Lewes silenced the crowd and their critics after gate-crashing Bognor's promotion party.

A season's best turnout of 1,003 packed into Nyewood Lane on Saturday expecting to see Rocks pick up the point they needed to seal a return to the Ryman Premier Division for the first time in seven years.

Instead they saw a Lewes side out to prove a point and give their own chances of going up from Division One South a significant boost in the process.

The Rooks had lost their heads and what looked like their promotion hopes after losing 2-0 to Worthing in a bad tempered home derby last Wednesday.

Any Bognor fans who had made the trip to the Dripping Pan and witnessed the ugly scenes at the end would have been forgiven for already uncorking the champagne. That result left Lewes five points behind Rocks going into the penultimate game of the season.

But the Lewes who snatched three points with two goals in three minutes by Julian Curnow and Paul Kennett looked a totally different side, in spirit if not personnel, to the one which had been so inept against Worthing.

The only notable absentee was 23-goal striker Lee Newman who failed to turn up after a bust-up with manager Jimmy Quinn following the midweek game when he was substituted.

Quinn paid tribute to his team's performance and then confirmed Newman will not play in his side again.

He said: "The difference between this match and the Worthing game was that we had 11 players out there who wanted to play for the club. We didn't have any passengers and the performance showed that, it was excellent.

"Lee Newman failed to turn up for the game and that is totally unacceptable to me. I would not pick him for the team again. No player is bigger than the club and to not even notify anyone that he was not going to play is unprofessional and I am very disappointed in him."

Lewes did not look a side missing their top scorer when they sealed the precious points with two similar goals in a three minute spell just after half-time.

Wingback Graham Harper, who had threatened throughout the first half with his curling crosses, delivered another dangerous centre on 49 minutes which skimmed off the head of Miles Rutherford before dropping for Curnow to blast home at the back post.

It was the same scenario just three minutes later. Another cross from Harper was mis-kicked by Lewes striker Ryan McBride and the ball ran to makeshift striker Kennett, who was filling in for Newman, to toe-poke under Craig Stoner.

Lewes celebrated with their handful of fans after the game as if they had already won promotion. They had every right to after they had battled in every position, took their chances when it mattered and played like a team with nothing to lose.

The opposite was true for Rocks who failed to reproduce the form which had left them top of the league before kick off after suffering just two defeats in their last 17 league games.

The home side only started to look like title favourites in the last half hour, but they found Lewes keeper Russell Tanner in inspired form.

He had already produced a superb point-blank stop to deny Matt Russell on the stroke of half-time before making another two outstanding saves in as many minutes in the final stages, first from David Birmingham and then Richard Davies.

Russell also hit the post with a header in stoppage time, but the late flurry came too little, too late.

Tanner said: "That was probably my best performance of the season and the team's as well. We celebrated after the game because Bognor thought they were going to go up, so it was great to beat them.

"Everyone wrote us off after the Worthing game but now we have a great chance."

Carshalton went up after beating Croydon 1-0 at home which leaves one promotion place up for grabs on the last day of the season on Saturday.

Bognor will go up if they pick up three points at Walton and Hersham, while Lewes must win at home to Windsor and Eton and hope Rocks lose to book their place in the Premier Divison.

Bognor manager Jack Pearce said: "The reason we lost was because we had too many players who weren't performing and we didn't have the mental strength to raise our game. The positive thing now is the fact it is still in our hands because if we win our last game we go up."