CHAMPIONS! Dockers claim Peter Bentley Cup glory

Newhaven 2 Crowborough Athletic 1, Peter Bentley Cup Final

The league season may not have panned out quite the way we wanted it to, but the Peter Bentley Cup offered the Dockers a chance to add some much-deserved silverware to the Fort Road trophy cabinet.

Newhaven are no strangers to Peter Bentley Cup finals. Since the competition’s formation in 2014/15, this would be the fourth final they’ve appeared in, and the second in succession.

However, of the previous three, they’d won just one – the inaugural final. The time was rife to rediscover that winning feeling.

Standing in their way of making this happen were Crowborough Athletic. Having been members of SCEFL league in recent seasons, this was their first season in the league cup competition and, like Newhaven, they were desperate to end a decent season (they finished a commendable sixth) on a high.

Following two close league games which ended in a draw at Crowborough and a narrow Newhaven victory at Fort Road, this was always going to be a close, hard-fought game.

Indeed, it’s fair to say that the bumper Bank Holiday Monday crowd that packed out Hassocks’ Beacon Ground (great hosts, by the way) weren’t exactly witnesses to a classic. Not that half (probably just over half, in fact) of the crowd will care in the slightest.

A cagey opening half-an-hour saw very little goal-mouth action.

Jack Meeres flashed an early header from a Franzen-Jones corner just wide – and that was about it.

The rest of the game’s early stages were stop-start as both sides struggled to get a foot-hold in the game.

The nerves from both sides were clear to see.

This changed in the last 15 minutes of the half as Crowborough exerted the game’s first real spell of sustained pressure.

On 37 minutes, the Crows created the game’s first real opening, when Lucas Murrain burst through one on one, only to be denied by Jake Buss.

From the resulting corner, Newhaven could only half clear their lines and a speculative long-range effort from Ollie Hyland, Crowborough’s stand-out player, struck the crossbar with Buss beaten.

They then had strong appeals for a penalty waved away, I presume for handball – but I was too far away to see what happened – Arsene Wenger strikes again!

Crowborough sensed blood and pushed for a lead to take into half-time. However, despite a few more minutes of pressure, no further chances came their way.

In fact, the earlier save was to prove to be Buss’ only save of note in the entire match – except for a couple of routine catches from long-range efforts.

 On the whole, the Crow’s increasingly direct style was brilliantly dealt with by the centre back partnership of Meeres and Conor Sidwell, both of whom had great games.

Still, Athletic will probably have felt aggrieved not to have been a goal up at the break, purely on the basis of their enterprising end to the half.

Newhaven, on the other hand, had offered very little going forward, with too many passes going astray at key moments.

In fairness, the flow of the game didn’t dramatically improve in the second-half, with neither side particularly looking like scoring.

It wouldn’t be unjust to say that both goalkeepers will have endured far busier days!     

The Dockers had to wait until the 69^th minute before they created their first real chance since Meeres’ header in the opening 10 minutes.

Franzen-Jones bundled his way through the Crowborough defence, appeared to be clipped multiple times, stayed on his feet, only to be denied by Crowborough’s goalkeeper, who injured himself in the process.

After a few minutes of treatment for stricken keeper, the game resumed with a corner.

Sensing the goalkeeper was still struggling, Franzen-Jones curled the ball towards him, everyone missed it and the ball ended up in the back of the net. It was unconventional. Maybe even lucky. Definitely lucky, in fact. Did we care? No we did not!

Even the monsoon that engulfed The Beacon a few minutes after the opening goal could not dampen the spirits of the suddenly jubilant Newhaven fans.

The goal definitely settled Newhaven, whilst seemingly knocking Crowborough’s confidence. The Dockers began to pass the ball more authority and from their next attack five minutes later, they doubled the lead.

Marcin Ruda and Franzen-Jones combined down the right, the ball was rolled back to Ian Robinson, his shot was scuffed into the path of Charlie Bennett, and the midfielder instinctively back-heeled the ball into the net.

Cue pandemonium. Teeming rain? What teeming rain?

With the minutes continuing to tick by without Crowborough looking particularly threatening, the Dockers began to make changes, including a brief cameo for the team’s returning top scorer, Alfie Rogers who, it’s fair to say, will enjoy worse weekends in football!

To give the Crows their due, they continued to try and find a route back into the match right up until the final whistle and they did reduce the arrears deep into injury time when a deflected effort wrong-footed Buss.

This made the remaining 90-seconds or so far more nerve-wracking than they should have been, but ultimately Newhaven held strong to get their hands on the Peter Bentley Cup for the second time.

It wasn’t a great spectacle. The Dockers have played far better in numerous other games this season (most of them, actually). Any neutral spectators would have found very little to get excited about.

Me? It was without a doubt my favourite 90-minutes of the season.

Football, hey! You’ve got to love it.

The celebrations that followed, both in Hassocks and back at the Newhaven clubhouse, were due reward for the efforts that everyone has put into the team this season – both on the pitch and behind the scenes.

The camaraderie that exists within this club is truly something to behold and images of the coaches and players celebrating as the beers flowed and the songs got louder (and cheesier – I have Baby Shark videos and I’m not afraid to use them) will stay with me for a long time.

It’s days like this why I wanted to get involved in my own small way with my local club. It's not a decision I've ever regretted.

Roll on next season – and we hope to see you there!

Come On You Dockers!

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Conor Sidwell. I know my decision will annoy at least 50 per cent of Newhaven’s management team, and probably many more people besides (hey – when doesn’t it) but I thought Sidwell – and Jack Meeres – were both sensational in dealing with the many long balls that came their way. Call it the defender in me!