Sunday 20th March 2022 – 12:00 – FA Women’s Championship
Welcome to The Dripping Pan for today’s FA Championship game against Durham. Here is your complimentary e-programme.
Manager’s Thoughts
We have enjoyed another good training week following the very good performance and win against Crystal Palace last Sunday. We were extremely pleased with the way in which we stopped Crystal Palace from playing their usual passing game and limited their attacking threat and goalscoring opportunities.
We also enjoyed long periods of controlled possession and created many opportunities in the attacking third from both wide and central areas. It was extremely pleasing to see the players enjoying their football, working hard for each other and effectively implementing our playing principles and tactics from the first whistle to the last to produce a strong performance and get the win that they all fully deserved.
The players have typically trained hard and with good quality and energy every day this week, working on our game plan in readiness for our home match against Durham on Sunday. The competition for places is very strong which provides for a very healthy training environment where daily standards are high as the players challenge each other to be the best that they can be.
Having closely analysed them, we know that Durham are a strong team with good qualities but with areas that we can exploit. We approach the match with justifiable confidence following our last impressive performance and if we can replicate that form again on Sunday then I’m sure that we will be very competitive.
We all send our very best wishes to Rhian Cleverly, our club capitain, as she recovers from a hip operation that she had earlier this week. Rhian is a huge influence on the squad and we look forward to having her back with us very soon as she starts her rehabilitation programme.
With 5 games remaining, we are looking to finish the season as strongly as possible and, with 3 of these being at home, we especially look forward to the great support that we get at the Dripping Pan!
COME ON YOU ROOKS!
Notes from the Big Chair…
Good afternoon and welcome to this afternoon’s game against Durham here at the Pan. I hope our visitors today had a good journey down to East Sussex and enjoy our hospitality.
This is the third of three consecutive home games and we will take great confidence from the excellent win last Sunday against Crystal Palace. We’ve threatened performances like that in parts this season and it was fantastic to see us maintain the level for 90 minutes. We are only four points behind London City Lionesses and Durham, and play them in the space of the next week so we have a great chance to finish in a record high position for the club.
This week has finally seen The FA announce long overdue changes to the prize money from next season for the FA Cup. We’ve been on the front foot on this campaign for a few years now and whilst the proposed changes don’t go far enough yet, the fact there has been movement on this is a positive sign. This doesn’t mean the end of our work though – we will continue to push for a more equitable landscape for all. Kudos to Charlie for all of his tireless work over the past few years on this too.
I was fortunate to attend the Soccerex Conference in Miami last week (sounds glamorous but South Florida was pounded by thunderstorms whilst I was there!) and it was amazing to talk to football leaders from around the globe who knew who Lewes were! There was some excellent presentations from ambitious clubs and companies involved in the game and hopefully we will see some benefit from those conversations.
Enjoy the game and let’s go get those three points!
COYR!
Stuart
Lewes 2-0 Crystal Palace. Images by James Boyes.
Last Match Highlights
Time to reboot the FA Cup
First things first. The news that the FA intends to increase the total prize fund for the women’s FA Cup to £3m is very good news. This would be around ten times the current prize pot and will clearly make a difference. It was the FA of 1921 that decimated women’s football with a ban that lasted 50 years. It was the FA of 1993 that took 22 years after the end of that ban, to finally create an official Women’s Football Committee. But the FA of today has focussed real resources and purpose behind rebuilding women’s football in England and the whole of football recognises that.
So why does Lewes FC continue its call, that began over three years ago, to go even further, to equalise the funding of the men’s and women’s FA Cups, and to shift prize funding to earlier Rounds?
Because equality is a fundemental principle. And because we LOVE the FA Cup. And we believe that after 150 years of history, this amazing competition has the power to bring about real change in football. And more than that, it can be a beacon for fairness and gender equality beyond football.
So today, we publish two options for a reboot of the FA Cup, to benefit not only women’s football, but men’s non-league and lower league football too.
