#COYD - Come on You Dockers

Newhaven 2 Hassocks 0, SCFL Premier Division match #14 A run of four consecutive home games ended this afternoon with the visit of in-form Hassocks to Fort Road. Sitting sixth in the table at the start of play, and on a seven-game unbeaten run – including draws with high-flying Eastbourne United and top-of-the-table Broadbridge Heath – the Robins are enjoying one of their best seasons for many a year. The Dockers were under no illusions that a tough afternoon likely lie ahead.  This view was reinforced in an opening 20 minutes that offered very little to shout about. There was literally nothing between the two sides. There were no real chances and equally little entertainment. Just two sides feeling each other out. The complexion of the match completely changed in the 25 th minute when what had been a largely uneventful encounter suddenly exploded into life in highly contentious and controversial circumstances. A Hassocks break away was swiftly broken up by a crunching Bai...

N ewhaven 2 Eastbourne United 3, RUR Cup Second Round A third home game in just seven days brought Eastbourne United to Fort Road in the second round of the RUR Cup. Following a fiery, hard-fought league encounter between the two sides earlier in the season, it was hard to imagine seeing anything different this time around.  These are two teams who have serious title aspirations and, while there may have been no points on offer last night, a win would surely offer the victors a serious morale boost going forward. In fairness, after 20 minutes a hard-fought encounter was far from what we were seeing. There was only one team in it. Unfortunately for the Dockers, that team was Eastbourne United. Newhaven had actually gone close to opening the scoring inside a couple of minutes; Marcell Powell curling just wide from the corner of the 18-yard-box. That would be as good as it would get for the hosts for quite a while. With less than five minutes on the clock, United took the lea...

Newhaven Ladies 0 Bromley FC Women 0, London & South East Women’s Football League Division 1 South, Match #7 The fixture Goddesses have not been kind to Newhaven Ladies so far this October. Tough cup matches against Fulham and Brentford was followed by what proved to be an arduous home league match against all-conquering Hastings last week. The visit of high-flying Bromley to Fort Road this weekend was unlikely to be much easier. Having tasted defeat just once in their opening six league games – winning the other five – Bromley were sure to prove another tough test for Newhaven. Especially with a number of key players missing for the Dockers for a variety of different reasons. After just five minutes, it seemed like the Dockers would be facing a long afternoon. Bromley could – and perhaps should – have been two-up before Newhaven had settled, missing two presentable opportunities from close range. Newhaven were finding it hard to get to grips with a confident-looking Broml...

Newhaven 6 Alfold 1, SCFL Premier Division match #13 The Dockers welcomed struggling Alfold to Fort Road this afternoon, in a rearranged league fixture that had originally been postponed due to the passing of the Queen. With both teams having already exited the FA Vase (hence the free weekend), Newhaven were afforded the opportunity to close the gap on early-season pace-setters Broadbridge Heath, who were themselves in Vase action. Alfold have struggled so far this season, taking just four points from their opening 13 games ahead of this match. There’s little doubt that this was a fixture that Newhaven would have been more than confident of emerging victorious from. And, after a fairly indifferent start to the match, from the moment Jack Meeres put Newhaven ahead in the 17 th minute there was only going to be one outcome to this game. In fairness, the opening 15 minutes passed by with little incident. True, Newhaven were seeing plenty of the ball, but Alfold’s backline was ...

Newhaven 1 Bexhill United 1, Newhaven win 3-2 on penalties, Peter Bentley Cup Round 3 Last night saw the Dockers play host to Bexhill United for the second time in the last three Tuesdays. While those who had merely seen the scoreline of that previous encounter (and not bothered to read this blog) may have been forgiven for thinking a comfortable evening lay in store for Newhaven, those of us who had attended the first meeting were only too aware of the threat Bexhill would pose to the Docker’s chances of progression. Arriving at Fort Road on a run of four consecutive victories, the Pirates are slowly finding the type of form that has seen them tipped by a number of people in the know (in other words, me) as being one of the likely title contenders come May. With both sides showing a number of changes from the previous meeting (for a variety of reasons not limited to injuries and suspensions), it took a while for the game to find any kind of flow. In fact, the most exciting mo...

