#COYD - Come on You Dockers

Whitstable Town 5 Newhaven 0, FA Cup Preliminary Round, Saturday 22 nd August 2026 The road to Wembley is officially shut. Well, for us it is, anyway. Not that it was ever really open following last week’s FA Vase defeat against Guernsey. But one can always dream. The Preliminary Round of the FA Cup, saw us make the lengthy journey to Whitstable Town in Kent. A side who not only play at a higher level, but one that has actually successfully traversed the long and winding road to Wembley. And even conquered it. They won the FA Vase a couple of seasons ago. As ever, a long journey brought with it what has become the customary annual coach trip. A trip that, this year, I was unfortunately unable to make due to a post-game engagement. Well, I say unfortunately. Given that the coach left Fort Road at 10:30, and didn’t actually arrive at the ground until just gone 14:00 (due to a closure on the M20), maybe being forced to miss the coach trip this year wasn’t such a bad thing. The te...

Forest Row 0 Newhaven 2, FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round, Friday 7 th August 2026 The season may be less than a week old, but on Friday night Newhaven faced their third game of the fledgling campaign, travelling to Three Bridges for an FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round tie against league rivals Forest Row. Wembley may still be some way off yet, but it’s still nice for non-league clubs to have an early-season FA Cup run. Not least for the additional finances traversing a few rounds brings to a club. With Row starting the season with just one point from their opening two league games, hopes were high that Newhaven could keep their unbeaten start to the season going, and make it to the heady heights of the Preliminary Round. Following two hard-fought games in a matter of days, the Dockers management opted to shuffle the pack somewhat for this encounter, making a few changes to Tuesday night’s starting 11. The pack was then further shuffled moments before kick-off when goalkeeper Leo ...

Hassocks 1 Newhaven 2, SCFL Premier Division Match #2, Tuesday 4 th August 2026 Football is well and truly back! We’ve not yet reached the end of the first week in August and we’re already two league games down. Following hot-on-the-heels of Saturday’s home draw with Crawley Down Gatwick, was a jaunt to Hassocks; a team widely being tipped for an immediate return to the Isthmian League. It’s no secret that it was results (or lack thereof) against the teams towards the top end of the table that ultimately cost us a potential play-off berth last season. This was an early opportunity to show that we’ve learned lessons from that campaign, and that we can at least compete with the best teams in the league. On a perfect evening for football, it was the Dockers who made the more positive start. Although early chances were few and far between, Newhaven did manage to force a succession of corners which ultimately went unrewarded. For their part, Hassocks seemed to be finding it hard ...

Newhaven 1 Crawley Down Gatwick 1, SCFL Premier Division Match #1, Saturday 1 st August 2026 It may be just me, but I’m sure every year the football off-season seems to get shorter and shorter. Maybe it’s because the World Cup only finished less than two weeks ago. Maybe it’s an age thing. The older I get the quicker time seems to fly (I swear it was only Christmas a month or so ago). Whatever the reason, the fact remains. Football is back. And most of us wouldn’t have it any other way. Saturday saw Newhaven kick the 2026/27 SCFL season off with a home match against Crawley Down Gatwick. In what many are expecting to be one of the most open divisions for many years, both the Dockers and the Anvils have gone under the radar when it comes to pre-season predictions. No one seems sure quite what to expect from either team. From the Dockers perspective, though, pre-season has been largely positive. Yes, a few players have left – that goes with the territory at this level. But the m...

Newhaven 3 Horsham YM 5, SCFL Premier Division match #38, Saturday 25 th April 2026 And so, in what seems like a blink of an eye, the 2025/26 season is confined to the past It doesn’t seem all that long ago that I attended the first pre-season friendly back in the summer; leaving that game as part of a fanbase convinced we were in for a season of real struggle. What a difference nine months makes. While there may have been nothing of great note riding on our final league match of the campaign – a hugely creditable 8 th place finish having already been secured – the fact is that everyone involved in the club can look back on this season with will pride. A young side, many of whom were playing their first full year of senior football, have acquitted themselves superbly, and but for a lack of consistency, we could have made a stronger push for the play-offs that we ultimately ended up doing. In front of a decent-sized crowd on Saturday, Newhaven hosted Horsham YM, a side who...

Haywards Heath 4 Newhaven 3, SCFL Premier Division match #37, Saturday 18 th April 2026 Newhaven’s penultimate match of the season saw us travel to title-chasing Haywards Heath. While this match may have been something of a dead rubber from our perspective, for the hosts it was anything but. Anything but three points would see Steyning claim the title if they could overcome Peacehaven in a game that was taking place at the same time. However, while there may have not been any real pressure on the young Dockers, this was the ideal opportunity for us to show that we really can compete against the very best teams in the league. It has been our results against the teams in and around the play-off places (a victory away to Horsham YM being the exception) that has ultimately cost us our own shot at the play-offs this season. And all too often these defeats have been damning in how comfortably we’ve been brushed aside. With this game pretty much a free-hit, here was the chance to...