#COYD - Come on You Dockers

Want to know what the Docker's players really think about one another? Then you've come to the right place! Over the course of the season, I'll be asking players from both the men's and women's sides to tell us all about the people they share the dressing room with. First up for Newhaven Ladies is Abi Turner.  Who is the coach’s pet? Steph (Harrison). Which teammate is most likely to pull out of a team night out at the last minute (or go home first)? Duch (Elle Duchossoy). Who would be in your ultimate Newhaven 5-a-side team (using current squad and coaches)? Rip (Paige Ripley), Lucy (Collinson – also assistant manager), Markham (Charlotte Markham), Annie (Mills) and Andy (Cook – manager). Who do you not want on the opposing team at training, and why? Lauren (Smith – team captain). She kicks the ball too hard! Someone offers you £100 if one of your teammates can hit the crossbar first time. Who are you choosing? Markham. Which teammate do you thi...

  Steyning Town 2 Newhaven 1, SCFL Premier Division, match #1 Real league football is back! Yes, I know the Premier League still doesn’t get going for another week (The Charity Community Shield doesn’t count as real football; it’s just a glorified friendly – although it might mean a little bit more this year than normal 😉 ), but for supporters of EFL clubs and a number of non-league fans throughout the country, today marked the start of what will undoubtedly be nine-months of joy, frustration and maybe even tears.   The Dockers, starting the season with three away fixtures while the finishing touches are applied to the fantastic new playing surface at Fort Road, travelled west to Steyning for their season opener. Nice of the fixture gods to schedule a match on a surface similar to that which is being laid at Newhaven’s home ground. A perfect chance to get further used to playing on the Astro ahead of the team’s first home match on 23 rd August! (And more practice may ...

 New signing, classy central midfielder Alex Plummer is the second men's player to fall under the COYD teammates spotlight. Here's what he had to say about his fellow Dockers... Who is the coach’s pet?   Don Street. Which teammate is most likely to pull out of a team night out at the last minute (or go home first)?  Harry Reed Who would be in your ultimate Newhaven 5-a-side team (using current squad and coaches)?  Jake Buss, Henry Watson, Alfie Rogers, Marcin Ruda, Lukas Franzen-Jones. Who do you not want on the opposing team at training, and why?  Marcin Ruda; he has the ability to embarrass you and is very difficult to get the ball off. He's also be known to nutmeg me in training at times! Someone offers you £100 if one of your teammates can hit the crossbar first time. Who are you choosing?  Alfie Rogers. Which teammate do you think is most likely to become a coach or manager when they finish playing?  Henry Watson. Which teammate tends ...

Rusthall 2 Newhaven 3, Pre-season match #5 With just seven days to go before the season gets going for real, Newhaven headed north (well, to Kent) looking to finish their pre-season campaign unbeaten. With the past Tuesday night’s friendly away at Whitehawk having been postponed due to the extreme weather conditions (searing heat or hurricane-force gales? Take your pick!), this represented the Dockers last chance to fine-tune any changes ahead of next week’s big kick-off away to Steyning. In Rusthall, who play in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division, Newhaven faced opponents who themselves had enjoyed a good pre-season, reeling off a string of impressive results along the way. Within ten minutes of kick-off, two things were abundantly clear. 1) Rusthall would provide the Dockers with the toughest challenge that I’d seen them face to date (I wasn’t at the Lancing game); and 2) With the new season now just around round the corner, things are getting more ...

In the first of a brand-new feature that will be appearing on this blog over the coming season (featuring players from both the men's and women's team), I'll be asking Newhaven's finest to dish the dirt on their teammates. First into the hot-seat, it's young left-back Aaron Winser. Who is the coach’s pet? Jake Buss. Which teammate is most likely to pull out of a team night out at the last minute (or go home first)? Probably myself! Who would be in your ultimate Newhaven 5-a-side team (using current squad and coaches)? Jake Buss, Bailie Rogers, Alfie Rogers, Lukas Franzen-Jones, and Charlie Bennett. Who do you not want on the opposing team at training, and why? Lukas - his first touch and all-round play is unreal. Someone offers you £100 if one of your teammates can hit the crossbar first time. Who are you choosing? Seb Saunders Which teammate do you think is most likely to become a coach or manager when they finish playing? Bussy Which teammate tends to have the wor...

