Joe Keehan has more reason than most to want to do well for his manager.

Keehan’s father Kevin has been fighting fire for much of his time in charge at the Dripping Pan.

Certainly that was the case until three weeks ago after Lewes took just three draws from their opening ten games in Blue Square premier.

So there must have been some pretty big smiles in the Keehan household on Saturday evening after Joe’s man-of-the-match performance helped the Rooks to their second win of the season and a second successive home triumph.

Midfielder Joe, who shrugged off a calf injury to score twice, was delighted.

He said: “I am desperate for my dad to be successful and also to help myself. Hopefully I am doing the right things and two goals always helps the cause.

“We got a win but it was close and it shouldn’t have been. We need to work on that more.

“We have Northwich on Saturday. It is a six-pointer and we need to beat the sides around us if we are going to stay up. We are getting there as a team.”

The biggest fear when dad Kevin took charge at the end of last season was that Lewes would ‘Do a Derby’, so-called after the Rams were relegated with one win and little more than a whimper last season. Forget that now.

The road to survival is still a long one but in the last three weeks Lewes have shown they have spirit aplenty and a competitive streak to go with it.

That is now eight points from the last five games which quite conceivably could have been more when you consider Histon’s 90th-minute equaliser, Cambridge’s 91st-minute winner and the chances Lewes missed in the goalless draw at Grays.

Perhaps the most pleasing thing about their 3-2 defeat of Forest Green on Saturday was that they defied a new set of odds stacked against them.

Having finally seemed to have assembled a team capable of competing at this level, injury ripped the heart out of them.

They went into Saturday’s game without playmaker Michael Standing, without goalkeeper Rikki Banks and without Kerry Mayo, whose loan spell from Albion was cut short by a serious knee injury sustained at Cambridge in midweek.

On top of that replacement keeper Dean Ruddy heroically played through the pain barrier despite a leg injury which left him barely able to walk from the 26th minute.

Lewes were considering throwing on defender Tom Graves in goal when Ruddy agreed to play on. He could only throw the ball rather than kick it and his injury certainly hampered Lewes in the second half when they almost threw away a three-goal interval lead but Ruddy played his part in the final quarter after the Rooks were pegged back to 3-2.

Lewes fans could not believe their eyes after their team scored three goals for the first time this season, all in a riveting ten-minute spell before half-time.

Keehan opened the scoring with a low finish into the far corner on 35 minutes after running on to a lofted pass from Anthony Barness and the same player headed a second three minutes later from an Aswad Thomas cross.

Two minutes before the break it was 3-0 after Sam Gargan headed in his third in five games since joining on loan from Albion.

The momentum for that spell had been provided by two other players. Skipper Danny Cullip was immense at the back from the first whistle while on-loan left winger Jack Compton made a real impression on his debut.

Compton had a chance to make it 4-0 in the second half, only to be denied by a fine save from Ryan Robinson, then came the reply from Forest Green who had held leaders Crawley to a 2-2 draw in midweek.

Goals from substitute Conal Platt and Jonathan Smith made it 3-2 by the 67th minute.

Kaid Mohamed then headed against the crossbar, Ruddy saved well from the same player while Smith and Mohamed fluffed glorious chances in a frantic finale.

Manager Keehan said: “The injury to Dean did not help as we were trying to protect him. Where the defence would normally flick it back to him they couldn’t so they were putting themselves under pressure.

“But it is a great three points. I know Northwich won but it is getting bunched up at the bottom which is better for us.”

Lewes: Ruddy; Barness, Cullip, Breach, Thomas; Cox (sub Elliott 65), Keehan, Rowland, Compton (sub Wallis-Tayler 81); Taylor (sub Fenelon 90), Gargan. Subs not used: Graves, Sackey.

Booked: Thomas (70, foul); Rowland (78, foul).

Forest Green: Robinson, Gill, Jones, Preece (sub Molyneux 57), McDonald (sub Platt 60); Stonehouse, Smith, Fowler, Mohamed; Mangan (sub Afful 50), Symons. Subs not used: Burton, Simpson.

Booked: Gill (76, foul).