Dockers survive Battle of Midhurst

Midhurst and Easebourne 2 Newhaven 3, SCFL Premier Division match #30

Having scored a frankly ludicrous 25 goals in their previous four league matches, the Dockers headed to leafy West Sussex high on confidence on Saturday afternoon.

With mid-table Midhurst and Easebourne currently on an awful run or form – they’ve failed to win since 3^rd December; a run totalling nine games – hopes were high that another big victory was on the cards for Newhaven.

However, those of us who watch the Dockers on a regular basis were strangely wary ahead of kick-off.

Midhurst are a team full of big, physical-looking lads, and their pitch is, shall we say, somewhat sloped and rather bobbly. This is a combination of factors that hasn’t tended to suit Newhaven’s fluid passing style at times this season.

If a game ever had potential banana-skin written all over it, then this was it.

And so it so almost proved.

From the outset Newhaven struggled to get to grips with both the opposition and the conditions. Midhurst, to their credit, clearly had a game plan: disrupt Newhaven’s flow wherever possible and make life as difficult as they could for their free-scoring visitors. And, boy, did they make it difficult!

In fairness, a very off-colour Newhaven side didn’t exactly help themselves, constantly giving away possession needlessly in what was, in all honesty, a complete non-event of a first-half. 

A tame Lukas-Franzen-Jones effort straight at the keeper was about the only shot I can remember from either side.

Midhurst were clearly up for this game, working tirelessly to keep Newhaven at bay and, occasionally (I'll be kind), resorting to the dark-arts in order to do so.

It made for drab viewing. The only positive thing that I can really say about the opening 45 minutes is that they ended.

At half-time, us Dockers fans weren’t too worried, mind you. In fact, we were strangely calm, all things considered. After all, surely we couldn’t play that sloppily again!

Within two minutes of the restart, it seemed as though our confidence was badly misplaced.

With practically their first meaningful attack of the match – maybe only the second for either side to be fair – Midhurst took the lead. An attack down the Midhurst left wasn’t dealt with and the hosts took full advantage with their striker slotting the ball past Jake Buss to give the West Sussex side a shock lead.

Fortunately (from the Dockers perspective, anyway) the lead didn’t last long. Charlie Bennett was fouled right on the edge of the box – and while Newhaven players screamed for a penalty and Midhurst players screamed for neither – it was a free-kick that was eventually awarded.

From the free-kick, Bennett cleverly passed the ball under the wall and into the bottom corner to draw the Dockers level; the sixth consecutive game he’s scored in.

It was at this point that a game that had been very niggly from the get-go started to boil over. A number of rash challenges got tempers from both sets of players – and benches – flaring. Midhurst seemed to be attempting to get as many of their own players booked as possible as yellow card after yellow card was dished out by the obviously beleaguered ref. 

The Dockers were starting to lose their cool, despite repeated pleas from the bench to stay calm. It was undoubtedly exactly what Midhurst wanted.

However, having equalised, surely it was now only a matter of time before Newhaven’s class began to finally shine though. Surely they would now start to take their game to their tiring hosts.

Wrong again!

With 20 minutes left, Midhurst took the lead for the second time. Newhaven’s defence failed to fully clear a ball launched into the area but, credit once again where it’s due, the Midhurst scorer’s finish was impressive, calmly dispatching the ball into the bottom corner on the half volley.

This was to prove to be the turning point of the game. 

Reacting almost immediately to falling behind, the Dockers threw on the returning Marcin Ruda, Callum Connor and Demas Ramsis as they desperately sort a way back into the game. The introduction of all three, Ramsis in particular, was what was to ultimately swing the game in Newhaven’s favour.

With the hosts, unsurprisingly and understandably, doing everything they could think of to slow play up and wind down the clock, Newhaven began to attack Midhurst with continued purpose for perhaps the first time in the match.

And, just as they had done with the first goal, they managed to draw themselves level pretty quickly. After a good spell of possession, Ramsis beat his man before firing the ball across goal where poacher supreme Lee Robinson was able to turn the ball in with his head from close range. 

It was perhaps the first time in the entire match that Newhaven had gotten the ball down and played some good football. Better late than never, I suppose.

Now Newhaven were starting to look a bit more like their usual selves. Having put in one hell of a shift, the hosts were starting to look very leggy. The fresh legs of the Dockers' three subs were having the desired effect.

With seven minutes left on the clock, a typically driving Ian Robinson run down the right culminated with a cross that eventually found its way to Ramsis, who smashed in what turned out to be the winner.

The remaining 15 minutes or so – goodness know where all the added time came from! – seemed to last closer to an hour. Henry Watson entered the fray for Newhaven to help the visitors protect their slender lead. At this stage of the season, three-points are essential. Any way possible!

The time that remained certainly wasn’t pretty – much like the rest of the game – but they were effective. The referee’s final whistle was met with huge celebrations by the visiting players, managers and supporters – and also sparked a spot of handbags at ten paces with a Midhurst substitute reacting angrily to what he presumably viewed to be overenthusiastic celebrations by a couple of Dockers players. Thankfully, the mele was short-lived and the celebrations swiftly continued.

There are not many sports, I’m sure, where a game can be so short in quality for the most part, yet still end up being such a totally enthralling spectacle. The second-half, anyway, the first-half was absolute garbage!

Still, a win is a win. There is more than one-way to win a football match and today Newhaven found one of them. They had to battle, dig-deep and keep their heads to overcome a stubborn Midhurst team who will undoubtedly be gutted they didn’t come away with a point. Maybe even more.

With Crawley Down Gatwick and Broadbridge Heath both due to visit The Rotherfield during the closing stages of the season, all I can ask is that Midhurst make it as difficult for them as they made it for us.

We’re back at Fort Road next weekend with a tricky-looking match against in-form Crowborough. Win that and the following game is arguably the biggest one of the season (so far). Broadbridge Heath away – the team who right now look like being Newhaven’s biggest rivals for title honours (although I’m sure there are more twists and turns to come yet).

Your support has been unreal so far this season – including today where once again there was a high number of Dockers fans swelling the modest Midhurst crowd. It’s set to be even more important over the coming weeks. Get behind use when you can!

Come On You Dockers!

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Demas Ramsis. Although he only played for just over 20 minutes, it was Ramsis’ introduction that ultimately swung the three-points in Newhaven’s favour, with a goal and an assist. In fairness, no one really excelled in the first-half, so most players were only judged on the second 45-minutes anyway!

After the match, Reuben spoke to match-winner Demas Ramsis, to discuss just how important this result could be in the hunt for honours.