A football club is in a unique position to constantly gauge the feelings of fans and other clubs. Lewes FC has spent the last year hearing those feelings and distilling them into detailed proposals that we now share publicly, so that a dialogue can ensue between all those who love football: fans, clubs, players, coaches and of course the game’s governing body. Let’s decide things together and, by doing so, make the outcome even more powerful.
FIND OUT MORE HERE >>> https://lewesfc.com/news/time-to-reboot-the-fa-cup/
Congratulations to our two Players of the Month winners, chosen by our wonderful owners!
Voting is done via our Owner App – if you want to get access to the app and so many more benefits, sign up here: https://lewesfc.com/become-an-owner/
Lewes Squad List
| 1 | Tatiana Saunders (GK) |
| 2 | Ellie Mason |
| 3 | Rhian Cleverly |
| 4 | Amelia Hazard |
| 5 | Nicola Cousins |
| 6 | Ellie Hack |
| 7 | Lucy Ashworth-Clifford |
| 8 | Ellie Noble |
| 9 | Georgia Timms |
| 10 | Freda Ayisi |
| 11 | Heidi Logan |
| 14 | Paula Howells |
| 15 | Ini Umotong |
| 16 | Izzy Collins |
| 17 | Lea Cordier |
| 18 | Rebecca McKenna |
| 19 | Kallie Balfour |
| 20 | Sophie O’Rourke |
| 22 | Josie Longhurst |
| 23 | Izzy Dalton |
| 24 | Lucy Porter |
| 27 | Zoe Cross |
| 31 | Laura Hartley (GK) |
| 32 | Shanell Salgado (GK) |
Durham Squad List
1. Naoisha McALOON
2. Kathryn HILL
3. Lauren BRIGGS
4. Mollie LAMBERT
5. Sarah WILSON
6. Sarah ROBSON
7. Beth HEPPLE
9. Nicki GEARS
10. Rio HARDY
11. Bridget GALLOWAY
12. Lily CROSTHWAITE
13. Megan BORTHWICK
14. Becky SALICKI
15. Dee BRADLEY
16. Ellie CHRISTON
17. Emily ROBERTS
18. Danielle BROWN
19. Ali JOHNSON
20. Grace AYRE
21. Hannah GREENWOOD
24. Abby HOLMES
37. Liz EJUPI
Other games this weekend around the club:
Last week’s results from around the club!
Rooks swoop the three points against Eagles
Revenge is a dish best served six weeks later, in front of your home fans with goals from Lucy Porter and Izzy Dalton… Right?
At least for Lewes that’s how it goes as we won 2-0 against Crystal Palace at The Dripping Pan with over 400 fans looking on. We move onto 25 points just two behind Palace, with a game in hand.
Craig Gill had asked for his team “to be more consistent in games and put a 90 minute performance together” which they did admirably on Sunday.
Palace started on the front foot with two chances falling to Bianca Baptiste early on, but both were repelled.
The first was stopped with an expertly executed slide tackle from Tatiana Saunders when faced with a one-on-one with Baptiste, the second from the woodwork as Baptiste’s lobbed shot came back off the post.
After those chances, Palace hardly had another sniff at goal. Lewes were playing a high intensity pressing game that unsettled their players and meant that we, as Gill said, could be “very, very brave at times by playing on the front foot.”
The threat came constantly down our wings where the fullbacks and wide players combined dangerously to stretch the Palace back three. Crosses were aplenty in the first half but none quite hit the mark perfectly, Porter going closest from a Dalton free-kick which she volleyed against the post, albeit from an offside position.
Porter gets her goal
Porter would not be denied her first goal for the club and that came with 48 minutes on the clock.
The Lewes press was showing well as Palace tried to break. Ellie Hack swept up into the middle of the park, intercepted and clipped the ball forward again. As a Palace defender scuffed her clearance the ball bounced up for Georgia Timms to battle for, and get her head on it, knocking it on.
And that’s when the magic happened.
The ball had fallen to Porter, back to goal. She caressed the ball towards her with her right foot and spun with it, leaving a Palace defender trying a block a ball that had already passed her.
