Play-off hopes grow stronger as Lewes beat Potters Bar and Hashtag United

Kalvin Lumbombo-Kalala, Tommy Wood and Sanchez Ming scored in Saturday’s 3-0 home win over Potters Bar and Chris Whelpdale and a Lumbombo-Kalala double clinched a 3-2 win at Hashtag United on Monday night.

Russell took to X (formerly Twitter) to thank the Rooks fans who braved the cold and made the trip to Hashtag.

Lewes visit fourth-placed Billericay tomorrow.

Lewes 3 Margate 0

by Jack Towers

Lewes climbed to ninth in the table with a comfortable 3-0 win over nine-man Potters Bar on a bitterly cold afternoon at the Pan.

Tony Russell made one change to the side that drew 1-1 at Cray Wanderers in their previous game, with Tommy Wood replacing Bradley Pritchard in the starting line-up.

Lewes made a bright start, moving the ball quickly to try and stretch the visitors.

Their first opening of the game fell to Chris Whelpdale, who saw his deflected strike from the edge of the area drop just wide with goalkeeper Laurence Shala beaten.

The resulting corner fell to Ronnie Vint who teed up Kalvin Lumbombo-Kalala to strike at goal. His powerful attempt appeared to hit the arms of at least two defenders, but the referee ignored the vociferous appeals for a penalty and waved play on.

Lewes were handed an advantage midway through the half, as Calvin Dickson was shown a straight red card for the visitors after catching Archie Tamplin on the head with a high foot.

The Rooks made the most of their numerical advantage on 25 minutes, Lumbombo-Kalala making space for himself before sending a superb curling strike from 25 yards past Shala and into the bottom corner.

Potters Bar stuck to their task though, and were unfortunate to see a close-range header deflected onto the top of the bar as they pushed for an equaliser.

Lewes doubled their lead on 34 minutes, Tommy Wood scoring from the penalty spot after Ola Ogunwamide had been tripped by Prosper Keto in the area.

The visitors were reduced to nine men just before half-time, as Keto was shown a second yellow card in less than ten minutes to hand the Rooks an even greater numerical advantage.

They nearly made the most of this with the final action of the half, only for Lumbombo-Kalala to shoot over the bar after excellent play down the right by Ogunwamide.

Lewes introduced Marcus Sablier and Ryan Gondoh from the bench at half-time as they continued their comeback from injury.

The Rooks extended their lead seven minutes into the second half, as an Ogunwamide cross from the left hit the inside of the far post and bounced clear as far Sanchez Ming, whose powerful half-volley went under Shala and into the back of the net.

The remainder of the game saw Lewes dominate possession and continue to look like adding to their lead, without creating any clear-cut opportunities.

The best chances fell to Arthur Penney, who drew a superb save from Shala with a close-range half-volley after being picked out by Tamplin, before glancing a Jake Elliott cross just wide barely a minute later.

Lewes were unable to add to their lead in the closing stages, but will be more than happy with a 3-0 win that continues their recent good run and helps them climb to ninth in the table.

Hashtag Utd 2 Lewes 3

by Jack Towers

Kalvin Lumbombo-Kalala capped off an inspired performance with a superb strike on the edge of the box to make it eight unbeaten for Tony Russell’s side in all competitions.

It was a bitterly cold evening in Essex but both sides started with a spring in their step. However we did take control of the ball in the early exchanges and found the lead just six minutes in when Chris Whelpdale rifled one into the top corner.

The form we are in at the moment, the early goal gave us a lot of confidence and Whelpdale could have had a brace just 10 minutes later when he found space on the edge of the box but powered one over the bar.

Shortly after, Kalala and Oguntayo combined on the left with the latter putting a wonderful ball into the box which Tommy Wood headed towards goal but it was safely stopped.

Despite our dominance on the ball, the Tags were looking dangerous on the counter, and following one or two danger signs, they had the equaliser with a fantastically worked goal from Camillo Restrepo on the half hour mark.

The goal didn’t same to faze us however and we bombed forward straight from the restart. We were then back in front just five minutes later when a free-kick delivered into the box eventually found Kalala who smashed it towards goal and a deflection off Ronnie Vint wrong footed the ‘keeper.

It was looking comfortable enough for Lewes at this point and the early stages of the second-half were fairly uneventful minus an Arthur Penney header which went inches wide.

70 minutes in and we could have gone out of sight when Wood drove a dangerous ball across goal that Deon Moore could only find the side netting with at an acute angle.

But Hashtag once again found the equaliser five minutes later when they headed home from a cross.

The scores remained level for only two minutes this time with the Rooks responding incredibly again. This time it was some magic from Kalala who cut inside on the edge of the box and curled an absolute beauty into the far corner.

Lewes were able to see out the remainder of the game and gain a crucial three points over Hashtag whom we were level on points with going into the game.