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Dockers cruise to victory

Horsham YMCA 0 Newhaven 3, SCFL Premier Division match #28 Newhaven travelled to Horsham YMCA on Saturday, to face a team who, much like us, have struggled to string a consistent run of results together this season. While we went into the match on the back of three straight defeats, following three consecutive victories, YM had lost their last two games, having won the two preceding that. This was the fourth time we’d faced YM this season – our third visit to Gorings Mead - and with one win apiece from these three matches, the other was a 3-3 draw, it was nigh-on impossible to predict which way this game would be likely to go. Well, right up until the match kicked off, that is. While to say the Dockers absolutely dominated proceedings from the outset may be slightly overstating things, it’s more than fair to say that it was a game that they never looked likely to lose. In what has been a season of ups and downs, this was as comfortable a 90-minutes as Newhaven supporters have...
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Battling Dockers beaten again

Newhaven 2 Haywards Heath 4, SCFL Premier Division match #26 Newhaven finished their run of three consecutive matches against play-off hopefuls with a home match against Haywards Heath on Saturday. Having been somewhat unlucky in their loss to Crawley Down two weeks ago, before being comprehensively defeated against Crowborough last time out, the visit of many people’s pre-season title tips (by which of course I mean my own pre-season title tips) probably wasn’t high on our fledgling management duo’s agenda. However, after a barnstorming start to 2024/25, a mid-season management change did spark a collapse in form for Heath which has led them trailing leaders Hassocks significantly as we reach the business end of the season. Typical of the luck Newhaven have endured this campaign, though, Heath have been showing signs of slowly regaining their form in recent weeks, picking up a morale-boosting first win under their new manager just seven days earlier. Indeed, there was no sign ...
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Dockers downed by soaring Crows

Crowborough Athletic 3 Newhaven 0, SCFL Premier Division match #26 Newhaven travelled to play-off chasing Crowborough Athletic on Saturday to take on one of the division’s form teams. Although the Crows had been defeated last time out at Eastbourne United, prior to that they hadn’t tasted defeat in any competition since the 12 th October. The Dockers, meanwhile, have been unable to find any real consistency this season; winning a few games here and there, before losing a few. And being consistently inconsistent doesn’t count. Looking to build on the previous week’s improved attacking display, Newhaven started this match on the front-foot. Inside the opening minute the visitors twice looked to have great opportunities to perhaps go ahead, only for players to choose to pass rather than shoot, allowing the Crows to eventually clear their lines. That was to be as good as got for the Dockers for quite while as Crowborough soon assumed superiority of the game. The Crows thought ...
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Newhaven punished by high flying Crawley Down Gatwick

Newhaven 3 Crawley Down Gatwick 5, SCFL Premier Division match #25 After three back-to-back league victories to start 2025 (as a reminder, cup matches haven been expunged from memory) Newhaven welcomed Crawley Down Gatwick to Fort Road yesterday afternoon. Runners-up in the league just two seasons ago, Crawley Down are back in the play-off chase this time around, whilst also enjoying a decent FA Vase run which ended just a couple of weeks ago. Having lost at their place in a seven-goal thriller back in August, this was always likely to be a tough first home match in charge for interim manager’s Ryan Walton and Clive Blunt. And it certainly appeared that way after an opening ten minutes in which the visitors were wholly dominant and already a goal to the good. The Anvils were almost in on goal in the opening ten seconds, could have had a couple more by the second minute, and had it not been for a Jack Webb-Olley save five minutes later, would have been in front then. It seemed...
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Three in three for slowly improving Dockers

Saltdean United 1 Newhaven 2, SCFL Premier Division match #24 Newhaven made the short trip to Saltdean last night, aiming to make it three league wins from as many games in 2025. On paper, the Dockers should have been more than confident of claiming three more points against a Saltdean side who are struggling near the foot of the table. However, as regular watchers of Newhaven this season will be only too aware, the only guarantee with the Dockers at the moment is that there are no guarantees. See Little Common at home for proof of that. And with former Newhaven coaching stalwart Kieran Ridley at the Saltdean helm, you can always be sure that the Tigers will be extra fired-up for this encounter. On a bitterly cold evening, and with the match being played on a surface that you couldn’t exactly describe as a carpet (understatement alert), few of the spectators present would have been expecting to watch a footballing classic.   And they didn’t. This most certainly was not ...
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Late show gets new era off to winning start (in the league)

AFC Varndeanians 1 Newhaven 2, SCFL Premier Division match #23 Saturday saw Newhaven head to the Withdean Stadium for their first league match under the interim stewardship of Ryan Walton and Clive Blunt (there may have been a cup match in midweek but we’ll conveniently gloss over that – hey, it’s my blog and I’ll write what I want to). In years gone by, the Dockers would have been more than confident about their chances of taking three-points against AFC Varndeanians. However, this is a far stronger Vs side than those of the past. Going into this match the Brighton-based team actually sat above us in the league table, and are on-course for their highest SCFL Premier Division finish. Indeed, it was the Vs who drew first blood. With eight-minutes on the clock, the Dockers had largely been on the front foot, albeit without creating much (anything) in the way of goalscoring opportunities. Then, from their real first foray into our half, a cross from the left was met by the head of S...
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508 and out for legendary duo

Newhaven 2 Petersfield Town 1, SCFL Premier Division match #22 Nothing lasts for ever. All good things must come to an end.... Use whatever cliché you want, they are all, unfortunately, true. As I’m sure every man and his dog already knows, after more than ten years and 508 games, Saturday's home match against Petersfield Town marked the final time Andy Cook and Sean Breach will be in charge of the Dockers men’s team (although Cooky continues in his role as the women’s team manager). The term legend is bandied about far too often these days. But there can be little doubt that both Breachy and Cooky are, and will forever be, club legends. Their role in transforming Newhaven from a team in the doldrums to one of the most consistent and best-supported teams in the county league cannot be ignored. And as could be witnessed by the many messages that came pouring in via our Twitter feeds in the wake of their resignation announcement (from those outside the club as well as within)...
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