With the outside of the same foot, Porter stabbed the ball across the goal into the bottom corner, the keeper only grabbing at air.
And the pressure didn’t stop there.
Dalton doubles the lead
It was 2-0 on 57 minutes when Dalton latched onto a knock down, and spread the ball out wide to Paula Howells on the right. With acres of space, Howells then darted into the box and drill a low cross along the six yard line.
A Palace defender got a toe to the ball and poked it to Dalton on the edge of the box, where she drilled home the finish.
Palace’s day went from bad to worse as Siobhan Wilson was sent off for a second bookable offence on 70 minutes and Lewes kept up the pressure, being unlucky not to score more as substitutes Freda Ayisi and Heidi Logan both hit the woodwork in extra time.
After the game Gill said: “I was really pleased for them (the players) because it not only justifies their performances from the first half but actually, the work they do and standards they set in training on a daily basis.”
Report by Tai Kolade
FILMING AT TODAY’S GAME
Today there may be film crews in the ground, filming on behalf of Lewes Football Club and other media organisations. The filming is usually for Lewes FC marketing purposes, to show what a match day looks/sounds like and to generally promote what we do. Lewes Football Club respectfully asks for your permission to be filmed. If you do not want to be filmed, please let the crew know directly and they will oblige. Thanks for your cooperation in helping to build a successful club.
CREDITS AND LEGAL
“The FA Women’s Championship strongly supports recent FA statements that there should be a zero tolerance approach against racism and all forms of discrimination. Accordingly, any form of discriminatory abuse, whether it be based on race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, faith, age, ability or any other form of abuse will be reported to The Football Association for action by that Association. (The FA 0800 085 0508/Kick It Out 020 7253 0162).“
Lewes 2000 FC Limited. Registered in England and Wales with Company Registration Number 03790979. Lewes 2000 FC Limited is 100% owned by Lewes Community Football Club.
Honorary President Terry Parris
Chair Stuart Fuller
Directors Sue Anstiss MBE (co-opted), Ed Briggs, Scott Currie, Charlie Dobres, Karen Dobres, Stuart Fuller, Lucy Mills, John Peel, Ed Ramsden, Claire Rafferty (co-opted), Sally Taplin, Trevor Wells
Chief Executive Officer Maggie Murphy
Club Secretary John Peel
Fan Engagement Officer Shrey Nilvarna
Youth Secretary Kevin Brook
Operations Manager James Barker
Equality FC Campaign Manager Karen Dobres
Life Members
Mr and Mrs Brook, Vic Blunt, Pat Dartnell, Gary Elphick, Gordon Fowlie, Peter Hiscox RIP, Billy Nixon, Derrick Parris, Terry Parris, Jimmy Quinn, P. Swaysland, Steve Ibbitson, Jason Hopkinson, Steve White, Martin Elliot, Kevin Fingerneissl, Kevin Powell, David and Barbara Arnold, Roger and Cathy Feltham, Ethel Treagus, Roy Dartnell RIP, Ron Moore, Derek Southouse, Ray Smith, Ken Carter RIP

Manager Craig Gill (interim)
Assistant Coaches Jesus Cordon
PP Coach Christos Andreou
GK Coach John Macrae
Nutritionist Stefano Montanari
Physio Katrina Martin
Physiotherapist Paul Paredes
Team Psychologist Chelsea Orme
Data Analyst Adam Chilcott
General Manager Lynne Burrell
Women’s DS Head Coach Andy Corrigan
DS Assistant Coaches Rhian Cleverly and Nicola Cousins
U16 Girls Head Coach Carl Pennifold
U16 Girls Assistant Coach Tim Heal
U14 Girls Head Coach Rob Palmer
U14 Girls Assistant Coach Tom Young
Pathway Co-ordinator Ryan Sullivan
Golden Rook Rob Read
Web Editor Stuart Fuller
Progcast Editors Stuart Fuller and Sam Simons
Club Photographer James Boyes
NEXT UP AT THE PAN…
14:00 SUNDAY APRIL 3RD 2022
