New Season Upon Us

It is just 27 hours until the moment when Lewes start life, or hopefully just a year, in the Ryman Premier division. For the past two weeks we have been sitting around on our saturdays, or forced to go shopping while football league fans get to enjoy the football, well now the real stuff starts.

Forget Brighton and their shiny new stadia, forget the boring start to the premier league where not a single home team managed a win on the opening saturday. Oh no, we are about to experience some real football, and I for one am exited about this season.

Tommorow Lewes kick off there season with a tough start at one of the league favourites, Lowestoft Town who's last three fixtures have included a 3-0 win against Leiston and a 7-0 thrashing against Needham Market, there other result being a 4-1 win, whereas Lewes have suffered defeats to Eastbourne Town and Whitehawk but dominated the game against Crawley Down, winning 3-0.

Lewes's first home game of the season is the following wednesday when they host Metropolitan Police, just promoted from the ryman south. Their boxing day fixture is against rivals Hastings where ex-assistant manager Jason Hopkinsonis currently managing with a host of ex Lewes players including; Ross Sutton, Scott Manning, Aaron Hopkinson, Fred Foreman and talented winger George Jones.

Lewes will end the season at home to Harrow.

The trip to Lowestoft takes 5 hours by train and 3 hours by coach, Lewes will be hoping to pick up a win but it is widely viewed that a draw would also be a good result against a very tough side who, apart from Lewes have been made favourites by the bookies.



Lowestoft like Lewes have made a large number of signings, 21 to be exact and so both teams may not have gelled yet, although the 7-0 win for Lowestoft suggests otherwise.

Possible Line Ups:

Lewes:

GK Mark Zawadski
RB Max Hustwick
CB Steve Robinson
CB Dominic Sterling
LB Lewis Hamilton
CM Matt Somner
CM Hakeem Adelakun
CM Dwayne Lee
RF Michael Malcolm
CF Ian Draycott
LF Nic Ciardini

Lowestoft:

GK Reynolds
RB Smith
CB Crane
CB Marsden
LB Okay
CM Hendo
CM Ainsley
RW Mitchell
LW Stock
ST Lubo
ST Forbes

Lewis Hamilton may be injured after he came off at half time against Whitehawk when he had been limping for a while.

Warren Mc- been and gone

Warren McBean latest departure

Warren McBean has set the record for lowest amount of time playing for Lewes since signing from another club for the first team, Mcbean sis not play a single game for Lewes and has left beating Ashley Robinsons 40 mins since he signed from Eastbourne Town.

Warren McBean has left Lewes FC after he is having difficulties getting from his home in North London down to Lewes seeing as he is unable to drive. Rooks boss Steve King dismissed the set back as "one of those things in football" but says that he is pleased it happened now rather than later in the season as he now has time to sign a good replacement.

The perfects replacement could already be at Lewes in Wade Small, on trial at the club he made 25 appearances for Aldershot last season and scored twice in Lewes's friendly V Crawley Down on wednesday night.

Lewes do have plenty of force up front with; Booth, Draycott, Cade and Michael Malcolm who can all play up front,  they also have Goma Lambu on trial who made over 100 appearances for woking and can also play on the right wing as well as in a striker role.

Can We Play You Every Week?

Lewes V Crawley Down

Lewes FC have been drawn out against Ryman South side Crawley Down in the ryman league cup, who just two days earlier suffered 3-0 at the hands of Lewes in a pre-season friendly. The tie will be played at the Anvils home ground in Crawley where Lewes will hope to repeat their pre season victory.

Crawley Down have ex Lewes striker Tom Lyons up front who played for Lewes in their Conference Premier year. The tie takes place on the 17th of October.

Lewes Sign Gem In Jed

Jed Wallace

Lewes FC have made their 13th signing of the summer as the squad is being finalised for the trip to Lowestoft on saturday 20th of this month. The latest arrrival at the pan is 17 year old midfielder Jed Wallace from Farnborough.

Wallace's development was stalled last year when he suffered from a serious injury, however, he know hopes to continue developing and playing football at Lewes.

Wallace has already played football in Sweeden this summer in elite football where he supposedly did very well, he has also been on trial at football league club, where to Lewes's gain, he was not offered a deal.

Steve King is also trying to finalise deals for midfielder Hakeem Adelakun who will sign from Crystal Palace where he was in the acadamy with players like Nathinal Clyne. Another signing in the pipeline is Dwayne Lee, another powerful midfield player who has a host of experience including Barnet.