Seaford Town 0 Newhaven 2, Pre-season friendly #4 At the risk of sounding too much like a broken record, the Docker’s latest pre-season friendly once again took place in weather conditions more suited to an afternoon lounging at the beach rather than one chasing a football around a pitch. As the Channel 9 weather-lady from The Fast Show would no doubt have said, it was ‘Scorchio’ (yet another topical reference for the Come On You Dockers blog, there). For the third time in a week, though, Newhaven made light of the blistering-hot weather by controlling the ball and making their opponents do all the hard work. Clever tactics if you’ve got the players to pull it off. Which, at present, the Dockers certainly seem to have. In honour of the late Newhaven club stalwart, Steve Charman, Newhaven’s annual friendly with neighbours Seaford Town now sees the two teams competing for the Steve Charman Cup.  There was an added poignance to today’s match as well, with a minute's applause t...

Mile Oak 1 Newhaven 7, Pre-season friendly #3 The new season draws ever closer. Not only did yesterday see Newhaven reach the halfway point of their pre-season schedule, but it also saw the release of the league fixtures for the 2022/23 campaign. Due to the ongoing redevelopment of Fort Road, the Dockers start the new season with three consecutive away trips: Steyning (30 th July), Crawley Down Gatwick (13 th August) and AFC Uckfield (16 th August). Their first home match on the brand new 3G surface is scheduled for Tuesday 23 rd August, when Little Common are the visitors, before another home match on Bank Holiday Monday (29 th August) when local rivals Saltdean visit Fort Road. And preparation for the new season certainly seems to be going to plan. Both on and off the pitch. True, on the pitch, tougher challenges will lay ahead for the Dockers than Mile Oak. Last night’s opponents were robust, hardworking but ultimately outclassed from the off, and it always seemed a q...

Arundel 1 Newhaven 3; Pre-season friendly #2 Football in the sun. You can’t beat it! Well, providing you don’t actually have to play in it, that is. Newhaven’s second of six pre-season matches, this one away to Arundel, was definitely an afternoon where it was more preferable to be spectating rather than participating. It was really, really hot! I was sweating just watching. Although that may be an age thing? Not that the scorching conditions seemed to overly bother the Dockers. Right from the off the team took control of the match. Confidently keeping the ball and making their hosts literally chase shadows all over the sun-baked pitch. Yes, it was a pre-season friendly against lower league opposition. Yes, results aren’t the be-all and end-all. Yes, it’s all about getting minutes into the players legs. Insert further cliches here… But still, Newhaven looked good. Really good. From 16-year-old goalkeeper, Roman Chiosa, who has a confidence with the ball at his feet which be...

For non-league teams, the road to Wembley starts now. Well, okay, technically that’s not true. Technically it starts next month. But the draws for the opening rounds of the FA Vase and FA Cup competitions were held earlier today, so I’m going to stand by what I originally wrote! Of course, I’m being somewhat hyperbolic here. Of these two competitions, it is the Vase that offers the only realistic route to Wembley for non-league clubs. Let’s face it, come May, the two FA Cup finalists are almost certain to have finished in the top ten of the Premier League (probably the top six). Yet, in spite of this, the FA Cup is arguably far more important for non-league teams than it is for most professional ones (well, those in the top two divisions, at least). Not only does entering the FA Cup give semi-pro players the chance to play, and score, in the world’s oldest cup competition – cue the ‘I’ve scored more goals in this year’s FA Cup than Salah’ tweets which seem to pop up on social med...

 Forget Christmas. Football pre-season is really the most wonderful time of the year! Give it a couple of months and millions of football fans up-and-down the country will be leaving grounds and stadiums feeling well and truly deflated. Their weekends utterly ruined by their team’s unfathomable failure to beat the division’s whipping boys or staggering ability to somehow turn a comfortable 2-0 half-time lead into a baffling 3-2 full-time defeat. We’ve all been there. Some of us more often than we’d like to have been! But in pre-season none of the above matters. At this time of the year, the only emotion for most fans is one of prevailing optimism (unless you happen to support Everton or Manchester United, that is). The playing field is level. Everyone (well, in theory everyone) has the same number of points. You’re still in all the cup competitions you’ve entered. The deadwood has been got rid of (let’s be honest, even if said deadwood happened to be your team’s star player las...