The Ham&High’s Wingate & Finchley blogger Simon Swingler looks back on the 3-0 loss away at Lewes on Non-League Day.

We all knew that Wingate & Finchley’s recent fantastic run of results couldn’t last forever, and the prophecy came true last Tuesday night away at Witham Town and then on Saturday away at Lewes.

Both defeats were actually quite harsh and we could lay a more than decent claim that we deserved at least a point from both matches.

On a pleasantly balmy evening on Tuesday we lost 1-0 away at Ryman Premier new boys Witham Town.

The pitch on the night wasn’t conducive to our brand of passing football and the ball was several feet up in the air for most of the game, which was a scrappy affair won by an equally scrappy goal.

We created several decent chances but a mixture of bad luck and good goalkeeping meant we hit a rare blank.

Saturday which was Non-League Day and several Wingate & Finchley fans met at Victoria Station dressed in masks displaying the face of the legendary Carry On actor Sid James.

As the date not only marked Non-League Day but also the birthdays of two of our supporters, we decided to have a little bit of fun.

We welcomed with open arms by Lewes Football Club, who couldn’t have been more accommodating to us, even allowing us onto the pitch for a few photo opportunities.

The Sky Sports News cameras were also present and our ‘Sid Army’ conga around the ground at the final whistle made it onto their evening round-up programme.

Lewes had endured a shocking start to the season, leaving them languishing in the relegation zone.

The game was very even, with neither side looking like breaking the deadlock until a speculative long ball put a Lewes player through on goal. Ronayne Marsh-Brown hauled him down and we were hit with the double whammy of conceding a penalty and being reduced to 10 men. The spot-kick was duly dispatched and we went into the break a goal down.

Even with the numerical disadvantage, we looked more than capable of scoring but, unlike earlier in the season, we didn’t have our shooting boots on. One particular save from the Lewes keeper Ricci Banks with his feet saved a certain goal.

The game was summed up around the 73rd minute mark when Leon Fisher wriggled free of his marker and pulled the ball back to Tommy Tejan-Sie. His cross found substitute Ahmet Rifat in acres of space at the far post, but his header flashed wide with the goal at his mercy.

Instead of making it 1-1, it we were 2-0 down 30 seconds later when we were hit on the break.

This hammer blow seemed to knock the stuffing out the lads, who conceded an undeserved third goal before the referee’s whistle signaled the end of proceedings.

The two recent setbacks have made tomorrow’s derby against local rivals Harrow Borough very important if we don’t want to get dragged down the table towards the drop zone.

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