Last minute wonder goal sees female Dockers end their season on a high

Newhaven Ladies 3 Eastbourne United Women 2, London & South East Women’s Football League Division 1 South, Match #22

On Sunday, Newhaven Ladies hosted Eastbourne United Women in the final game in what has been an overall encouraging league season for the female Dockers. Particularly the latter stages of it.

Since the turn of the year, Newhaven had lost just three of the nine league games that they'd played going into their final match, winning four of them.

With a commendable seventh-place finish already guaranteed, the Dockers look to have firmly established themselves at this level in just their second full season at it.

And with a Sussex derby to finish the season, against a side with aspirations of a top four finish – United still have games to play – the Dockers were determined to end the season on a high.

On a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon, in front of a healthy crowd of just over 60, Newhaven started the game in the ascendancy, and it was no real surprise when Chloe Evans tapped the hosts into an early lead.

Good work from Lauren Smith down the left culminated with the United keeper unable to grab hold of the ball, allowing Evans to show a striker’s instinct to finish from close range.

In truth, the lead should have been extended in the minutes that followed as the Dockers were denied by a combination of good saves and dogged United defending. 

During this period, the United goalkeeper made the first of what would turn out to be a fair few fine saves, denying Smith when the Newhaven captain seemed destined to score.

These chances would prove costly for the Dockers. At least in the short-term.

From one of their first forays forward, United took full advantage of an injury in the Newhaven defence, allowing the left-winger to cross low for Laura Stew to fire past Annie Hills for a rather undeserved equaliser.

It was lovely – if not highly unusual – to see the Eastbourne United player who assisted the goal eschew her team’s celebrations to instead go and check on the Newhaven player on the ground. A really classy touch. Fair play!

With the game approaching half-time, Newhaven’s failure to convert their myriad of chances came back to haunt them further. 

United striker Grace Hill bundled her way past a number of challenges before finishing clinically past Hills to give the visitors the lead.

If this set-back coming right before the interval knocked Newhaven’s confidence, then it was hard to tell.

Within minutes of the restart the Dockers were level. 

Some great interplay down the right led to the ball being fed delightfully across the area straight to the feet of the unmarked Smith. The Newhaven captain made no mistake this time, taking a touch before rifling an unstoppable shot past the for once helpless United goalkeeper.

Newhaven looked to build on the equaliser, creating yet more chances that culminated in yet more great saves from the United goalkeeper.

At the other end, Newhaven were largely untroubled, although as the game entered its final 20-minutes, United did launch a couple of threatening-looking counter attacks, causing Hills to have to maintain her concentration for the duration.

The closer the game moved towards its conclusion, the more that this looked like being one of those days for the Dockers. It wouldn’t have come as a huge surprise had Eastbourne broken and scored right at the end. That’s just the way football seems to be sometimes.

Instead, Newhaven capped their season off in exquisite style, with arguably one of the goals of the season.

With the game having entered injury time, Jamie Quinn picked up the ball just outside the area, looked up before sending a delightfully floated effort over the stranded visiting goalie’s head straight into the top corner. Cue joyous celebrations.

Last minute winner and wonder goal to boot. Ends to the season don’t come much better than that.

So the curtain comes down on what has been a decent season for the Newhaven Ladies team. 

As well as a strong league finish, they also won the Eastbourne FA Cup and only missed out on the League Trophy final by virtue of an extra-time semi-final defeat away at Clapton.

It’s a season that has certainly given Andy Cook and Lucy Collinson something to build on going forwards. Next season is shaping up to be a good one!

And as the women’s game in general continues to grow, it would be great to see crowds at Fort Road continue to do likewise.

Come On You Dockers!

My player of the match (aka, the controversial part): Lauren Smith. The captain’s pure pace and direct running continually caused the United defence a whole world of problems. Thoroughly deserved her goal.