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| Booth puts Lewes ahead from the spot |
The team was a changed one after the embarrassing 4-1 defeat to Chertsey the week before, however the changes seemed to be mostly injury based. The first change saw new loanee Liam Mitchell placed between the sticks ahead of Stuart Robinson who has reportedly walked out after being dissapointed at a loan keeper being brought in. The next change saw Kamara replaced at right back with Lewis Hamilton, in line for a suspension, playing at right back rather than left.
This change meant that Dwayne Sterling could come back in to the side at left back. The formation was also changed as Lewes went for a 4-3-1-2 formation with Adelakun and another new loanee George Nicholson filling in for the injured Matt Somner and Nic Ciardini meaning that Lewes went with one attacking midfielder in Christian Nanetti and leaving the front two the same.
Cray started the game with intent and it took a while for Lewes to find their feet, within minutes Cray could have taken the lead when a drilled ball across the box from the left bounced through everyone before being smashed over the bar from close range. A similar chance from the other side looked like it was begging for a finish before new keeper Liam Mitchell snathed the ball away from the strikers feet.
With scouts from Brighton again coming to see Nanetti he looked keen to impress as he dinked his way past a couple of players before cutting inside and sending a smashing shot straight at the topcorner which was marvolousy saved. The resulting corner very nearly fell to Steve Robinson but was well blocked before he could get his head on it.
Again Cray started to attack and a mix up between Hamilton and Robinson saw Christian Saunders creep through on goal before wasting the chance and smashing the ball way over the goal unneccisarily from range.
About 15 minutes in and Lewes suddenly found their feet and some clever play by Nanetti saw Michael Malcolm have a brilliant chance from six yards out whoch he somehow managed to get over the bar, not quite as bad as last week at Tooting but still had Lewes fans wondering when it will go in for him.
Lewes continued to attack but their play was broken when Christian Nanetti came under a strong challenge where the player seemed to go over the ball, with Nanetti protesting the player should at least be shown a yellow, the referee only awarded a free kick.
However nanetti got his revenge on the 35th minute when again he was causing trouble on the right hand side before driving in to the box and a quick flick saw him take the ball away from his man who dived in a caught Nanetti which saw the lino flag for a penalty. The Cray players protested furiously as they were unhappy that the referee only gave it because the lino flagged.
Paul Booth stepped up in the absence of Nic Ciardini and proffesionaly put the ball into the top corner of the net with clam and prosision.
Lewes had a magnificant chance of making it 2-0 when a clever free kick from Dwayne Lee found Malcolm comepletly unmarked in the area, however the ball also caught Malcolm asleep and he blazed the ball over the bar with a side footed effort.
Just before half time Cray had put the ball into the back of Lewes's net when Tydone Sterling flicked the ball on with his head only for the lino to dissallow the goal for a marginal offside.
Just inside the second half and Malcolm had his third glorious chance of the afternoon and surely this one would have to go in for him, but once again after being played through on goal he tried lobbing the keeper but got it horribly wrong and the keeper only had to reach out an arm to catch the ball in the air.
The second half was even more uneventful than the first as both teams lost their attacking edge and Cray didn't come up with as much as expected bringing on defenders at one stage. However this all changed when they decided to go to three defenders at the back. Nanetti was at work again, this time in a defensive role as a volley was sent hard at goal and looked to be going in until Nanaetti made a great block to keeep the ball away from goal. The ball was scrambled around in the Lewes area a few times but never really looked like going in until a mix up in defence saw the ball trickle through the Lewes penalty area, fortunatly the strikers missing it as well until Sterling cleared the ball away.
Draycott also had a shot blocked late on. In the last minute of injury time a debatable free kick was given to Cray just outside the Lewes penalty area, the keeper went forward with the defence as Cray went out and out to try and get an equaliser but the ball hit the wall and Sterling sent Malcolm running at the open goal, however he hesitated and a brilliant tackle denied him the opprtunity allowing Draycott to go for goal from range but by this time the keeper was back in his goal to keep the score at 1-0 to Lewes.
Lewes: Liam Mitchell, Lewis Hamilton, Steve Robinson, Max Hustwick, Dominic Sterling, Dwayne Lee, Hakeem Adelakun, George Nicholas, Christian Nanetti, Michael Malcolm, Paul Booth(Ian Draycott)
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