Brighton & Hove Albion and Portsmouth potential opponents for Lewes next pre-season

Last week the Rooks confirmed they would playing TWELVE pre-season friendlies this year, starting with a trip to Peacehaven & Telscombe on Saturday, June 26 and concluding with a home game against Dartford on Saturday, August 7.

Fuller had previously called on Premier League teams to help local non-league clubs recover financially after lockdown by visiting them from friendlies.

The Lewes chairman confirmed that the Rooks had spoken to Albion, but the Seagulls couldn’t commit to anything this summer.

But Fuller said that talks were under way with Brighton, as well as Portsmouth for next pre-season.

He said: “We have spoken to Brighton but they couldn’t commit to anything this year.

“But certainly we are talking to Brighton and we hope to have something for next season.

“We are talking to a couple of other clubs as well. We’ve had really good conversations with Portsmouth.

“Danny Cowley (Pompey boss) started his career in non-league so he knows how important these games are. We’ll look at building that relationship over the next year.

“You do need to start planning pre-season games against big clubs around November, December, January.

“We’re a little bit behind the curve this year with Covid and then the changing of manager.”