Lewes looking up after Durham draw

Bridget Galloway opened the scoring for the visitors, but it was not enough to leapfrog league leaders Leicester City, as the hosts equalised after the break. Katie Rood’s converted spot-kick levelled matters just before the hour mark in Sussex, as both sides had to settle for a point.

Lewes winger Sammy Quayle said: “Today's performance was good. I think we had a good spell in the first half where we were on the edge, but we regrouped at half time. In the second half, we fought hard and got a deserved goal, earned a deserved point and we did very well to bounce back.

“In the first half, I don’t know if our nerves got the best of us. Durham are high up in the league and not many teams have taken points against them. Maybe we were nervous. Then in the second half, we had nothing to lose and fight till the end.

“Durham are a very strong and physical team. They’ve played quite well, but I don’t think they created anything and I think in the final third, they didn’t test our keeper much in the second half. I don’t remember if they had a shot on target.

“We always play to win and wanted to win. Both sides fought very hard and evened the game.

“Our main goal is to do better in the second half of the campaign than the first, is to get more points on the board and see how far we can go this season.”

Lewes manager Simon Parker said: “I think it was a fair point, both in the first and second half. I believe the momentum shifted in the second half where we potentially could go on and get the winner. We needed better quality, end product and to make better decisions in certain moments.

“We lost 3-0 to Durham in the opening game of this season. The lessons we learned from that game is that we had to keep them at bay; make it hard to break down and offer more possession and not be passive.

"In the first half, it didn’t go to plan and was poor. In contrast to the second half, we were defensively better and better on the ball.

“We just need more work on the pitch and it’s frustrating that in training, we are better with the ball than we are on the pitch. It might aspects of our confidence and bravery. Hope this result will help us improve those aspects.

“We haven’t created a lot of chances this season so we have to make better decisions. We set a couple of targets for this year and one of these is to have a positive goal difference and more goals than games.

"We want to be one of the top three teams that have the best defences in the league, as well as converting our results in the first half of the season into wins."

Durham made an encouraging start to the game, and Galloway broke the deadlock within seven minutes with a close-range header past Lewes goalkeeper Tatiana Saunders.

Lewes fought back into the game with great passages of play between Simran Jhamat, Katie Rood and Megan Mackey, but failed to break past the opposition’s defence.

The Rooks shot-stopper kept the busiest, as the 27-year-old palmed Ellie Christon’s cross away to danger and denied Beth Hepple, who almost sneaked an effort at the far post.

The Wildcats did have chances to increase their lead before half-time, but Galloway misjudged her volley from close-range, after some more excellent build-up from Hepple and Molly Sharpe to find the striker.

Lewes redeemed themselves in the second half and almost had their first effort on goal, when Georgia Timms released a ball through to Mackey, but her effort was blocked away by Kathryn Hill.

The hosts' revival after the break eventually got a reward, as Rood burst into the penalty area and was dragged down by Lauren Briggs.

The referee did not hesitate and pointed to the penalty spot, leaving the 28-year-old forward to convert her spot-kick into the bottom right corner to level the game.

Lee Sanders’ side almost regained their lead from a Sarah Wilson corner, but they failed to slot the ball into the net.

It proved to be a feisty end to the game as Durham mounted further pressure, and had shouts for a penalty denied when Becky Salicki went down inside the box, but Lewes defended well to earn a deserved point.

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