KING SEEKS TO BOOST SQUAD

As the Express went to press King said: 'Nothing's signed yet but I'm after a left-sided player to help boost the squad. Hopefully he'll be with us for the Cambridge City game. We'll need to strengthen as the fixtures are beginning to pile up.'

Wednesday evening's FA Trophy replay at Oxford United was a victim of fog and King said: 'We got to within ten minutes of the ground when the referee phoned to say the game was off.

'It was a wasted journey and I don't know how bad the fog was because we didn't get there.

'The fixture list is beginning to look a bit of a nightmare, but we have a good squad and I'm delighted Andy Drury has signed a new contract and commited himself to the club for another 18 months.

'He's one hell of a player, I rate him the best right winger in non-league football.'

The Oxford replay will now be staged on Tuesday, January 9, while the Rooks must also fit in the Sussex Senior Cup third- round tie against Selsey and rearrange a league match against Eastleigh.

If they beat Selsey they will be at home to Horsham in the quarter-finals.

Rooks's chairman Terry Parris is confident about the progress of the club despite the disappointing 723 gate for the FA Trophy match against Oxford United at the Dripping Pan on Saturday. Parris said: 'We feel let down by Oxford on that game, but as long as we can maintain our good form on the pitch and keep the playoffs interest alive the better facilities available in the New Year should see our gates rise.

'I attended a dinner at Brighton & Hove Albion on Monday evening and they were telling me how many fans they attract from the Crawley area.

'There are a lot of floating fans out there and when our ground development is complete we're hoping some will come to us.

'Our gates have been down this season despite two good cup runs, but we made an indifferent start and the stand problems have meant people cannot sit down which many want to or need to.

'Hopefully word will get round about our new facilities and gates will go up.'

Parris made his feelings felt about the poor Oxford travelling turnout to their club's officials on Saturday.

He said: 'They originally told us they would have no problem in selling 800-1,000 tickets. We made our plans on that figure so we couldn't understand why they sold only 300.

'Their excuse was that they had had a lot of away games recently and this was one too many. They should have let us know that then. We went ahead on the basis of them selling all their tickets and provided a temporary stand that cost 7,000 to put in, then nobody sat in it.

'We were unhappy that Oxford were assigned the seats and the Lewes fans had to stand, but it was the only way we could segregate the ground properly for safety purposes. It was embarrassing to see so many empty spaces in the stands after all the effort people behind the scenes had put in.

'It left us in an awful situation and facing big losses on the game, but fortunately we got the replay and hopefully will at least recover our outlay.

'We have learned a lot from staging these big games. We have made mistakes but will learn from these in the future.'

The Rooks are hoping for a reasonable attendance against Cambridge City tomorrow. The club will let all 16-year-olds in free for the game as long as they are accompanied by one adult.

Lewes will be missing Gary Holloway, who is suspended for one match after receiving five yellow cards. City beat Lewes 1-0 in September when Dean Lynch scored following an error by Rooks's then goalkeeper Paul Wilkerson.

Lewis Hamilton, booked against Oxford , misses the league game at Fisher Athletic on Saturday, December 30.

Paul Booth is expected to be absent for three weeks with a badly twisted knee.