Whatever Sam Gargan does in his career, he will never be forgotten by Lewes fans.

The 19-year-old striker has now scored two goals in two games since joining on a month’s loan.

More significantly he will go down in Lewes folklore as the man who clinched the club’s first ever win in the top flight of non-league football.

It has been a while coming – too long for many – and you could feel the tension lifting in an instant as referee Ian Cooper blew his whistle after five agonising minutes of extra time.

Twice in as many games Lewes had dropped points to late goals so to reverse the tables and bag an 88th-minute winner themselves showed a lot of character.

What a difference a week makes. Seven days earlier they returned from fellow strugglers Altrincham having lost 1-0, having failed to get a single shot on target and seriously looking like they could go through the season without winning a game.

A week later they have taken four points from two games, turned in two decent performances, strengthened their squad and added Danny Cullip to their management team which can only be a good move.

They even have competition for places now because new player-coach Cullip missed this game through suspension!

It has been a positive week for the club and for once everyone involved deserves a bit of praise.

Nobody is going to get carried away by this. Let’s face it, they have won one game out of 12, but this at least gives them a starting point to try to put their troubles behind them.

The scenes of jubilation on and off the field at full-time were heartening to watch. It was like they had just avoided relegation after a long campaign. Of course, they haven’t but this does at least give them hope of doing so.

Lewes are now off the bottom of the table and the gap to the comfort zone of fifth from bottom is down to five points ahead of Saturday’s clash with fellow strugglers Grays Athletic.

Praise too for Kevin Keehan because, whatever the rights and wrongs of his appointment in April, he is desperate for Lewes to do well.

Keehan, who was given a vote of confidence by the board earlier in the week, admitted after Saturday’s historic first win at this level that he may not have got it right at times but he believes things are going in the right direction now.

The Rooks boss said: “I probably had too many inexperienced players in the side. When players are stepping up it takes them time to acclimatise and I probably asked too many to step up at once.

“We needed to get players in and Kerry Mayo has been a fantastic signing for us. Sam Gargan has also been great and Aswad Thomas did really well on his debut.

“The balance of the team is great now and we also have that little bit of added experience. You get a couple of decent results and the young players get a lift, the confidence grows and hopefully we can go on and build from here.

“I said to the players before Tuesday’s game the rot stops here.

“To show the character and fight to come back like we did was fantastic.”

Oxford are struggling at the moment but their fans expected nothing less than victory from the Dripping Pan.

They looked like getting their wish when Joe Burnell livened up a largely uneventful contest by heading home the opening goal from a well-worked short corner on 62 minutes.

Lewes had competed well at that stage but you feared there was no way back. They had a number of shots on goal but nothing to trouble goalkeeper Billy Turley.

That all changed when Rikki Banks delivered a huge free-kick from deep in his own half which Oxford failed to deal with and Michael Standing steered the ball home from close range against one of his former clubs.

Standing then turned provider two minutes from time, sending over a corner from the left which Gargan buried at the far post.

Keehan, who has taken plenty of flak this season, could afford a smile at the end.

He said: “It has not been easy at times. I had a nice comfortable job which I probably could have stayed in as long as I wanted to but I felt I could do this job. I can battle but I need the players to battle on the pitch and they did that today.”

Lewes: Banks; Barness, Breach, Mayo, Thomas; Standing, Keehan (sub Baidoo 77), Rowland, Wallis-Tayler (sub Cox 67); Taylor (sub Elliott 90), Gargan. Subs not used: Geard, Ruddy.

Booked: Mayo, Gargan, Standing.

Oxford: Turley, Clarke, Foster, Osborne, Carruthers; Odubade (sub Hutchinson 89), Murray, Burnell, Trainer (sub Haldane 54); Constable (sub Deering 54), Guy. Subs not used: Quinn, Hinchliffe.

Booked: Carruthers, Clarke.

Have Lewes turned the corner?