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Early goals seal passage to another final

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 the way the majority of the decent-sized crowd probably expected it to. Newhaven were two-up and absolutely cruising.

The first goal arrived in the eighth minute. With the Loxwood defence clearly expecting a Marcin Ruda cross to be launched into the area, they were found napping when the midfielder instead rolled the ball back to Ian Robinson, standing completely unmarked outside the penalty area.

The winger was then allowed to stride unchallenged towards the box before unleashing a powerful effort which evaded the outstretched arm of the Loxwood ‘keeper and found the bottom corner. The perfect start!

Ten minutes later, the Dockers had doubled their advantage. This time Ruda’s corner was crossed into the box, where Jack Meeres found space and delightfully looped a header into the far corner – the centre back’s ninth goal of the season! 

Loxwood were already looking ragged; the Dockers rampant.

Three minutes later things could have gotten even worse for the Magpies. Lee Robinson was cynically hacked down in the box to leave the ref with no option but to award a penalty.

With regular penalty takers Charlie Bennett and Lukas Franzen-Jones both missing (from the match, I mean, they’re not literally missing), it was left to Ian Robinson to potentially put the game to bed with barely a quarter of it played.

However, although the spot-kick was well struck, the Loxwood keeper dived the right way and pulled off an impressive stop; albeit the ball was (cliché alert) a nice height for him.

Had the penalty been scored, you get the feeling that the final result of this game may have resembled a cricket score rather than a football one.

As it was, as can often be the case, the penalty miss/save seemed to galvanise Loxwood and it was they who, from out of nowhere, started to look the more threatening side.

Seemingly with a clear tactic to try and turn the Newhaven defence with balls in behind, they twice went close – and on the second occasion were left seething by what could have proved to be a real turning point in the match.

First, a lofted ball forward found their striker in acres space, but he could only lob his effort wastefully high over the crossbar.

Then, with 40 minutes on the clock, a similar ball over the top split the Newhaven defence. A Loxwood player raced through only to be brought down by Jake Buss. A free-kick was awarded and, with Buss appearing to be the last man, a red card seemed to be the likely outcome.

Fortunately (for Newhaven) and much to Loxwood’s (and mine to be fair) disbelief, the ref judged the ball to have been bouncing away from the Loxwood player – or at least not under his control – so produced only a yellow card.

Admittedly, I was standing a good 80-yards away from the incident, so couldn’t actually see where the ball was heading (Arsene Wenger strikes again!)… But, put it this way, had a similar decision gone against us, this blog would have a somewhat angrier tone this morning!

Down to ten men and with no recognised goalkeeper on the Newhaven bench, a red card would quite likely have had a significant bearing on the final score.

From the resulting free-kick, which was in a dangerous area, the ball once again sailed high over the crossbar.

In stoppage time at the end of the first half, the Loxwood goalkeeper was called into action yet again, saving well from a fizzing long-range Henry Watson free-kick.

In the second-half, Loxwood continually tried to get in behind the Dockers defence, especially down both flanks. However, the Newhaven defence was never really stretched and the closest the Magpies came to scoring was from another free-kick which once again more closely resembled a rugby conversion than anything likely to threaten Buss’ goal.

In fact, I can’t actually remember Buss having to make a save all evening. Loxwood tried to get forward but just lacked that little bit of quality that was needed to really break down the Newhaven defence.

The longer the half went on, the more it looked as though Newhaven would score a third. The hard-working Loxwood players were clearly starting to tire after putting in a monumental shift to stay in the game, and the Dockers regained near total control of the match in the closing stages.

Ian Robinson went closest to increasing the scoreline, cutting inside before producing a sublime curling effort that beat the keeper all ends up, only to smash against the angle of the goal and rebound away to safety.

Meeres then had a second goal of the evening for him chalked off, after being judged to have been off-side.

Ultimately, though, the third goal wasn’t needed. The damage had been done in the early stages before Loxwood had been allowed to settle and get a foothold in the game. That said, credit to the Magpies for keeping the match tight right till the very end. It’s fair to say that after 20 minutes I was expecting to be writing a very different type of report this morning.

Who knows, had Buss been given his marching orders, then it could have been a very different report indeed!

It’s the Dockers, though, who reach their second successive Peter Bentley Cup final, where they will face either local rivals Peacehaven or Crowborough for the trophy. 

That match is actually being played this evening at Newhaven’s own Fort Road ground, so if you’re at a loss for things to do this evening, why not head down and see what we’ll be up against come 1st May.

It’s back to league action on Saturday, with yet another crucial match, this time away at Hassocks. With just two points now separating Newhaven and league leaders Broadbridge Heath (with the same number of games played) and only six game remaining, every match – every point – counts. 

Your support really could be the difference between glory and a word that I’m loathe to mention on this blog.

It’s going to be an exciting, entertaining and thoroughly nerve-wracking end to the season!

Come On You Dockers!

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Harry Reed. After missing most of the season through injury, the right back is looking sharper with every passing game. Along with Demas Ramsis, Reed was a constant menace down Newhaven’s right flank, and although his (and indeed Ramsis’) final ball could have been better at times, it was these two who particularly impressed me, with Reed just getting the nod for mom.

Click on the Peter Bentley Cup label below to check out reports of Newhaven’s previous games in the competition this season (not including Little Common in the second round. I wasn’t there)…

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