ZEIKO LEWIS
Zeiko Lewis and his visiting New York Red Bulls II drew 1 - 1 with the Charleston Battery at MUSC Stadium.
Charleston Battery struck first just before the halftime whistle, as forward Romario Williams found the net past Red Bulls II goalkeeper Evan Louro for his 15th of the season on an assist from Ataulla Guerra.
Red Bulls II found their way onto the score sheet in the 72nd minute, when Stefano Bonomo scored off a deflection, into the side netting. Bonomo’s goal was his third in four games. Florian Valot assisted on the play.
Darren Freeman’s side got off to the best possible start to the season thanks to a 93rd minute strike from James Hammond to beat a spirited Herne Bay side in an entertaining encounter, reports Stuart Fuller.
Jonte Smith and his teammates started with a familiar look with the majority of the starting XI having ended last season, although new signing Reece Williams-Bowers started out wide with George Landais making his first competitive start since December 2015 a welcome boost up front.
It was an even opening fifteen minutes with both sides looking to use the wide pitch to get behind the full-backs. The Lewes back four looked solid, with 16 year old Harry Reed looking assured at right-back and linking up well with Reece Williams-Bowers.
The second half was less than 30 seconds old when Smith broke free from his marker on the left and floated a ball over to George Landais but his header was tipped over the bar by Hunter. Ronnie Conlon then came close on two occasions within a few minutes, on both occasions seeing Hunter denying him.
With two of the three minutes of injury time played Winterton threw the ball out to Matthew George and a neat exchange of passes between Conlon, Sow and Brotherton saw the Rooks reach the edge of the Herne Bay defence. It seemed that the danger had passed as a misjudged pass back to James Hammond put him under pressure, but the young midfielder composed himself and sent an unstoppable shot into the bottom corner, finally beating the outstanding Hunter.
The harsh realities of life in the National League North are certainly there for all to see after a tough first week of the season ended with a disappointing single goal defeat for Milan Butterfield and his Leamington teammates.
After soaking up pressure from a visiting Southport side who are now one of three clubs with 100% records after the opening week, Leamington looked the better side for large parts of the game, creating several good opportunities, but they were undone by a defensive error which was gleefully snaffled up by the Sandgrounders, who look to be adapting well to the division as they look to bounce straight back up to the National League.
Southport were swift to pick up any blocks or half clearances, but Leamington were working hard to shut them down, Butterfield and Junior English in particular making some timely interceptions.
The visitors took the lead with fifteen minutes to play when Ethan Jones pounced on Joe Magunda’s short pass back to Breeden and rolled the ball into the far corner, despite the best efforts of Taundry to keep it out.
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