Steve Castle’s 200th game as manager of St Albans City was not one he will recall with relish as a 3-1 defeat to fellow Conference South strugglers Lewes at the wonderful Dripping Pan sent the Saints crashing into the bottom three.

A paltry return of one win in 24 league games suggests a side in complete freefall but for the opening 30 minutes in deepest East Sussex St Albans played the ball around with composure and, apparent, confidence.

But once the Rooks had taken the lead on 41 minutes City simply disintegrated and new Lewes manager Tim O’Shea was able to enjoy taking the Rooks out of the relegation places for the first time this season on the back of the first home victory of his tenure.

Lewes may have been in the relegation zone throughout the first third of the season but the club itself seems alive and vibrant.

The attendance of 727 is more than double City’s average home gate, there was a band of drummers in the Philcox stand banging away all afternoon, the town centre shops were plastered with posters advertising the match, and to cap it all O’Shea brought in a player from local side Whitehawk, Ben Godfrey, who quickly won over his new fans and walked off with the Man of the Match award in his first outing.

The atmosphere and togetherness around the Dripping Pan could hardly have been in greater contrast to the mood that currently pervades at Clarence Park.

Facing a side that City had not lost to in their seven most recent meetings, Castle made two enforced changes from the side that lost to Farnborough in midweek. Injury ruled out left-back Peter Smith and striker Jean-Michel Sigere while there was not even a place on the bench for leading goal scorer Inih Effiong.

Adam Everitt, who was to suffer his second dismissal of the season for two bookable second half offences, switched to left-back while Leyton Orient youngster Chris Benjamin joined Pelayo Gomez in attack.

Benjamin was lively throughout but expecting two such inexperienced strikers to forge an instant rapport was asking a lot and with Gomez being virtually anonymous until being withdrawn at half time 18-year-old Benjamin faced an almost impossible task.

Lewes, knowing that victory would lift them above St Albans, started strongly but City soon settled and even though the tempo of the game was fast both sides sought to play a passing game.

There was impressive movement from both teams early on but some alert defending denied either side a clear sight of goal.

The first real threat came from the home side when Andy Pearson intercepted a Ryan Frater clearance and exchanged passes with Godfrey before slashing an ugly effort high and wide of the City goal.

Moments later Lewes counter-attacked as a City move broke down with Godfrey sending the exciting Tom Murphy marauding down the Rooks left flank before Ross Dedman blocked the attempted cross to concede a corner.

Now it was City’s turn to break as Everitt headed away Lewis Ide’s corner and send Hector Mackie striding through the middle of the pitch. As Lewes backed off Mackie kept pressing forward before striking a shot from around 30 yards that flew well over the home goal.

As the half moved on Lewes gained in confidence around the City goal. Paul Olima turned swiftly when receiving an Anthony Barness throw-in and shot a couple of yards wide. But after Jermaine Wright missed the ball following a low cross by George Porter City broke away and mustered their only on-target effort of the half, from Benjamin, that caused Chris Winterton little concern.

On the half hour Murphy, who caused City endless problems prior to the interval but was underused after the break, sauntered past Ben Martin and pulled a good save out of Paul Bastock. Moments later Murphy, seemingly penned in by James Fisher, clipped an excellent cross into the middle that Olima stretched to head wide.

An adventurous diagonal cross-field ball by Dedman was cut out by Pearson who immediately sent it back over Dedman’s head for Murphy to collect. Cutting inside onto his right foot the Rooks leading scorer looked to have beaten Bastock only for the evergreen City keeper to pull off a spectacular tip over high to his left.

The pressure on the City goal was building and Harry Beautyman kept the game goalless when clearing Chris Breach’s header from the goalline.

Bastock caught a dangerous chip into the goalmouth by Murphy before Ide seized upon a Frater clearance and fed Porter whose low drive went narrowly wide courtesy of a slight deflection. Lewes continued to press with Beautyman clearing right on the goalline, this time following a Tom Hutchinson header from Ide’s corner.

City were desperate to hold out until half time but four minutes from the interval the Rooks made the crucial breakthrough. Godfrey sailed past Martin, who appeared short of full mobility, and cut the ball into the goalmouth from the Lewes right where it was impossible for Olima to miss from just a couple of paces out.

