#COYD - Come on You Dockers

Equally at home in defence or midfield, Charlotte Markham becomes the latest Newhaven Ladies player to tell us all about her teammates. 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)? Elle Duchossoy Who would be in your ultimate Newhaven 5-a-side team (using current squad and coaches)? Annie [Hills], Chloe Evans, Faye Hannaford, Summer Dutton, Saoirse [Burke]. Who do you not want on the opposing team at training, and why? Lauren Smith. She’s too tall and her legs are too long! Someone offers you £100 if one of your teammates can hit the crossbar first time. Who are you choosing? Summer Dutton. Which teammate do you think is most likely to become a coach or manager when they finish playing? Lucy Collinson. She’s already halfway there! Which teammate tends to have the worst opinions regarding football? Jess Mead. She supports Man United!

  Newhaven 5 Saltdean United 0, SCFL Premier Division match #4 After Saturday’s, erm, less than exciting trip to Hailsham , it was back to league action on this Bank Holiday Monday morning, for the first league game to be played on the new Fort Road playing surface. For a variety of reasons, the morning’s visitors, Saltdean United, are not the proposition they have been in the past few seasons, where they, along with the Dockers, had been perennial title challengers. A youthful Tigers side have endured a difficult start to the season, suffering six straight defeats and conceding more than five goals in four of those matches. With this in mind, it always seemed likely that the Fort Road faithful might have to endure 90 more minutes of the spoiling-type tactics that Hailsham had used to such good effect on Saturday. Indeed, that’s exactly the way the match panned out. From the off, Saltdean got men behind the ball to try and make life as difficult as they could for the hosts....

Hailsham Town 0 Newhaven FC 0, FA Vase First Qualifying Round What a difference a few days make! Earlier this week, I wrote a match report which waxed-lyrical about the joys of non-league football. Tuesday night’s FA Cup replay against Sheppey was everything you want from a match at this level. Two good teams going at each other. Loads of chances. An open game. Great entertainment. Even if, from my perspective, the result ultimately didn’t go the way I wanted it to. Today’s trip to Hailsham featured none of the above. It was dour. A 90-minute attack vs defence training drill. Virtually zero entertainment was on show. Very much a game to forget for the spectator. Even though, from my perspective, the result went the way I wanted it to. Things started off okay. Well, okay-ish. After Newhaven had got themselves into a couple of early dangerous positions without being able to produce a final ball, Hailsham went close to taking the lead. A long pass into the area found their strike...

 Newcomer Marcin Ruda has enjoyed an impressive start to his Dockers’ career. The all-action central midfielder has already become a fan’s favourite, and his performances have twice netted him the #COYD blog’s illustrious man of the match award in the early weeks of the season. This is what he has to say about his teammates. 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)? Myself!   Who would be in your ultimate Newhaven 5-a-side team (using current squad and coaches)? Henry [Watson], Alex [Plummer], Alfie [Rogers], Lukas [Franzen-Jones] and me.  Who do you not want on the opposing team at training, and why? Henry Watson. He’s a really good defender!  Someone offers you £100 if one of your teammates can hit the crossbar first time. Who are you choosing? Lukas Franzen-Jones. Which teammate do you think is most likely to become a coach or manager when they fi...

Newhaven 1 Sheppey United 2, FA Cup Preliminary Round replay Match sponsor: JPE Guttering & Property Servives: www.jpeguttering.co.uk) Finally, after a run of six away games to start the new season (well, technically five I suppose as the Extra Preliminary Round replay against Canterbury City in Lancing was classed as a home game) the Dockers were back at Fort Road.  Home at last! After Saturday’s goalless draw in Sheppey , what should have been a midweek league encounter against Little Common was replaced by an FA Cup replay, with the Dockers looking to produce a mini-cupset by ousting higher division opponents. With the greatest respect to Little Common, it certainly made for a more enticing opening fixture on paper; and it was rewarded with a crowd in excess of 300. Not bad for a team who averaged just over 140 last season! Fingers crossed we continue to see most of you throughout the coming campaign! The crowd started to build early, with the bars and coffee hatch do...