Also on trial at Lewes is Malvin Kamara, a right back or winger who also has plenty of football league experience, another is striker Wade Small who scored twice as Lewes beat Crawley Down on Wednesday night. Small has football league experience with Aldershot having made 25 appearances for them just last season.

Fabregas To Finally Complete Barca Return

Two key players for Arsenal; Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri are both on the verge of completing moves away from the club according to Arsenal manager Arsne Wenger. They will move to clubs Barcalona and Manchester City respectivly.

Fabregas is supposedly going for £35 million compared to Nasri's £22 million move.

"We hope it will be sorted out very quickly one way or the other," Wenger said of Fabregas.
"The Nasri situation is stable. Again it is very difficult to speak about possible transfers but we are in a situation where we have to make decisions one way or the other. Ideally you want it to be sorted out before the season starts."

All the funds from these sales will be made available for Wenger to spend on new players, he is likely to replace the two midfielders as well as signing a much needed defender to make the wobbly gunners defence more stable. Scott Dann, Phil Jagielka and Gary Cahill are just some of the names being linked to the London club.

Arsenal had hoped to gain £40 million for Fabregas but after the latest take it or leave it offer, they felt that they would have to let him go with the champions league registration coming up sson, and Wenger is keen to get the deals done before the start of the season. Fabregas will be due £4 million compensation from Arsenal, £1million for every year left on his contract, but it is believed that he will not demand that in order to make the deal easier.

Fabregas joined Arsenal from Barcalona in 2003 and Barca have been attempting to get him back dince 2010, in a deal that has been ridiculously dragged out and is now finally going to be wrapped up.

Nasri can move on a free next year, which Wenger stated he would allow him to do, but City want him now and would rather pay the £22 million for this season rather than wait till next summer when they would have the chance to get him on a free providing Arsenal don't talk him in to signing a new deal.

Lewes Look Like Force

Dwayne Lee

On wednesday evening Lewes were preparing for their final home friendly before the game up at Lowestoft on saturday the 20th. Their pre season form so far had been average having already had three games resulting in 3-2, Lewes being on the right scorline of two of them. However, against Crawley Down, the rooks looked like a proper team playing beautiful flowing football that has not been witnessed in red and black at the pan for some time.

Lewes again scored three goals in a game that saw Tom Lyons return to the pan for Crawley Down, but this time Lewes kept their first clean sheet of pre-season as Crawley were comprehensivly beaten.

The Rooks needed a few minutes to get into the game with a few balls pumped up field by Malvin Kamara not finding anyone up front, however it did not take long before Lewes clicked and were one up within four minutes courtesy of a Wade Small strike after being played through on goal where he made no mistake of smashing the ball into the top corner, giving good first impressions of the trialist from league 2 side Aldershot.

Crawley Down never looked like getting back in to the game and Lewes had numerous chances that could have resulted in goals. Their attacking play was execptional and with three players up front Lewes players were not short of attacking options when going forward, something Rooks fans may be unused to.

Nic Ciardini nearly created the next chance after the strong and powerful Hakeem Adelakun won the ball in midfield and immediatly picking out Ciardini who played a neat one two with Lewis Hamilton allowing Ciardini into the box where he squared the ball only for Crawley to clear.

The game was full of beautifully worked moves like this in which it was clear to see that Lewes had been practscing away on, promising delightful football this season.

Lewes could of had another when it was Michael Malcolm who was this time slipped through only for a vital block from Crawley stopping him from getting his shot away properly.

The second goal did come for Lewes though and once again it was Wade Small who stepped up to the mark when the ball was played down the left hand side and cut back across by Lewis Hamilton where it eventually found its way to the feet of Small who yet agin blasted the ball into the top of the net making sure there was a two goal cushion between the sides at half time.

After the break Lewes didn't let up and immediatly added a third when Nic Ciardini was sent running down the left and got away from his marker who slid rashley in the boc, bringing Ciardini down, giving Lewes fans a chance to see who would be taking penalties this season. The answer was Ciardini himself, having scored a few goals already in pre season, he took the spot kick confidently down in the bottom left beating the keeper despite going the right way.

After going 3-0 up Lewes gradually made change after change, breaking the sides flow a bit. Substitute Jed Wallace, a centeral midfielder from Farnborough, was in position to create a couple of great chances, but on both occasions failed to make the pay, the first he intercepted a sloppy pass near the box but managed to smash the cross way over the goal. The second chance was even better when he was played down the left hand side where he used his pace to get in past the defence and cut into the box but tried smashing the ball towards goal rather than squaring it across which didn't work out for him as he sent the ball wide.

