More disappointment for misfiring Dockers

Newhaven 2 Lingfield 3, SCFL Premier Division match #6

Steady if not spectacular.

This is a sentence that pretty much sums up Newhaven’s opening month of the league campaign.

While two wins and three draws isn’t exactly the lightning-fast start we were hoping for, neither is nine points from a possible 15 an unmitigated disaster.

It's steady. Not spectacular.

Yet hopes that September would be the month that we really got going were dealt a blow (several, in fact) before we even took to the pitch for yesterday evening’s home encounter with Lingfield.

Through a combination of injury, holiday, university and work commitments, the Dockers were without a number of players for last night’s match. Bailie Rogers, Billy Barker, Tarun Rohilla, Robbie Keith, Ryan Blunt, Callum Edwards and Luca Page all joining long-term absentees Lee Robinson and Harry Reed on the unavailable list.

It says much for Newhaven’s strength in depth that, despite these missing players, they were still able to field a strong-looking first 11. One that we hoped should have enough about it to beat a Lingfield side who had only picked up their first league win of the season at the weekend.

Unfortunately, it didn’t.

The much-changed Dockers line-up was slow out of the blocks and by the time they roused themselves from their early lethargy they were already two-down and facing an uphill struggle.

Newhaven could have been behind as early as the fourth minute were it not for a fine double save by Jake Buss (a sentence that I seem to be having to type on a far too regular basis this season!).

The Dockers didn’t heed the warning, though, and fell behind just five minutes later. A free-kick from the left caused havoc in the area, and after a couple of unfortunate ricochets (from our perspective) the ball landed on the head of Dennis Asante, who couldn’t miss. And didn’t.

On 13 minutes came one of the games two main talking points. A clumsy tackle on the halfway line by the Lingers’ Conor Wilford left Newhaven’s players convinced that the visitors should be reduced to ten.

At the time, I thought it could easily have been a red. Having seen the footage back this morning, my opinion hasn’t changed.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was a stonewall decision. Some (most?) refs would have given it. This one didn’t. My guess is that had the tackle not been so early in the game, the decision may have been different. I guess we’ll never know for sure.

With tensions already threatening to boil over, Lingfield swiftly doubled their lead. Jay Simpson, whose pace caused the Docker's defence issues all evening, burst through down the right and kept his cool to fire the ball across Buss and into the back of the net.

At this point it was hard to argue that Lingfield didn’t deserve it. Newhaven simply hadn’t got going and were struggling to cope with the visitor’s energetic start.

Conceding the second goal did seem to wake Newhaven up a bit. Finally they began to get their foot on the ball and dominate possession.

The game’s second controversial moment occurred midway through the half when Alfie Rogers was seemingly bundled over in the area.

Now, I’ll be honest, I was too far away to see what happened, but after speaking to a few fans at half-time (including one Lingfield one) I was told it was a definite penalty. Having now seen the footage, I’m shocked that it wasn’t given; the assistant appeared to have the perfect view. Baffling.

Despite Newhaven starting to see plenty of the ball, it took until the 33^rd minute for them to have a proper shot at goal. A speculative effort from Rob Malila that went just over the bar. 

Callum Connor then had an effort well smothered by the Lingfield goalkeeper, before the Lingers were temporarily reduced to ten men via the sin bin.

Suddenly, the Dockers peppered the Lingfield goal. A couple of shots were fired over, then Owen Muller (I think, again I was too far away to tell for sure) hit the bar with a header.

Two minutes before half-time, Newhaven did find a route back into the game thanks to a bundled finish from Callum Connor.

The second-half saw the game played almost entirely in Newhaven’s attacking half. Yet, in spite of this, the Lingfield goalkeeper had very few saves to make. Cross after cross, corner after corner came into the area but, credit where it’s due, Lingfield defended superbly.

The closest the Dockers came to snatching an equaliser was through substitute Demas Ramsis, who headed inches wide with his first touch of the game.

With time running out, and an equaliser still proving elusive, Newhaven turned to veteran striker Ryan Walton to try and salvage something from the game.

But with two minutes remaining, Lingfield caught Newhaven with the counter they had threatened throughout the half. Once again, Simpson’s pace proved too much for the Dockers to deal with, and he put the game out of reach.

Newhaven did pull one back deep into injury time, courtesy of a fine Ryan Warwick strike which crashed in off the underside of the crossbar (awarded by the linesperson after consulting with the ref). But it was too little, too late.

Rogers had a very late half chance to snatch the most unlikely of points when he did well to waltz into the area and get a shot away, but he could only shoot straight at the ‘keeper.

The final whistle brought with it slightly over the top celebrations from Lingfield’s players, fans and managers. These must have been designed purely to wind up the Newhaven contingent. Surely no team in history could have been that delighted to win three points in the first week of September!

So, disappointment on the pitch. And, unfortunately, it has to be said, off it as well.

A few unsavoury incidents took place last night that we don’t want to see at Fort Road. Yes, we were frustrated. Key decisions didn’t go our way. Yes, there was some provocation from the opposition. But that’s no excuse. Sections of the crowd need to be more mindful of their actions and language or risk putting the club at risk with hefty fines that we could really do without!

There’s more league action coming up at the weekend when we travel to Loxwood – hopefully with some of the aforementioned missing players back.

We’re then home again on Saturday 16^th September when Shoreham are the visitors to Fort Road.

With both of these teams languishing near the foot of the table, now would be the ideal time for the Dockers to find some consistent form.

Fingers crossed you’ll be there to see it.

Come On You Dockers!

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Ian Robinson. Just gets the nod ahead of the ever-reliable Ryan Warwick. Despite playing in an unfamiliar right-back role due to necessity, it was only when Little Robbo started to get forward in the second-half that we looked a persistent threat. He put a number of decent balls into the area that we probably should have done more with.