Dockers defender Faye Hannaford becomes the latest member of the Newhaven Ladies team to tell us all about her teammates...  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)? Lucy [Collinson; player/assistant manager] or Steph. They can’t keep up with the youngsters anymore! Who would be in your ultimate Newhaven 5-a-side team (using current squad and coaches)? Annie [Hills], Summer [Dutton], Jai [Jamie Quinn], [Charlotte] Markham, Ellie [Duchossoy]. Who do you not want on the opposing team at training, and why? Emily Salisbury. She puts you off with her constant chat Someone offers you £100 if one of your teammates can hit the crossbar first time. Who are you choosing? Georgia Sandell, because she can’t ever hit the target Which teammate do you think is most likely to become a coach or manager when they finish playing? Chelsea and Gracie [Cook, daughters of manager, A...

Sheppey United 0 Newhaven 0, FA Cup Preliminary Round After a fairly lengthy away trip in the Extra Preliminary Round of the FA Cup earlier this month, the Preliminary Round provided the Dockers with another long away day. And to an island, no less! Okay, it was only the Isle of Sheppey. But it’s still an island. The glamour of being a non-league fan! Unfortunately, a family commitment meant that I was unable to catch the team/supporter’s coach this time round. Thereby I’m unable to report on any karaoke or drunken hijinks that, or may not, have taken place on the journey home! Fortunately, the aforementioned family commitment was taking place in the morning in Tunbridge Wells, meaning I was at least in the right county for my afternoon journey, and already roughly halfway to my destination. The Dockers arrived at the really impressive Holm Park stadium, home of Sheppey United, knowing they were facing a team very much on the up. Sheppey won the largely Kent-based SCEFL leag...

New signing Don Street becomes the latest men’s player to dish the dirt on his teammates. The defender signed for the Dockers in the summer from Charlwood, and has been regularly involved in the squad during the first few weeks of the season. Who is the coach’s pet?   Lee Robbo [Robinson], so they keep the stand named for him. Which teammate is most likely to pull out of a team night out at the last minute (or go home first)? From what I’ve heard, Bussy likes an early one. Who would be in your ultimate Newhaven 5-a-side team (using current squad and coaches)? The white team from training so: Me, Alf [Rogers], Marc [Marcin Ruda], Plummers [Alex Plummer], Lukas [Franzen-Jones]. Who do you not want on the opposing team at training, and why? Marcin, he’s literally everywhere Someone offers you £100 if one of your teammates can hit the crossbar first time. Who are you choosing? I’m backing myself deffo, but I’d go for Plummers. Which teammate do you think is most l...

Having played for Newhaven Ladies since their formation in 2017, this year will be slightly different for Docker’s midfielder Lucy Collinson. For in addition to her playing role, Collinson will also be taking up a position in the dug-out. Following former co-manager Alex Ladd’s decision to move away from managing to concentrate on developing the ladies’ teams off the field, Collinson has stepped up to become now sole manager Andy Cook’s assistant. “Getting into coaching has always been in the back of my mind,” she explains. “I’d already done the relevant courses, but I wanted to see how long my legs lasted with playing before focussing solely on coaching. They’re still just about going! “However, when Andy and Alex approached me about supporting with the ladies’ side, it was a great opportunity to take the next steps and learn from Andy while still getting to play. My job is a PE teacher, so I have always had a passion for the delivery of sport – however coaching is very different!...

AFC Uckfield 0 Newhaven FC 5, SCFL Premier Division match #3 After a promising pre-season, the league campaign hasn’t started with the bang that Newhaven would have been hoping for. Two defeats from their opening two league matches most certainly wasn’t in the script. While campaigns aren’t won or lost in the opening weeks of the season, the Dockers still headed to Uckfield on Tuesday night desperate for a result that would kick their league season into gear.  Fall too far behind the early-season pace-setters and it can be hard to catch-up. As last season’s ultimately unsuccessful pursuit of Littlehampton and Saltdean proved. It was a point that I’m sure the players will have been made well aware of prior to kick-off (not that they would have needed to be). And one they certainly took on board. In front of a travelling contingent that once again matched – if not outstripped the home support – Newhaven put on a show to remind their fans just what they’re capable of. This wa...

