WHAT should have been the best week in the history of Lewes Football Club instead felt like one of the worst.
A crowd in excess of 1,000 packed into the Dripping Pan on Saturday were hoping to take part in the mother of all celebrations instead bore witness to something more resembling a wake.
They were there to see their favourite stars receive their lat
est piece of silverware on what has been a magical journey led by inspirational manager Steve King.
But that journey has now come to an abrupt end. And that crowd has probably seen some of their favourite stars for the last time – certainly in a Lewes FC shirt.
King has been removed as manager. The board – as you will read in an extensive transcript of a meeting they had with the Sussex Express this week – say they had no alternative but to remove him. Not to do so, they say, would have ensured the Rooks' first season in the top-flight of non-league football would have ended in relegation.
Rooks fans, naturally, are experiencing a mixture of shock, sadness, outrage and betrayal.
How could a board that for so long had shown a innate understanding of what it means to be a Lewes fan, suddenly make such a brutal decision to remove a manager just as he has achieved his finest hour?
And replace such a charismatic and popular figure with a virtual unknown?
And what about the timing? If it's true that the club needed to make such a dramatic change to ensure its own future, why take that decision now? True, the rumours of King's departure were made public before the board of directors had intended, but would it have been any easier to bear hearing the news this week?
And who are these mystery investors? What's in it for them?
Hopefully our coverage this week will shed some light on those questions.
But for now we should take time to consider Steve King, a man this week out of a job. King was not prepared to comment on his departure.
Not everyone got on with King, certainly in the field of sports journalism. But personally I found him a warm, funny, surprisingly sensitive and kind (see our exclusive story on page 87) figure. He will be greatly missed.
What must also be remembered is that that same board that told King he had to go is made up of the same people who effectively saved the club nearly a decade ago.
Lewes FC is in Martin Elliott's blood. And in the blood of all the other directors.
They wouldn't knowingly "stitch up" the fans, as they sang last week. We should give them a chance to succeed again.
The full article contains 460 words and appears in Sussex Express Series newspaper.
