Lewes 3 v 1 Bognor Regis Town

[cityboy]

Left it 24 hours to sleep on what I witnessed at the game.
My sympathy goes out to Robbie who prior to the game was informed that all his first choice centre backs were sick/injured and in normal circumstances shouldn't be playing. As the game progressed this became blantly obvious eith Robbo being sick on the side of the pitch and Cameron totally off the pace.
Add to the that Joe and Josh not having their best of games then our new keeper was faced with a baptism of fire. In fairness I think he did really well and looks a real find for the 2nd half of the season.
Other positives were Isaac having his best game for several months; 16 year old Joe Briffa having a league debut and performing admirably. Sami put in another good shift as well.
As for the game .a soft penalty early on; plus a sloppy 2nd goal put Lewes firmly in charge. A superb strike by Nathan midway through the 2nd half gave us hope; and for a period of time we looked the better team and may have equalised but for a clearance off the line. The 3rd goal was a breakaway in injury time as Bognor pushed for the equaliser.
With this defeat, and most teams below us picking up points Bognor are being dragged into a relwgation quagmire.
The team has to start picking up points or we will be looking nervously over our shoulders.
Game best summed up New Year same mistakes!!!!
Let's hope for a change of fortunes Saturday.

[Dodgy Keeper]

Cityboy is spot on with his relegation zone concerns. Two points from a possible 18 in the last six games will spell major trouble if we don't improve. And we're only half way through the season (21 games to play). Only Kingstonian are worse than us. Things would look different if Harvey, Crane, Jake, Tom and Calvin were all fit for the next 21 games but that's not going to happen. Sam McLeod is a good acquisition and did very well filling in for Craig in the 2nd half.

[Pete Helsby]

Jan 3, 2023 10:01:13 GMT 1 Dodgy Keeper said:

Cityboy is spot on with his relegation zone concerns. Two points from a possible 18 in the last six games will spell major trouble if we don't improve. And we're only half way through the season (21 games to play). Only Kingstonian are worse than us. Things would look different if Harvey, Crane, Jake, Tom and Calvin were all fit for the next 21 games but that's not going to happen. Sam McLeod is a good acquisition and did very well filling in for Craig in the 2nd half.

And there you have hit it on the head. Injuries have hit us hard.

[Rattlesnake]

Not sure of our situation requiring any more loan signings, but Portsmouth sacking the Cowley brothers might affect us. Will the next Pompey manager be as willing to loan players out to us?

[cg07]

It was a much better display in the second half, I think Lethbridge gave a lot to the team in the last half hour after not playing many minutes recently. We’re now only 6 points off Corinthian Casuals and that’s worrying as when we played them at home they looked a very poor side. Hopefully the new manager will still allow the loans, I don’t see why any manager who wants his players to gain experience wouldn’t. Aveley on Saturday will be another tough game but like what was said after Horsham, it only takes one result to turn things around.

[stevebone]

Here's a match report from Liam and some pics from Lyn and Trevor - www.sussexexpress.co.uk/sport/football/rooks-v-rocks-taylor-double-helps-lewes-beat-out-of-form-bognor-3971903

[jennyfromtherox]

It was the same last year when we played Lewes, the whole squad was hit by Covid. This year it’s a gastric flu bug that causes sickness. It is all over Bognor Regis.

I think this year we have been a victim of our own success and the Trophy run made us play 2 games a week during November. Never mind the players it was exhausting working adult weekends with football sandwiched in the middle. It was inevitable that when we played catch up with our league games we would have a dip in form. The same happened to Bowers and Pitsea last year and they stayed up and most fans enjoyed the Trophy run.

I don’t think this team is any worse than last year, in fact you could argue that because of the Trophy run it is better. However with limited resources there is always a cost and that is our league position. I expect once we have regained a few injured players we will climb the table again.

This league is much of a muchness and on any day any team can beat another. There are fine lines between winning and losing and injured or sick players make a difference. Horsham was a tense Sussex derby decided by a mistake. I hope Toby doesn’t take it too much to heart because most fans agreed after the game this is how keepers learn, even Stoner told me that. The point is fine lines make a difference and that includes our support at home that has been very good. You only have to see the reaction of the visiting teams when they win down here to see that we push them hard.

I don’t think this team is “cr*p” or “sh*t” (nor do the visiting teams) and that type of criticism is unhelpful. They have a never give up attitude and in both games v Horsham and Lewes, we were going for the equaliser when we got caught on the break. I would sooner the team attack to get points than defend to keep the score line down.

I think we can and will make 2023 a better year for the Rocks but we just need to get behind Robbie, Jamie and the team, a goal and a win will make all the difference COYR !

[Goldy]

Jan 3, 2023 8:18:53 GMT 1 cityboy said:

Left it 24 hours to sleep on what I witnessed at the game.
My sympathy goes out to Robbie who prior to the game was informed that all his first choice centre backs were sick/injured and in normal circumstances shouldn't be playing. As the game progressed this became blantly obvious eith Robbo being sick on the side of the pitch and Cameron totally off the pace.
Add to the that Joe and Josh not having their best of games then our new keeper was faced with a baptism of fire. In fairness I think he did really well and looks a real find for the 2nd half of the season.
Other positives were Isaac having his best game for several months; 16 year old Joe Briffa having a league debut and performing admirably. Sami put in another good shift as well.
As for the game .a soft penalty early on; plus a sloppy 2nd goal put Lewes firmly in charge. A superb strike by Nathan midway through the 2nd half gave us hope; and for a period of time we looked the better team and may have equalised but for a clearance off the line. The 3rd goal was a breakaway in injury time as Bognor pushed for the equaliser.
With this defeat, and most teams below us picking up points Bognor are being dragged into a relwgation quagmire.
The team has to start picking up points or we will be looking nervously over our shoulders.
Game best summed up New Year same mistakes!!!!
Let's hope for a change of fortunes Saturday.

Spot on Dave,not much to really add to that.

We will come good,I’m sure of it but we need start to picking up points asap. A tough next 3 fixtures coming up.
Back the lads,get behind them. Up The Rocks

[ronnie]

We may have had sickness but again defensively we looked all over the place. Sloppy goals have cost us big style. New keeper must be wondering what he’s in for! Just don’t get what formation we’re trying to play?

Won’t rip into them after another disappointing result, we move on.