On 45 minutes the game was as good as over when the Rooks added their second goal when Wright knocked a perfect ball down the left side of a City defence that stood forlornly appealing for offside as Godfrey raced clear and most emphatically arrowed the ball inside Bastock’s left hand post for his first Conference South goal.

Gomez failed to reappear for the second half and Castle opted to put 38-year-old central defender Mark Peters alongside Benjamin in attack as the inexperienced, but leading scorer for the Reserves this season, Dom Petrucci stayed on the bench.

Prior to the kick off City engaged in a team huddle, the effect of which will remain as a mystery to all but the players themselves. Certainly it did little to stem the flow towards the visitor’s goal as Lewes won two corners inside the opening sixty seconds.

From the first Frater achieved no mean feat in slashing the ball over the roof of the impressive Philcox stand and onto the roof of an unsuspecting car in the car park. Ide cleverly cut the second corner into the path of Murphy whose well-flighted chip looked goal-bound until Beautyman intervened for the third time.

On 48 minutes Everitt picked up a booking for a foul on Porter but claimed after the game that he himself was pulled to the ground by the Lewes player.

The Rooks remained in the ascendancy with Hutchinson glancing a header narrowly wide from Ide’s free kick but Ide found his effectiveness restricted when caught by a slightly high tackle by Peters.

Lewes ought to have moved into an unassailable position on 54 minutes when Ide, Godfrey and Porter cut City open down their left flank but following a hanging cross to the back post Breach headed wastefully back across goal and wide.

It was to prove little more than a temporary reprieve as a minute later Lewes scored a third goal at the Dripping Pan for the first time since April when Olima weaved his way past Frater and Martin before sidestepping the sprawling Bastock and stroking a stunning goal low in the centre of the net.

Before play resumed City hauled Dedman off with Fisher dropping to right-back and substitute David Hutton moving to the right of the midfield.

Still Lewes piled forward with an Ide cross picking out Olima who headed the ball upwards and was clattered into by Bastock as the duo challenged for the falling sphere. Olima was able to resume after prolonged treatment.

Shortly after Mackie fired a half chance well wide, David Deeney, one of City’s better performers this season but enduring a poor contribution here, was replaced by Adam Martin.

On 72 minutes Lewes almost scored another thrilling goal as they sliced through the City midfield and defence for the umpteenth time.

Wright cut City open with a glorious low through ball that sent Godfrey clear. His cut back went untouched across the penalty area but was retrieved by Porter who slid it inside to Olima whose audacious back-heel was smothered by Bastock.

Peters and Benjamin combined to win City’s first corner of the half on 76 minutes from which Hutton’s cross from the Saints left was powerfully headed home by Everitt for his first goal of the season.

Two minutes later though and Everitt’s afternoon came to a bitter end when a challenge that was nothing more than mistimed was deemed worthy of a second yellow card by referee Phil Knight, and thus the end of Everitt’s participation to the days entertainment.

Lewes were content to see out the rest of the game by keeping the ball wide when one felt that had they gone for goal then there were more to be had. Six minutes from time the Rooks did almost add a fourth when Murphy played in Wright whose low drive was knocked off the line by Ben Martin.

Lewes: C.Winterton, A.Barness, A.Pearson, J.Wright, T.Hutchinson, C.Breach, T.Murphy, L.Ide (S.Wormull 60), P.Olima (T.Rivers 78), B.Godfrey, G.Porter (R.Jones 88), subs; N.Green, R.Gradwell.

St Albans City: P.Bastock, R.Dedman (D.Hutton 55), A.Everitt, H.Beautyman, B.Martin, R.Frater, D.Deeney (A.Martin 64), J.Fisher, C.Benjamin, P.Gomez (M.Peters 46), H.Mackie, subs; R.Magwood, D.Petrucci.

Dismissed: Everitt.

Goals: 41 1-0 Olima, 45 2-0 Godfrey, 55 3-0 Olima, 76 3-1 Everitt.

Referee: Phil Knight (Kent).

Att: 727.