Lewes boss Darren Freeman: '˜This league is relentless'
The two sides remained goalless despite chances for both sides to win the game.
The Rooks had the best of the chances in the first 20 minutes before the momentum swung back in Tonbridge’s favour, and they had several chances before the end of the half.
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Hide AdThe second half saw Lewes have two good chances on the hour before nearly snatching it at the end with another two good opportunities to break the deadlock.
He said: “I thought we dominated the game and I thought we had the better of the chances.
“Tonbridge are a very big, well organised, strong side and as previous years tell, they will be there or thereabouts at the end of the season.
“We’ve competed in our opening games and I feel that we should have got a draw against Carshalton and, if I’m really honest, I think we probably deserved a win against Tonbridge.”
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Hide AdDespite Lewes only notching up one point after two games, Freeman credited his side for challenging established Bostik Premier teams and thinks clean sheets will be key if they are to stay in the division.
He added: “We’ve had two games against two tough opponents who will be around the right end of the table come April.
“If we play like we have in these two games then we’ll also be at the right end of the table but it’s doing it week-in week-out.
“We have to make sure that we’re switched on until the final whistle and all the time you’re keeping clean sheets you’re in the game.”
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Hide AdThe Rooks travel to Dorking Wanderers this Saturday and will face a team that has been heavily tipped for promotion.
Freeman sees these fixtures against high-calibre opponents as a significant step up from last season, calling the league ‘relentless’.
He said: “Dorking are one of the favourites for the league and we’ve had a tough start to the new season.
“Their manager (Marc White) is very confident in his side and they’ve proved that. They beat Margate 2-0, who won 5-2 at the weekend, so it’s a really tough league.
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Hide Ad“Last season you looked five or six games ahead and you thought ‘we’ve got a good chance here, a good chance there’.
“In this league, you look at teams and see you’ve got Carshalton, and then you’ve got Tonbridge and then the next game is Dorking and in the future you’ve got Bognor and Margate.
“This league is relentless so it will be very difficult.”