Lewes F.C. - History

History

Lewes Football Club was formed at a meeting at a local pub (The Royal Oak) in 1885 and initially wore green shirts designed to evoke the surrounding South Downs. The present red and black kit was adopted in 1893.

Having won the championship of the Mid Sussex League twice before World War I, Lewes became founder members of the Sussex County League in 1920. They were runners-up on four occasions but it was not until 1964–65 that they were finally able to win the championship, after which they stepped up to the Athenian League.

After winning the Division 2 title in 1968, promotion to the Premier Division followed just two years later when the club won the Division 1 title.

In 1977 Lewes joined the newly expanded Isthmian League, initially in Division 2. Promotion to Division 1 came in 1980 but in 1991 the Rooks were relegated. They bounced back at the first attempt but could only manage one season at this level before two successive relegations saw them in Division 3, where they actually finished second from bottom of the entire league on two occasions.

During the 1998–99 season Jimmy Quinn joined the club as manager and the club soon claimed two consecutive promotions, taking them to the Isthmian League Division One South.

After Steve King took over as manager, in the 2003–04 season they were champions of this division and stepped up to the unprecedented heights of the Conference South after a busy schedule of playoffs at the end of the season, in effect jumping two divisions.

They reached the play-offs in both the 2004–05 and 2005–06 seasons, finishing 4th in the league on both occasions.

In the 2007–08 season they won promotion to the Conference National for the first time after a 2–0 win over Dorchester Town.

Controversially on the last day of the season, then manager Steve King's contract was not renewed by the board, this subsequently meant that all but one (Anthony Barness) players in the winning squad left the club.

On 29 April 2008, the board released a statement stating that a new manager, Kevin Keehan, had been appointed to run the first team for the beginning of the 2008–09 season. This was even more surprising considering Keehan's previous job was as Commercial Manager at Brighton and Hove Albion. After winning just 4 out of 36 league games for the Rooks and clearly out of his depth, he and assistant Terry Graves resigned on 10 March 2009 with Steve Ibbitson taking the role of caretaker manager until the end of the season. On 25 March 2009, Lewes' relegation from the Conference National was confirmed after 39 games of the season, with the club finishing bottom of the league.

The 2009–10 season was again a struggle for Lewes numerous winding-up orders were battled off the field and on the field Steve Ibbitson worked wonders with an inexperienced but talented squad of players. Blue Square South safety was finally secured with a 2–1 away win against Hampton and Richmond on the final afternoon of the season.

Following a poor start to the 2010–11 season, Steve Ibbitson moved upstairs to take on the role as Chairman and Tim O'Shea and Neil Smith were announced as the new management team. However, despite some impressive results such as the victory over league leaders Braintree, O'Shea was unable to steer Lewes away from the bottom of the table. Their relegation was confirmed on the 25th of April after a 1–2 defeat to relegation rivals Bishops Stortford. O'Shea and Smith parted ways with Lewes at the end of the season. On 4 June 2011, it was announced that Steve King had returned to the club, three years after leaving in controversial fashion. King was suspended by Lewes pending an internal investigation on 11 January 2012. On 18 January, Lewes announced that King had left his position by "mutual consent". Simon Wormull was appointed caretaker manager and after a successful run-in was appointed on a permanent basis in May 2012.