Match report - Lewes (a)

It was another three points on the road as we claimed a hard fought victory at Lewes, writes James Barrett.

Team news: Kalvin Morath-Gibbs, Paris Hamilton-Downes, Peter Adeniyi, Mickel Miller and Ricky Korboa all returned to the starting line-up following our cup victory last Monday.

It was a cold, blustery day on the south coast but, although Jahmahl King had to block a home effort within the first minute, we made a perfect start to this one.

A quickly taken free kick in the fifth minute saw Sekou Kaba thread a through ball for Ricky Korboa whom cut inside a defender before poking the ball past the oncoming keeper from 15 yards.

Tommy Bradford was then given space and time inside the home box just two minutes later but he dragged a shot wide of the target.

We were keeping possession well and frustrating our hosts as the minutes ticked on, with Bradford being fouled several times during patient attacks and Kaba a strong force in midfield.

One neat move involved us shifting the ball with one touch passing between Sean O’Toole, Bobby Price, Kaba and Korboa to get Bradford in on goal, but his lofted shot on the bouncing ball cleared the crossbar.

Kaba won the ball on 19 minutes and fed Adeniyi whom strode forward with purpose but Alex Malins slid in well as Korboa looked to shoot on the through ball. Lewes failed to clear their lines properly however and Miller ended up shifting the ball onto his left foot only for Chris Winterton to get down well to parry the shot.

The danger here was a failure to convert our dominance into further goals and Lewes’ first real attack of the game saw Steve Brinkhurst whip in a cross that found Ronnie Conlon on the far side but Alex Kozakis beat away the midfielder’s first time hit.

We responded as Hamilton-Downes chipped a ball in for Miller to contest by the penalty spot. It went over his and Malins' head but Winterton didn’t come so our man spun but crashed a shot over the crossbar from close range.

The home side vehemently called for a penalty on 32 minutes as Jamie Brotherton and Hamilton-Downes clashed on the edge of the box. A free kick was indicated by the officials and we defended the ball swung in front of Kozakis.

That took the wind out of Lewes’ resurgence and we controlled the game up until the break, with our men doing the dirty work, as well as continuing to be neat and tidy in possession, when required.

Morath-Gibbs was isolated on a long ball by Brotherton in added time however and our man's header back to Kozakis lacked power, but our keeper stood big and patted the striker's attempted lob away to keep our lead intact.

HALF-TIME: 0 - 1

Lewes came out after the break determined to push us on the back foot and some sloppy passes from our players didn’t help, although we had a claim for a spot-kick on 53 minutes as it seemed Miller was pushed by Stacey Freeman inside our opponent’s area.

But, one break aside where O’Toole eventually dragged a left-footed shot across their goal, it was Lewes that looked the more likely to create a dangerous chance and they did level things up in the 66^th minute.

Bradford had the ball in the right back area but he got caught in possession by Alex Laing whom drove into our box. He fed the ball into Brotherton whom fell over the chasing Bradford's outstretched leg and the striker picked himself up to power home the awarded penalty.

Then, on their very next attack, a soft back header by Price was seized upon by Laing but he thankfully shanked his shot way off target from inside our area.

We had to compose ourselves and did so by giving Lewes something to think about on 70 minutes; Adeniyi ran on to a ball over the top to get one-on-one with Winterton. He checked inside a desperate lunge by a recovering defender but, instead of shooting, he beat a second player before getting crowded out and the supporting Price saw his shot blocked from 15 yards.

Lewes could’ve then gone down to 10 men as Lloyd Cotton, who had been booked in the first-half, slid in late on a galloping Miller but the referee only gave him a talking to after awarding the free kick.

And our top goalscorer atoned for his earlier indiscretion on 76 minutes; Miller drove at the home defence before squaring to O'Toole. His long shot was deflected into the path of the unmarked Bradford whom kept his cool to skew a shot outside the keeper and inside of the far post.

The rest of the game became a bit of a stalemate as defences got on top; Kaba weakly shot through to Winterton on 81 minutes, while a long ball pumped into our box in added time saw Hamilton-Downes bravely challenge at the back post to deny Brotherton a header.

More photos from the match are available here.

Next up: We host Godalming Town on Monday 19th September before travelling to Whyteleafe on Saturday 24th September.

Carshalton Athletic: Kozakis; Price, King, Morath-Gibbs, Hamilton-Downes (c); Bradford, Adeniyi, Kaba, O'Toole, Korboa (Murphy-McVey - 49); Miller

Unused subs: Males, Aikhionbare, Ismail

Goals: Korboa (5), Bradford (76)

Assists: Kaba, O'Toole

Lewes: Winterton, Brinkhurst, Uade, Dixon, Freeman, Malins, Hammond (McCreadie - 72), Cotton (c), Culley (Brotherton - 13), Laing, Conlon (Coppola - 67)

Unused subs: George, Dramis

Goal: Brotherton (66 p)

Booked: Conlon, Cotton, Brotherton

Attendance: 449