Lewes players refuse to be downcast after losing the battle of the top two in division one south.

Victory would have extended their lead to four points.

Instead, Windsor and Eton are the new leaders and, judging by their celebrations, the visitors viewed the result as a significant turning point in the title race.

But the Lewes players have a different perspective on who will have the last laugh in May.

Rooks captain Marc Cable said: "It is far too early to tell what is going to happen and if they think they have the psychological edge then they are in for a shock.

"We beat them earlier in the season, so it's 1-1 as far as I'm concerned. There are still 30 points to play for and it would only take two or three injuries to key Windsor players for them to slip up.

"We are good enough to bounce back. We showed at the beginning of the season that we can have a good run. We still fancy our chances and there is no way we will let this result get to us."

Manager Steven King insists there are more twists and turns to come before the championship is decided.

He said: "It is in their hands now, but it will be one hell of a task for them to win all their remaining ten games. I can't see them doing it, so we are far from being downhearted.

"We set three objectives when we started the season. The first was to finish in the top six and get promoted, then it was to win the league and finally win the play-offs and get into the Conference South.

"We are still on course for all of those, so I'm still happy with the way things are going for us."

King was not so happy with the referee. Mr Hoare disallowed a goal from substitute Warren Haughton seven minutes from time for a disputed offside decision with the score at 2-0. Moments later he waved away penalty appeals when Cable was sent sprawling in the box.

Haughton did manage to pull one back in the last minute when he converted from close range. But that was little consolation as substitute Kirk Watts was sent off in injury time for using foul and abusive language.

King said: "I thought we did enough to win the game but the referee was shocking. We should have had a penalty and had a goal disallowed when it shouldn't have been.

"The referees are threatening to ruin the season for us because the majority of them are not adequate for this level."

While the man in black riled Lewes, Windsor keeper Chuck Martini left them shaken and stirred.

The rotund former Moroccan international had already made a string of outstanding saves when he produced another good stop in injury time to deny Junior Kadi a simple chance to equalise.

Unfortunately for Rooks, their keeper was not in the same inspired form.

Windsor had hardly threatened for 69 minutes when Dave Carroll scored straight from a corner with the help of a punch by Dominique Jean-Zepherin.

The French keeper made amends ten minutes later with a full-length save from Carroll, but he only managed to push the ball into the path of Lee Roache who blasted into an empty net.

Lewes blitzed the Windsor goal in the last ten minutes but supporters were left wondering why a flurry of chances came so late.

King decided to play Marc Whiteman up front on his own, with top scorer Lee Newman, who struggled to shake off a groin injury, on the bench.

Wingers Peter Adeniyi and Dwain Clarke were supposed to support the loan striker but Whiteman looked isolated for most of the game until Haughton was introduced with 15 minutes remaining.

However, King thought Lewes played it just right and, considering a third of their goals this season have come in the last 20 minutes, who's to say he wasn't right?

He said: "We only woke up in the last 20 minutes but we absolutely battered them during that time. We had so many chances to win it late on like we have so many times this season. Apart from conceding sloppy goals, I wouldn't say we did much wrong. "