Joe Taylor shone once again for Lewes last night as the Rooks defeated Leatherhead 5-0 at the Dripping Pan. The striker scored his ninth and tenth goal of the season last night, meaning that he remains top goalscorer in the Isthmian Premier Division.
The home side dominated the game from the off and easily could have scored two or three in the opening 10 minutes as Ollie Tanner created numerous goalscoring opportunities. The Rooks’ number seven was the stand out player of the first half and could have easily got himself on the scoresheet.
The deadlock was broken in the 39th minute as the ball found Taylor in the box. The striker did well to hold off the his defender before taking an excellent shot on the turn which rifled onto the crossbar before bouncing into the goal.
It was certainly an eventful ending to the first half as Taylor caught out Ryan Huckle in the last line of defence. Huckle couldn’t match the pace of the Lewes striker and so responded by pulling him to the ground – a challenge which ended his night as he was shown a red card by the referee.
Lewes doubled their lead on the stroke of half time as Taylor Maloney took the resulting free kick, which took a huge deflection off of the wall before flying past a helpless Myles Bowman in goal.
Half Time: Lewes 2-0 Leatherhead
The Rooks were even more dominant in the second half as they came up against the 10 men of Leatherhead. It only took five minutes increase the lead as Bradley Pritchard did well to weave through the Tanners’ defence before slotting the ball into the bottom right corner.
Lewes were running rings around the opposition towards the latter stages of the game, making the game look like a large scale training drill. Joe Taylor doubled his goal tally with a tap-in after the ball fell to him from a corner.
The final goal came with 15 minutes to go after Tanner made a great run before his shot bounced off of the post and straight to the feet of super-sub Iffy Allen who tapped the ball past Bowman with ease.
Full Time: Lewes 5-0 Leatherhead
The dominant victory sees Lewes jump up to third in the Isthmian Premier table, whilst Leatherhead remain rock bottom with one point. The Tanners will be looking to improve their form in the upcoming weeks as their search for a new manager continues.