 L ingfield 2 Newhaven 3, SCFL Premier Division match #12 The Dockers headed to Surrey this afternoon for one of their longer away trips in the league, shorn of a number of key players. A mixture of injuries, suspensions and other absences have bitten hard in recent weeks, meaning Newhaven’s squad depth is currently being tested to the absolute max. However, with Lingfield on a run of four straight defeats it was hoped (by those of a Newhaven persuasion, obviously) that even a patched together Dockers would still possess too much for their hosts. Given the unfamiliar Newhaven line-up, it should probably come as no surprise to discover that the early stages of the match were a tad disjointed. Neither team started particularly brightly, with not much quality on show in the opening ten minutes. Then, with literally the first meaningful attack of the match, Newhaven took the lead. Demas Ramsis, whose speed and direct running caused his marker problems all afternoon, drove i...

When Natasha Young started kicking a ball about with her eldest son in her garden, she had no idea that this would be the start of a journey that would eventually lead her to coaching, not one, but two Newhaven Youth teams. Despite being a life-long football fanatic, during early adulthood Natasha had found herself drifting away from the sport she loves. She hadn’t played competitively for a team since leaving college at the age of 17 and believed her days of being involved with the sport in any capacity were long over. Then the eldest of her two sons started to show an interest in playing the game and everything changed. “When my eldest started kicking a ball around when he was five, I began to realise just how much I missed it,” explains Natasha. “He started playing for Newhaven when he was seven, while his younger brother joined Mini Dockers around the same time. “I loved watching them play and while I realised that I could no longer play myself, I also realised I could still ...

  Newhaven 7 Mile Oak 0, SCFA Senior Cup Round One It’s probably fair to say that the SCFA Senior Cup isn’t too high on the list of Newhaven’s top priorities this season. When it comes to what the club are hoping to achieve this year, there are undoubtedly far bigger fish to fry. However, that’s not to say that it’s a competition they won’t want to progress in as far as possible. After all, it provides a fantastic opportunity for the management team to provide valuable competitive playing minutes to new arrivals, young players and those on their way back from injuries. What's more, winning is a good habit to get into!  Last night’s first round match at home to Mile Oak saw the Dockers make six changes from the side that had started Saturday’s d isappointing loss to Broadbridge Heath (not all of them enforced). Billy Barker and new Japanese signing Riota Nakamura both made their first appearances of the season, Ryan Blunt made only his second start, while Bailie Roge...

Newhaven 0 Broadbridge Heath 1, SCFL Premier Division match #11 Sometimes you just have to accept that it’s just not your day! This afternoon was definitely one of those occasions where this sentiment rang true for the Dockers. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that Newhaven were particularly unlucky today. The bottom line is they didn’t play well enough. There’s no hiding that. They started slowly, as they had done in the past two games against Crowborough and Bexhill . On this occasion, though, unlike in the previous matches they failed to pick up the pace as the game progressed. The fact is that when facing a well-drilled team like Broadbridge Heath, you sometimes need a little something to go your way in order to get something from the game. That simply wasn’t the case today. The Bears have started the season very well indeed, having lost just one league game so far – and that away to one of the division’s other top teams, Eastbourne United. On this afternoon’s evidence i...

  Newhaven Ladies 0 Fulham FC Women 5, Women’s FA Cup Second Qualifying Round It’s not often that we get to welcome three-times FA Cup winners to Fort Road. Yet that’s the fate that befell Newhaven Ladies this afternoon, as they hosted Fulham in the Second Qualifying Round of the Women’s FA Cup. While the modern-day Fulham team may be a world-away from that of the early noughties (the team responsible for two of those aforementioned FA Cup wins), they still play a division higher than the Dockers and were always going to present a considerable challenge for Andy Cook’s still relatively inexperienced team. Still Newhaven took to the pitch with dreams of an FA Cup giant-killing no doubt filling their heads. Fulham, unfortunately, had other ideas. Sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and say you were beaten by a better team. Today was one of those days for Newhaven Ladies. From practically the first minute, Fulham looked a class apart, confidently knocking the bal...