A derby victory over East Grinstead has left Lewes within touching distance of National League survival.

Team manager Paul Benoy had demanded four points from the double-header weekend, hoping for a draw against Grinstead and a win at Bath Buccaneers on Sunday.

Saturday's 2-1 success was followed by a 5-2 defeat at Bath but results elsewhere have left the relegation equation a lot clearer.

Rock-bottom Blueharts lost both games over the weekend and now cannot catch Lewes while Peterborough, who currently occupy the relegation play-off spot, also suffered a brace of defeats.

If Lewes can beat Blueharts at home on Saturday and Peterborough fail to beat Hounslow away, then the Sussex side will remain in division two for next season.

Benoy said: "I wanted four points but other results went our way. We would have settled for three points if we had known the others were going to lose both their games.

"After we lost 9-1 at Nottingham (the previous week), I hoped that some positives would come out of that thrashing.

"We had a 45-minute session after that game when everybody had a say on what went wrong. We said we didn't want to be the team that took Lewes out of the league, particularly in our centenary year.

"There was much more determination in the team on Saturday and that came out of the defeat by Nottingham."

Adrian Bettesworth gave Lewes an early lead following a well-worked short corner routine.

Grinstead's cause was not helped by an injury to former Lewes striker Steve Edmonds and they also had goalkeeper Giles Dakin yellow carded, which meant Kevin King had to go in goal, but the home side failed to take advantage.

Grinstead stepped up the pressure in the second half but Lewes goalkeeper Marc Wilkinson was equal to the task, making some excellent saves.

The visitors forced seven short corners in the second period but it was Lewes who went further ahead 13 minutes from time when Nick van Tromp scored from open play after some good work from Carl Wright.

Four minutes from time player-coach Ian Pattison pulled one back for Grinstead, scoring while lying on the ground, but they could not force an equaliser.

On Sunday at Bath, Lewes twice drew level in the first half after goals from Bettesworth and Tim Garner but a number of unforced errors allowed the hosts to run away with the game in the second half.

East Grinstead bounced back with a 2-2 draw at home to second-placed Nottingham despite missing Edmonds with a broken finger.

After falling behind on 13 minutes, Grinstead drew level before half-time thanks to skipper Dominick Male's drag flick from a short corner.

Duncan Howarth put them ahead from another short corner in the second half but the visitors replied soon after to take a point.

For Grinstead, Seye Akande and Paul Turk defended well throughout.