Tranmerekat on Tour: Rook The Casbah

Lewes FC away to Bognor Regis Town FC in the Isthmian Premier League at the MKM Arena

The Rocks play host to the Rooks in a Sussex derby at the Nye Camp. East meets West on an autumnal evening on the Sussex coast. Hopefully the rain seems to have been and gone for today. Fingers crossed it stays dry. We have split loyalties tonight as we love our local team, the Rooks, but Dougie is back at Rocks at four seasons at the Hornets🐝. He came off the bench late on in their 3-2 loss away at Cheshunt. The Rooks won 2-0 at home to Chatham despite having a change of manager and big turnover of players in the summer. A few favourites have gone as we saw at the Hornets. Dougie looks like he is playing left mid field or left wing. Making use of his left foot🦶.

The Rocks are on top from the start and the Rooks look sloppy in possession. Neither can get a good shot on goal as both are defending well. There is an odd incident where the Rock's striker appears to be pushed in the back by a Rooks defender who then goes down like he's been shot in the ear. It's ends up as a Rooks free kick near their corner flag. Bizarre. Hope that's not how it's going to continue with lots of unnecessary rolling around pretending to be dying. Not great to watch. It doesn't re-occur and it turns into a good flowing game although not much of it in the final 3rds. The Rocks have the upper hand with a little more quality their attacking possession. Ben Mundele is replaced by Patrick Muirhead on 21 for an injury off the ball that looked like a hamstring. Was on his feet to leave the pitch so hope he's ok soon. At one point, the Rooks keeper catches the ball safely and as he tries to get to the edge of the box, he is obstructed by a Rock who goes theatrically flying to the floor. There is a minor melee with about 1/3 of each team joining in. The ref breaks it up quickly and it's eventually a Rooks free kick. It was clearly obstruction but not sure if anyone got booked in the chaos. The Rooks have the better of the last 10 minutes of the half getting joy down their right wing with Matt Warren getting deep and putting in some good crosses. Can't remember at the moment who is playing on the left for Bognor and should be stopping these runs but sure the name will come to us 😂. The Rocks defence 🧱 holds firm and it's goalless at the break.

The Rooks last burst seems to have levelled things up a bit after the restart with neither side having much quality in possession. Success for both teams looks most likely to happen on the break. Dougie goes off after 58 to be replaced by Jasper Mather. Don't have to feel guilty about supporting the Rooks now. It's lively but still without much quality except for the occasional stepover or backheel. Of the two, the Rooks keeper is called into action to make the better saves which he does well. The breakthrough comes for the Rooks when a cross is flicked on and tapped home by Eddie Allsop on 85 ⚽ . Cue about 2 minutes of limbs from the Red and Black army behind the goal. The 5 minutes of added time seem to take an age ⏳️ with the Rocks taking (or trying to take) control. Lewes are calm in possession but Bognor get some chances. The whistle goes and it's bedlam behind the goal. All the Rooks players come over to share the victory with the fans. Great game. Home time🚗🏠.

The was a really enjoyable game to watch. The late goal helped but it would still have been good had it finished 0-0. But it didn't🤭. Six points from the first two games for the rebuilt Lewes team under new manager Craig Nelson. Think the fans love him already. There is work to do for Bognor who weren't far off. There would have been no complaint if they had won it as they should have been ahead at the break. We haven't seen a scrap 🥊on that scale for a while. It was a bit half-hearted but they don't seem to get out of hand anymore. Maybe we just go to the nicest places😁. It was good to see Dougie playing more forward than at Horsham. Hopefully back to goalscoring form soon as he was up to 7 in the season cut short by Covid which was his last at the Rocks before joining the Hornets. Can't remember how many he scored in Yellow and Green but maybe there were one or two that sneaked through without us noticing. Glad we came along tonight. It was a great game and an enjoyable evening with the bonus out 3 points heading east on the A27.

POTM: Going for 2 today. Dougie for an astonishing bit of footwork defending at the edge of the box. Where has he been hiding those skills 🤷? And for the Rooks it goes to Marcus Sablier. We love a pacy winger. He had a great game and his replacement, Mal Morris did well too.

The ref did well. One or two strange decisions need to give the crowd something to "Boo"📣. Nothing that impacted the result though. It wasn't clear who he was booking and why at times.

The Scran'O'meter had a lovely night out and awarded 8/10 for the Haloumi Burger 🍔with chilli 🌶️jam and 9.5 for the hot chocolate ☕. The Nye Camp still top of the hot chocolate league table even though Doug's Tuck Shop has gone. Might start a petition 📝 to get it back.

See you at Fort Road at the Weekend.

Love Tranmerekat 🐾