Ladies maintain their 100% start

Newhaven Ladies 2 Bognor Regis Town Women 0, LSEWFL Division 1 South match #3

Newhaven Ladies’ flying start to the new season continued on Sunday afternoon as they saw off the challenge of Bognor Regis Town.

Having started the season with two successive victories in Sussex derbies – 4-1 against Hastings and 4-0 against Bexhill – the Dockers were looking to keep the run going against yet another Sussex side.

Bognor Regis are new to this level, having gained promotion after finishing second in the Sussex County Football League last time out.

In fact, this was actually their first competitive match of the season, having had their previous fixtures postponed.

Newhaven’s extra match sharpness was in evidence during the early stages of the match, as they swarmed all over their visitors, keen to continue their free-scoring start to the season.

However, a lack of composure in front of goal meant that despite waves of pressure, the Bognor Regis goal led a charmed life.

When the opening goal did finally arrive, there was more than an element of fortune surrounding it. After a spot of good old-fashioned penalty area pinball, the ball hit Chloe Evans and rebounded just over the line.

In fairness, it was not only a goal that the Dockers deserved, but one that Evans did, too. The striker was at the heart of most of Newhaven’s best attacking moves; constantly harassing the Bognor backline and not giving them so much as a second to dwell on the ball.

With the deadlock breached, it seemed likely that it wouldn’t be too long before Newhaven took the game away from their visitors.

Yet while the Dockers remained a constant threat going forward, Bognor did start to grow into the game, forcing Newhaven custodian Annie Hills into a couple of good saves to ensure parity at the interval.

With this year’s summer having finally arrived – albeit in autumn – the pace of the game dropped slightly in the second-half. The rolled-up shirt sleeves of a number of Dockers players a sign of just how testing the conditions were.

Still Newhaven remained in control to a large extent. 

While chances weren’t coming with the same regularity as they had in the first-half, they were nonetheless coming often enough to suggest that more goals would arrive. Bognor’s keeper had to be alert on more than one occasion to keep the deficit to one.

Of course, all the time Newhaven’s lead was just the solitary goal, there was every chance that Bognor Regis will have felt like they could snatch something from the game. They’d shown enough going forward – especially in the last 15 minutes of the first-half – to show they could pose a danger given the opportunity.

The second – and ultimately killer goal – arrived midway through the second-half. From a corner, assistant coach Lucy Colinson rose highest to head the Dockers into a more commanding position.

With the hot weather now really starting to take its toll – and the match losing a bit of shape following a raft of substitutions – the game started to meander somewhat towards its conclusion. Both teams seemingly having decided that 2-0 was a fair enough scoreline.

That said, Bognor Regis did rally in the closing minutes, forcing Hills into a host of saves to keep the visitors at bay and ensure Newhaven kept a second successive clean sheet.

All in all, a good afternoon’s work for the Ladies who keep their brilliant start to the season going.

Next Sunday sees the Dockers in FA Cup Action as they travel to Division One North side Ashmount Leigh.

They’re then back in league action the following week with yet another Sussex derby when they visit Steyning. Their next match at Fort Road takes place on 24^th September when they face their first non-Sussex team of the league campaign, Welling United.

Get yourself down to Fort Road if you can, and get behind the girls as they try and continue their impressive start to the season.