Long-serving attacker Paige Ripley has been with Newhaven Ladies since the club was formed back in 2017, and was a key member of the 2017/18 treble-winning squad. Here, she tells us all about her fellow Dockers… Who is the coach’s pet? Tara [Reid] Which teammate is most likely to pull out of a team night out at the last minute (or go home first)? Annie [Hills] Who would be in your ultimate Newhaven 5-a-side team (using current squad and coaches)? Annie, Ellie Coade, Lucy [Collinson}, Sals [Emily Sailsbury], Steph [Harrison]. Who do you not want on the opposing team at training, and why? Loz [team captain Lauren Smith]. She’s feisty and quick!  Someone offers you £100 if one of your teammates can hit the crossbar first time. Who are you choosing? Ellie Coade. Which teammate do you think is most likely to become a coach or manager when they finish playing? [Charlotte] Markham. Which teammate tends to have the worst opinions regarding football? Tara. She’s ...

Crawley Down Gatwick 2 Newhaven FC 1, SCFL Premier Division match #2 After mid-week’s FA Cup heroics , it was back to league action for Newhaven today, and a tricky-looking trip to Crawley Down. The hosts have started the season well, winning their opening league match comfortably before following it up with a hard-fought victory over Crowborough in the FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round. With the Dockers having lost their opening league encounter in a lacklustre defeat to Steyning , it was hoped that the momentum gained from Wednesday night would help carry Newhaven over the line in what was always likely to be a close encounter. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be. Whether it was the blistering hot weather or the absence of two of Wednesday night’s key men – Lee Robinson and Tom Underwood – the Dockers failed to reach the attacking splendour of a few days earlier. Not that they played particularly badly here. They didn’t. Not really. This was no Steyning performance where they sho...

Last season’s u23s captain, Max Vardy, is the latest player to fall under the teammates spotlight. Vardy has enjoyed an encouraging start to the new campaign. The defender has started at left-back in two of the first-team’s opening three fixtures, and scored his first goal in senior football in Wednesday night’s 10-0 drubbing of Canterbury City. Who is the coach’s pet? Alfie Rogers. 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)? Bussy [Jake Buss], me, Henry [Watson], Breachy [men’s co-manager Sean Breach], Alfie Rogers. Who do you not want on the opposing team at training, and why? Lukas Franzen-Jones. He always tries to cheat! Someone offers you £100 if one of your teammates can hit the crossbar first time. Who are you choosing? LFJ Which teammate do you think is most likely to become a coach or manager whe...

  Newhaven 10 Canterbury City 0, FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round replay Having failed to take a number of clear-cut chances to see off Canterbury City on Saturday , the Dockers headed to Lancing yesterday evening for the ‘home’ replay. Yes, that’s right, this was a home match. Albeit one held around 20 miles away from Newhaven.  I’m not going to go into details behind the reason for this (not yet anyway, I’ll save that for another time), suffice to say thank you to Lancing for agreeing to host; and at least it gave the lads another run out on a 3G surface ahead of the first match at the revamped Fort Road in 12 days’ time. Despite the fact the game was held further away from Newhaven than had originally been expected, a healthy number of undeterred and loyal Fort Road regulars made the trip west. They were rewarded with 90 minutes that will live long in the memory. Ninety minutes that, unless you were there, are almost impossible to do justice with using mere words (n...

Canterbury City 1 Newhaven 1, FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round With the Premier League kicking off at the very top level of the game this weekend, further down the football pyramid, the eyes of thousands of non-league players and fans were trained solely on the FA Cup. Although you probably wouldn’t know it from any of the major UK news outlets, the English game’s premier cup competition also got underway this weekend, with non-league clubs up and down the country starting their quest for Wembley. Or, let’s be more realistic, trying to get as far through the qualifying rounds as possible whilst making a much-needed extra few quid along the way. This year, the bafflingly named Extra Preliminary Round (seriously, why not just call it the First Qualifying Round and increase the number of them?) handed Newhaven an away tie at Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division side Canterbury City. A fairly lengthy road trip for the Dockers. A fairly lengthy road trip that could ...