Lewes manager Steven King admitted that he is feeling the pressure as the race for the division one south title goes into the final lap.

The Rooks went back to the top of the table and guaranteed themselves a top six finish after winning a dour Sussex derby against Horsham at Queen Street.

Former leaders Windsor and Eton lost 1-0 against Bromley and slip to second on goal difference, having played a game more than the new leaders.

So far King, in his first season as a manager, has been a thinker and not a shouter.

But on Saturday, he spent the whole game on his feet yelling, swearing and gesticulating.

He even had his sister in the stand shouting out the scores of their title rivals.

King said: "Nerves are getting to me now and it's beginning to get the old ticker going a bit.

"We are in a situation where we have to win these games and I don't really care about the performance.

"This is my first job, so I am probably feeling it a bit more than other managers."

King can feel a little better because victory ensured Lewes a place in the top six. That means they will be included in the re-formed Isthmian premier division next season.

The new division will be two below the Conference, like division one south is at the moment, but it is regarded as promotion because the standard will be better.

But King wants the title and its destiny is in his own hands.

If Lewes beat title-rivals Worthing tomorrow, they will be three points clear with two games remaining.

King said: "The target at the beginning of the season was a top six finish, so it is great to have finally achieved that.

"Now we're going for our second target, but although we have just three games left, there's still a long way to go.

"We've got to play Worthing and they face Hampton and Richmond next week, so things can still change around."

Lewes hammered Horsham 6-1 at The Dripping Pan at the start of the season.

Only three players from that team started against Hornets on Saturday - Dominique Jean-Zepherin, Paul Kennett and Peter Adeniyi - and the performance was much less convincing.

Strikers Warren Haughton and Lee Newman looked out of sorts in the first half and both missed three glorious chances.

On one occasion, they left the ball for each other when unmarked and Horsham keeper Ian Chatfield was able to gather comfortably.

They made amends after the interval with a goal apiece. Haughton bundled in from two yards on 57 minutes after Chatfield spilt a close-range shot from Newman.

Newman added an equally scrappy goal three minutes later when his weak side-footed effort from the edge of the six yard box somehow crept under Chatfield and rolled in.

In September, Horsham manager John Maggs predicted Lewes would win the league. He is less sure now.

He said: "I didn't think Lewes performed that well and they didn't look half the side which thumped us earlier in the season.

"There was no excuse for our second-half performance because it was the worse we have played for months.

"What disappointed me was that we handed them two scrappy goals and gave the ball away so many times. When you have a Sussex derby like this you want to put on a show and we didn't do it."

Hornets are a mid-table team with nothing to play for and hardly threatened the Lewes goal. But they might have gone on to take the points if they had converted a gilt-edged chance in the first half but Lee Carney mis-cued a chip horribly wide.