Bank Holiday breeze for the Dockers

 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.

Unlike on Saturday, though, there seemed to be a bit more intensity to Newhaven’s play. They were moving the ball far quicker and soon finding gaps in the Tigers’ rear-guard.

Perhaps Saturday’s match served as the perfect practice ground for what awaited them… although I’m sure the fantastic Fort Road playing surface also made it far easier for the boys to move the ball at speed and create the sort of space that they’d been unable to find less than 48 hours earlier.

With just over 10 minutes gone, Newhaven were afforded the perfect opportunity to take advantage of their dominant start when Alfie Rogers was scythed down for a penalty.

After scoring five spot kicks out of five on Saturday, and having already scored two out of two in the league this season, the outcome was somewhat inevitable.

So, what happened? That’s right, Lukas Franzen-Jones saw his penalty saved by the feet of the impressive Saltdean goalkeeper. He was easily their man of the match.

What followed was a perfect demonstration of how not to put the ball in the net. A procession of chances came the Dockers way; enough to have had the game comfortably sown up by the half-hour mark.

However, a combination of some good saves, poor decision making, some woeful finishing and the linesman’s flag (two goals were rightly disallowed) kept the score goalless.

On the plus side, though, while the Dockers may have been missing chances, they were at least creating plenty of clear openings. This hadn’t been the case on Saturday when despite dominating the game, golden opportunities had been at a premium.

With half-time approaching, the home crowd were just starting to sense some tension in the Dockers’ ranks, as some desperate-looking long range efforts were attempted by a few of the players.

However, any concerns that this may be ‘another one of those games’ were put to bed right on the stroke of half-time. Alfie Rogers was afforded too much space inside the penalty area, and last season’s top scorer was able to cut inside and finally fire the Dockers into a deserved lead.

The reaction of the slumped Saltdean defenders probably told you everything that you needed to know. Despite only being 1-0 down at half-time, the game was up. The Tigers never really looked like they believed they had an equaliser in them.

It always felt as though the first goal would be the one that opened the floodgates. And so it proved.

Within a minute of the restart, Rogers doubled his tally and Newhaven’s lead, brilliantly looping a header back across the goal into the far corner of the net.

Two minutes later, Lee Robinson was brought down in the area to give Newhaven their second penalty of the morning/afternoon. 

Whether Franzen-Jones’ earlier miss meant he had officially been taken off penalty duty or not, I have no idea. But it was no surprise when Rogers was handed the ball.

The hat-trick was duly completed when he duly dispatched his penalty into the bottom corner, just beyond the despairing reach of the goalkeeper.

Five minutes after that, it was four. Jack Meeres opened his account for the season, heading home Don Street’s corner from close range.

Three goals in ten minutes had clearly deflated the youthful Tigers. It suddenly looked as though a repeat of the double-digit victory over Canterbury City earlier in the season could be on the cards.

It might have been, had the Dockers players not chosen this moment to seemingly enter into their own miss of the season competition. Alex Plummer, Tom Underwood and Charlie Bennett (more than once) offering up some fantastic contenders that may prove hard to beat!

In fairness to the Tigers, they never stopped battling and, from a personal point of view, it was great to see 19-year-old Dylan Little come on for his Saltdean debut. I’d coached Dylan from between the ages of 6-11, and he’d been part of my first ever Withdean Youth team many years ago now. I hope it’s the first of many appearances for him.

Anyway, I digress… back to the action.

With the game won, Newhaven rested some of their players to bring on some fresh and younger legs in the shape of Underwood, Ryan Blunt, Marley Ambler and, erm, Ryan Walton.

Seventeen-year-old Blunt once again impressed, with a masterclass in ball retention and tackling, while Ambler once again demonstrated that he certainly knows where the net is, fooling his marker with a phantom touch before calmly finishing to add Newhaven's fifth.

More chances came and went. But no more goals were added.

Saltdean had a chance to grab a consolation in injury time, but despite being a virtual spectator for the third or fourth time this season, Jake Buss was alert enough to ensure the Dockers kept a fourth clean sheet in five games.

So a second 5-0 league win in succession for the Dockers, who have recovered well from their laboured start to the season.

It’s off to newly promoted Roffey on Saturday; another team who have struggled in the early weeks of the season, so fingers crossed the boys can come away with another three points. Unfortunately, I can’t make it to that one so there’ll be no blog to look forward to. I can sense the disappointment from here!

The Dockers then travel to Little Common in the Peter Bentley Cup next Tuesday evening (I’m only 50-50 for that one too, unfortunately; damn kids’ training!), before their next home game against Alfold on the 10^th September. 

I’m definitely there for that one. I hope you will be too!

My MOM (aka, the controversial part): Alfie Rogers. Don’t think this one’s going to prove particularly controversial. Despite some early misses, Rogers was always involved and busy. He stepped up with a goal at a vital time, just before frustration started to creep into Newhaven's performance. Once he got one, you always felt more were coming.

Unfortunately, there is no manager/player interview from my youngest today. He forgot his microphone and then decided he’d rather play football in the park with his friends than interview someone without his prized mic. Such a diva! Honestly, you can’t get the staff these days…