Lewes kept pressing and Jamie Cade had a glorious chance to stake his place in the team when a clever exchange in passes between him and Paul Booth lead to him clean through only for him to smash the ball way over the bar and out of the grounds.

Lewes kept up their attacking style of play, but Crawley Down did have one good chance in a game Lewes dominated when a ball was played in from the right giving a Crawley striker a free header but Mark Zawadski was well placed to catch the ball and keep it out.

So Lewes next make the trip to Withdean to play against Whitehawk where they could face a selction of old faces including Chris Winterton, Sami El-Abd, Any Pearson and Joe Keehan, however one problem they will have to sought out is offsides and sloppy set pieces in what will surely be a tough test before they head off to Lowestoft for the first game of the season.

Lewes: Mark Zawadski, Malvin Kamara (Max Hustwick), Steve Robinson, Dominic Sterling, Lewis Hamilton (Jordan Lang), Hakeem Adelakun (Jaime Cade), Dwayne Lee (Jed Wallace), Matt Somner, Nic Ciardini (G.Lambu), Michael Malcolm (Ian Draycott), Wade Small (Paul Booth)

Bridport Battle To Remain Unbeaten

This week I visited the Dorset town of Chideock after realising that Dorset is the only county that does not have a motor way, my journey up taking over 5 hours after leaving at 7.30 am, showed me why Dorset desperatly needs one.

The journey up was meant to take a measly 3 hours, and all was going well until we stopped of at Ringwood to take the dog on a walk, when the traffic decided to build up on the road next to us so that we had nothing but sitting in a traffic jam for the rest of the journey.

Dinner was late the first night as a BBQ from Argos took a while to construct as the parts were extremly wobbly. When me and my friend, Matt had eventually constructed the dodgy contraption, it was lit immediatly due to hunger, only for the poor neibours to remove their washing from the line as the windsheild, designed by Argos didn't seem to stop the smoke from gassing the neibours... the burgers were nice though.

On tuesday we had planned to go and see Bridport town FC against Exeter Youths, Bridport were unbeaten before the game having played fixtures such as beating Dorchester 3-1 and drawing with Plymouth youths. Bridport play in the same colours as Lewes FC and it felt remarkably welcoming, with Lewes playing on the same night againt Hampton (3-2 win!) I could have been forgiven for thinking I was there.

On the day of the game we went to Hugh Fernly Whittingstalls resturant in Axeminster where i dulged into a £8 cooked breakfast which was very tasty although I could have done with more, but that is posh food places for you, unlike our day at Splashdown in Bournemouth where it was KFC for lunch and 'Maccy D's' for lunch.

The game started with Exeters young players outplaying Bridport with their beautiful passing motion which was quite a shock to see the young under 18's doing, however Bridport soon found their feet and looked good through their left back's pace running down the left causing Exeter big problems.

However it was Exeter who took the lead when a clever one two set the midfielder up on the edge of the box where he calmly side footed it into the very bottom right corner.

Not long before half time I went to get the burgers as Bridport had made an announcemnt that they would not be taking any more "orders" at half time. However in doing so I missed two goals, I completly missed the Bridport equaliser and I caught a glimps of Exeter taking the lead again literally on the half time whistle. A free kick was given on the left of the box where a simple ball was chipped in to the box for a youth player to head the ball home.

Despite the set back, Bridport were encouraged by the goal that they scored and battled on eventually levelling the game.

The Exeter sub goalkeeper was kept very busy and nearly caused trouble when a ball came in to the box and the young keeper rushed out for unnecissarily only for Bridport to win the ball and a shot was well blocked keeping the score level.

With only a minuet to go at 2-2 Bridport were confident of keeping up their unbeaten record in pre season, however Exeter were on the attack under the blare of the extremly bright floodlights. The youth team played a low ball into the box which was deflected out where the same midfielder was given far too much time to hit the ball home again to surely give Exeter the win.

But yet again Bridport were not giving up and had a penalty shout moments later when an Exeter substitute slipped in the area and handelled the ball, however the referee claimed not to see, much to the disturbance of the three old women sitting behind us who gave us a laugh with their constant noises throughout the match, this decision drawing a particularly memorable "oooohhhh"

However, Bridport did eventually get their penalty when a Exeter challenge appeared to win the ball but maybe the referee regretted his earlier decision and so awarded Bridport the penalty which was calmly slotted away by Dan Wise to maintain Bridports unbeaten record.