Unless Lewes start scoring soon they are going down with a whimper.

The Rooks have now gone five league matches on the trot without hitting the target following a 3-0 reverse away to York.

They did score three in the FA Trophy against Havant last week but their last league goal was a first-half winner from Joe Tabiri away to Salisbury on December 9.

That amounts to 498 minutes.

Lewes matched a very average York side for 55 minutes at the KitKat Crescent but once the Minstermen went in front it was effectively game over.

After that Lewes were awful, highlighted by the fact that they did not have a single attempt on goal in the second half unless you count substitute Jay Liburd’s late miscued effort from 12 yards which went out for a throw-in.

Perhaps we should not be surprised. Lewes have only scored 18 goals in Blue Square premier all season and only one of the 15 players at York on Saturday has a league goal to his name.

York, by contrast, had Richard Brodie, the only really decent player on the pitch, whose efforts were rewarded with two goals to take his tally to ten in his last nine games.

The reasons behind Lewes’ problems are not hard to find. They have the smallest budget in the league and the smallest squad and unless they can get their best players out they are struggling.

Without Michael Standing and David Wheeler, who was a late withdrawal with a hamstring strain, they lacked creativity and width.

With Tim Rivers, Steve Elliott, Ollie Rowland and Dean Ruddy all injured and Michael Standing starting a two-match suspension, manager Kevin Keehan was down to the bare bones.

His four-man bench included two youth team players earning their first call-ups, Ryan Storrie and goalkeeper Jake Buss, and effectively a trialist striker.

Keehan knows he needs to strengthen but his hands are tied by the club’s financial problems.

He said: “The trouble is at the moment we just can’t afford to lose players.

“We missed Michael and David. Though Freddie Foreman did all right, David gives us an outlet with his pace.

“With the numbers we have in the squad at the moment we need to get at least two more players in. We will just keep looking and keep talking to people and see what we can come up with.

“I thought our front two in the first half were a handful and they looked capable of scoring but in the second half we never got to grips with the game at all. Once they scored the heads dropped a bit and we didn’t really compete.”

Keehan shuffled his pack to account for the losses of Standing and Wheeler, making five positional changes and bringing in Foreman out of position at right midfield.

After a shaky start when Brodie could have scored twice in the opening two minutes, Lewes competed well in the first half and should have gone ahead on 25 minutes when Seb Wallis-Tayler fired wide of the far post after some great work from on-loan Barnet striker Elliott Charles.

The second half, though, was a completely different, particularly after Brodie opened the scoring on 55 minutes with a screaming 20-yard volley which gave Rikki Banks no chance.

After that Lewes were poor. It wasn’t individual blunders which have so often been their downfall recently but more a case of collective responsibility as the front six disappeared from the game.

Christian Smith doubled the advantage with another cracker, this time from 25 yards after Kieron St Aimie had conceded possession in a dangerous position, and Brodie wrapped up victory 13 minutes from time with a deflected shot after giving Chris Breach the runaround.

So where do Lewes go from here? They are not bottom, thanks to Histon scoring two late goals to win 2-1 at Northwich.

With Standing and Wheeler back, the Rooks stand a chance of turning around this miserable league run.

If they can recapture the spirit and attacking threat they showed against Havant last week in the remaining games, starting with tonight’s Trophy replay with the Hawks, then there is hope.

But I repeat a point I made previously that Lewes have to stop letting their paying public down.

The most disappointing thing on Saturday was that the 21 fans that peppered the away end of the ground did not have a single shot on target to get excited about.

Those travelling fans who made the ten-hour round trip on Saturday are owed a decent performance ... and at the very least a goal.

Lewes: Banks; Pearson, Cullip, Breach, Barness; Foreman, Keehan, St Aimie, Wallis-Tayler (sub Cox 67); Charles (sub Liburd 82), Klein-Davies. Subs not used: Storrie, Buss.

Booked: Cullip (66, foul).

York: Ingham; Critchell, Kelly, Parslow, Robinson; Brown, Greaves, Smith (sub Rusk 89), McWilliams (sub Shepherd 46); Brodie, McBreen (sub Sodje 70). Subs not used: Russell, Mimms.

Booked: Smith ( 54, foul).