Worthing manager Alan Pook congratulated Lewes last night after seeing his Rebels side effectively guarantee them the division one south title.

Worthing, who are already promoted, drew against Slough Town to make the championship a formality for Rooks.

With Rebels now four points adrift, Windsor are the only team who can theoretically catch Lewes going into the last weekend of the season.

To do so, they will have to win by 16 goals against Croydon Athletic and hope Lewes lose at home to Banstead.

Such a scenario is highly unlikely and the Lewes squad, who had made the trip to watch the game, held ironically at Windsor's ground, celebrated at the final whistle.

Pook said: "Well done to Lewes. At full strength they have probably got the best team in this division, so you have to say they have deserved it.

"We have half the budget they have and they didn't have the sort of problems we had with injuries, so it was always going to be difficult for us to catch them."

Pook also praised his players for pushing Lewes until the last week of the season.

He said: "We have been down to the bare bones lately. We only had 11 players because the subs weren't fully fit.

"Nko (Ekoku) had to fly in from Bulgaria to make sure we weren't short.

"That's the sort of character we have been showing throughout the season and, overall, I can't complain about the effort and commitment of my players."

It has been a fantastic effort by Rebels. One month ago they were 19 points off the top in seventh place and with five games in hand.

They have lost once in 19 league games and that was against Lewes last week, a result which ultimately proved decisive.

Worthing responded to that 3-0 drubbing with a 2-1 win at Hampton and Richmond on Saturday, after being 1-0 down.

Rebels were fortunate not to have fallen behind early on against a Slough team who are in good form, having only lost twice in their previous 18 games.

Twice in the first three minutes 33-goal top scorer Ian Hodge was left unmarked at the back post but a combination of a superb save by Will Packham and the striker's inaccuracy let Rebels off the hook.

Worthing also had their chances in a first half that became badly affected by torrential rain. Mark Pulling headed inches over from close range following a cross by Sam Francis.

Francis almost added to his 35 goals moments later when he beat the Slough defence to latch onto a through ball but home keeper Alan Foster raced off his line to smother.

The referee inspected the pitch during the interval and delayed the restart because the rain had created huge puddles.

Despite the deteriorating conditions the game came alive with eight minutes remaining when Slouth broke the deadlock.

Williams headed a deep cross from Veli Hakki back across the goal and Hodge nodded past the helpless Packham from close range.

Worthing were not finished and hit back a minute later with a superb goal.

The ball ran loose to Owen Hill 25 yards from goal and the midfielder lashed an unstoppable shot into the bottom corner.