#COYD - Come on You Dockers

Hassocks 2 Newhaven 2, SCFL Premier Division match #33 Two of the form teams in the SCFL Premier Division met at the Beacon this afternoon, in yet another vital game in Newhaven's season. While a seven-match unbeaten run in the league (nine in all competitions) has propelled the Dockers right into the thick of the title picture, Hassocks’ form has also been not-too shabby in recent weeks. Since losing 2-1 to Little Common in the middle of February, the Robins not tasted defeat in their following seven games. A run which has included a mightily impressive six clean sheets. With a big crowd in attendance, partly aided no doubt by the annual Non-League Day celebrations, a tight game always seemed likely. With Hassocks playing for little more than pride (at least in the league, they are still in one of the cups) and with the Dockers in desperate need of three-points to keep pressure on at the top, it was perhaps understandable that Newhaven started the match looking the nervier...

Newhaven 2 Loxwood 0, Peter Bentley Cup semi-final In a season where almost every game seems to have something riding on it, Newhaven were involved in yet another winner takes-all clash last night, with a trip to Steyning to play Loxwood for a place in the Peter Bentley Cup final. Having won the inaugural Peter Bentley Cup back in 2014/15, and reached the final of last year’s competition (we’ll gloss over the result of that one), this is a tournament that the Dockers do have something of a pedigree in. On paper, the tie against lowly Loxwood placed the Dockers as huge favourites to reach a second consecutive final. However, as we all know (this blog loves a cliché), football isn’t played on paper. With former Newhaven player and coach Dave Altendorff now in charge of the West Sussex side, the Dockers were only too aware that the Magpies would be fully fired up to produce something of an upset. After 25 minutes, though, it looked as if the outcome of the match was going very much ...

Broadbridge Heath 1 Newhaven 1, SCFL Premier Division match #32 While this afternoon’s clash between the top two sides in the SCFL Premier Division was far from a definitive title decider – third-placed Crawley Down Gatwick will still have something to say about that – a defeat for Newhaven would probably have all but eliminated them from the race. With Heath grabbing a late winner at Loxwood in midweek to move ahead of the Dockers by one-point with a game in hand, the destiny of the title is now fully in The Bear’s hands. Even a win for the Dockers in West Sussex this afternoon would not have changed that fact. Even had Newhaven won this huge encounter, they would still have been reliant on other teams doing them a favour as the season reaches its final stretch. Having played each other twice already this season – and having won one game apiece; Heath in the league , Newhaven in the Cup – the scene was set for an enthralling, not to mention hugely nerve-wracking, afternoon of...

Newhaven 3 Crowborough Athletic 2, SCFL Premier Division match #31 We have now reached the stage of the season where nothing else matters aside from the final result. Good performances are a bonus rather than a necessity; the same can be said for clean sheets. It’s the business end of the season and three points are essential – no matter how they come. As proved with last week’s narrow win at Midhurst . With the destiny of the title still in Broadbridge Heath’s hands – even if Newhaven win all their remaining games, Heath can afford to lose next week’s crunch match between the two sides and still win the league by a point providing they win the rest of theirs – all the Dockers can do is keep winning and hope the Bears slip up somewhere else in their remaining games. Of course, should the Dockers drop any points between now and the end of the season, then they become even more reliant on other teams doing them a favour.  As I said, winning is now what it’s all about. Nothing...