three changes to the side that won 3-1 at Hastings United in their previous game, with Ayo Olukoga, Marcus Sablier and Ola Ogunwamide replacing Ronnie Vint, missing through suspension, Bradley Pritchard and Ryan Gondoh in the starting line-up.

There were few chances of note early on, but the better of the opportunities that were created fell to Lewes, who saw Kalvin Lumbombo-Kalala head an Ogunwamide cross wide at the far post, before Arthur Penney headed a Kieran Murtagh free-kick straight at Mitchell Beeney in the Chatham goal.

The visitors soon began to push for the opening goal themselves, with Miquel Scarlett drawing a smart save from Nathan Harvey at the end of a sweeping move down the right.

Beeney was called into action towards the end of the half, getting down well to keep out a strike from Lumbombo-Kalala after a quickly-taken Lewes corner.

Despite this, Chatham should have gone into the break ahead, only for the unmarked Chris Dickson to head a Jamie Mascoll cross wide from close range.

The early stages of the second half followed a similar pattern to the first, with plenty of endeavour from both sides but very few moments of genuine goal-mouth action.

The visitors began to enjoy the better of proceedings as the half progressed, with Jake Elliott clearing well after Dickson had beaten Harvey to a through-ball, before Kareem Isiaka blasted a presentable chance over the bar after more good play down the left by Mascoll.

Chatham continued to push for the opening goal, a deflected Simon Cooper cross being headed onto the bar by substitute Rowan Liburd, and a powerful goal-bound effort on the rebound being superbly blocked by Elliott.

The visitors took the lead their second-half pressure had been threatening on 77 minutes, as a deflected Jordy Robins strike from the edge of the area found its way through a crowd of players and past Harvey.

Lewes came close to an unorthodox equaliser almost immediately, as Beeney appeared to misjudge a powerful Cooper pass-back only for the ball to bounce juat wide.

Chatham were handed an excellent chance to double their lead at the start of seven minutes of injury-time after being awarded a penalty when Elliott was harshly adjudged to have fouled Isiaka in the area, despite appearing to make contact with the ball with his challenge.

Jamie Yila made no mistake with the spot-kick, sending Harvey the wrong way to make it 2-0 and ensure the visitors would be taking all three points back to Kent.

There was still for them to add a third goal deep into stoppage time, Yila powerfully heading a corner past Harvey from close range to give the score line a slightly flattering look.

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