Year three in the FA Women’s Championship may just be one to remember for Lewes if the club are to build on their exceptional start to the season.
The Rookettes have recorded an all-but-familiar rapid start, although fans won’t be getting too excited just yet with the past two seasons having seen the club’s early points returns not develop into continued consistency throughout the rest of the season.
After winning their first three matches in 2018/2019, Lewes went more than four months without another victory in the FA Women’s Championship, while two wins in their first four games was as good as it got for Lewes in 2019/2020 with the club failing to collect another maximum points return in the remainder of the curtailed campaign.
There is something different about this Lewes group though, they are a team who look to have become wiser in the second tier and who are certainly more resolute.
After five games, Lewes are hitting new milestones in their quest to enjoy their most impressive season yet. Yesterday’s, point at Sheffield United was arguably the first which The Rookettes have collected from a club dubbed as one of the ‘promotion favourites’ while Simon Parker’s side have become the first Lewes team to reach 10 points after just five FA Women’s Championship matches.
In 2018/2019, Lewes had collected nine points from their first five games while last season, they had one point less in the bank. This season’s tally of three wins is the same as the club’s record in the first five games of their debut season in the FA Women’s Championship but they have also collected one more point this term courtesy of yesterday’s draw at The Technique Stadium.
Where Lewes must improve is in attack. Their goal tally of three is worse than 2018/2019 (11) and 2019/2020 (9), however, their points are very much being won thanks to their no-nonsense, well-organised defending with all of Lewes’ three goals having been conceded in a crazy 15-minute period at Durham in their first game. Four shut-outs have followed, another feat that the club had never achieved in the FA Women’s Championship before this season. Goalkeeper Tatiana Saunders has recorded as many clean sheets this season as the club kept in the whole of their first season in the second tier and three more than the Sussex club managed in their first five games in 2018/2019 and 2019/2020.
It has been an historic start from Simon Parker’s side, they’d have certainly taken being level on points with Liverpool and just a point behind Sheffield United and Leicester City after five games before the campaign kicked-off. It’s now time for the club to buck the trend and replicate their early form throughout the season rather than see it crumble away.