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Dockers winning run comes to a disappointing end

Peacehaven 2 Newhaven 0, SCFL Premier Division match #37 It was always likely to be highly unlikely… and so it proved. After a stunning run of nine wins in a row had offered the Dockers an outside chance of claiming the most unexpected of play-off places, Easter Monday’s defeat at local rivals Peacehaven ended any such hopes for good. Ultimately, even a win wouldn’t have made much difference. With Crawley Down and Petersfield also both claiming three-points yesterday, we wouldn’t have made it to the promised land regardless. But let’s not have it wrong. Defeat to Peacehaven still stings; more so as it means that for the first time in quite a while it means the local rivals will finish ahead of us in the table, and also still have an outside chance of claiming a play-off spot too. In fairness, like ourselves, Peacehaven came into his game on a good run of form, having tasted defeat in the league just twice since the start of February – and those losses came against runaway leade...
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Nine in nine has us dreaming

Newhaven 3 Roffey 1, SCFL Premier Division match #36 Football. It’s a funny old game! Had you told anyone following our Boxing Day defeat against local rivals Peacehaven that there would be anything riding on the return fixture, then you would almost certainly have found yourself certified. Yet, here we are, just under four months on, with a match as potentially important as any Haven Derby in recent history. The winners will go into the last day of the season with at least a mathematical chance of still reaching the play-offs. For the losers, though, any such dreams can probably be extinguished. That the Dockers find themselves in such a position is thanks solely to a frankly astonishing run of nine-straight victories. A run that continued on Saturday with victory over another play-off chasing side, Roffey. At one point, Roffey had looked odds-on for a play-off spot. However, a downturn in form which had brought just one win in seven games prior to Saturday has seen their ...
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Newhaven’s gr-eight form continues

Midhurst and Easebourne 1 Newhaven 2, SCFL Premier Division match #35 The third in a run of three lengthy away trips brought the Dockers yet another three points as their strong end to the season continues. While, on paper, a trip to Midhurst may have looked like a likely source of three points – the hosts have nothing to play for and were on a run of four straight defeats – their ground is one that we have typically struggled at in recent years. Sloped and bobbly, it’s far from the ideal outfield on which to witness flowing football. Yet, in patches, Newhaven produced some decent, intricate football on Saturday, especially in the midfield areas. Had the final pass at times been a little better/quicker, then the Dockers would surely have ended up finding this game far more comfortable than they ultimately did. The on-form Dockers signalled their intent from the outset, with Ryan Warwick’s attempt to lob the goalkeeper from long-range drifting just away from the target inside th...
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The winning run continues

Loxwood 1 Newhaven 4, SCFL Premier Division match #34 The Dockers made it a magnificent seven wins from seven games as three goals in the last twenty-five minutes saw off a hard-working Loxwood side. Battling against relegation, seven points from their last three games had given the Magpies a slight cushion from the drop zone. And it was clear to see from the outset that this was a much-improved Loxwood side from the one that had we had beaten comfortably at Fort Road earlier in the season. Thankfully, even with a host of absent players which saw a late call-up for under 18s goalkeeper Ashley Overton, this is a far more confident Newhaven team, too. That said, after a frankly unentertaining opening 20-minutes of the match (it was reminiscent of a pre-season match, being played in pre-season temperatures), the Dockers got the benefit of a decision that could easily have led to young centre-back Liam Osborne being given his marching orders. A long ball over the top led to the L...
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Rare moment of quality brings sixth successive victory

Little Common 0 Newhaven 1, SCFL Premier Division match #33 Newhaven travelled to Little Common on Saturday afternoon for an unlikely battle between two of the division’s most in form teams. It just shows how quickly things can change around. When this fixture was postponed just a few weeks ago, the Dockers were struggling for form while Little Common looked to be dead and buried at the foot of the league. Come Saturday, though, Newhaven were on a run of five successive victories, while Little Common had taken ten points from a possible 15 to propel themselves just outside of the relegation zone on goal difference. In fairness, the subsequent encounter won’t live overly long in the memory. On a blustery sunny Spring afternoon, on a typical bobbly end of season grass pitch, it would be fair to say that both teams struggled to get to grips with the conditions. Moments of quality were few and far between. In fact, probably the only true moment of quality occurred in the fifth-mi...
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Five in five for rampant Dockers

Newhaven 3 Wick 1, SCFL Premier Division match #32 Newhaven welcomed Wick to Fort Road on Saturday afternoon, Non-League Day, hoping to extend their winning streak to a season’s best five games. Wick, though, came into the match on a decent run of form of their own, having won four on the trot before that run was halted by Peacehaven last weekend. Newhaven bossed much of the opening stages of this one, without creating too much in ways of opportunities. Wick looked happy to absorb the pressure and hit on the counter with the Dockers not having to do all that much defending early on. The hosts took the lead just before the 20-minute mark. Despite Wick’s player’s vocal appeals for an offside (they vocally appealed for most things to be fair, but on this rare occasion they probably had a point), Lee Robinson casually gathered a clever flick from elder brother Jake, before despatching the ball into the corner. No off-side flag was raised, much to the visiting team’s annoyance and the...
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Dockers grind their way to three points

Pagham 1 Newhaven 2, SCFL Premier Division match #31 The sequence is over. Finally. Our last 15 league games had produced a run of three wins, three losses, three wins, three losses and three wins.  Meaning that yesterday’s visit to Pagham was surely to be the first in the latest series of three losses, right? Well, no, thankfully. The Dockers emerged from their long trip to Pagham with three points and an unprecedented (this season anyway) fourth consecutive league win.  And all without the absent trio of Jake Robinson, Ian Robinson, and Ryan Warwick. Impressive indeed. Okay, so it may not have been a vintage performance. Far from it, in fact.  But for the first time in quite a while yesterday afternoon, Newhaven won a match in which they were second-best for much of the game, showing a grit and determination that has been absent all too often throughout this season. After a non-eventful and instantly forgettable opening ten minutes, it was the Dockers who actu...
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