#COYD - Come on You Dockers

Newhaven 1 Hassocks 1, SCFL Premier Division match #14 On a miserable late October afternoon, where the wet weather led to most other SCFL Premier Division matches being postponed, we were once again thankful for Fort Road’s 3G surface, ensuring us Dockers fans would get our Saturday afternoon fix at the football. 90-minutes later, however, it would not be unfair to say that on this occasion the surface was actually more curse than blessing. Entertainment was certainly in short supply at Fort Road this afternoon. On paper, this match had all ingredients for a humdinger. With both teams separated in the table by a solitary point, and both knowing that three-points would lift them to second in the table, a fairly large crowd hoped to witness a thrilling 90-minutes of action. The reality was very different with both teams ultimately cancelling each other out. Newhaven actually started well, looking to take the game to their visitors from the outset. So much so that they were c...

Newhaven Ladies 4 Steyning Town Women 3, London & South East Women’s Football League Division 1 South, Match #9 Newhaven Ladies extended their 100 per cent start to the season to nine games, but were made to work by a spirited Steyning side who caused them plenty of problems in the second-half. With Steyning boasting just one win from their opening six games, the Dockers will have been fully confident of keeping their run going. That confidence was in evidence in the early stages, with the Dockers seeming likely to score every time they poured forward. Skipper Lauren Empringham was a particular thorn in the Steyning side; her pace and direct running causing the visitors plenty of problems early on. Indeed, it was Empringham who opened the scoring, bursting down the left before placing an accurate shot into the bottom far corner. Steyning had barely featured as an attacking threat to this point, but stunned the home faithful a few minutes later by drawing level. A speculat...

Newhaven 1 Sporting Bengal United 1 (Newhaven win 4-2 on penalties), FA Vase Round 1 I’ve never made any secret of my enjoyment of the FA Vase. It’s a competition that offers teams at this level a realistic chance of a shot at Wembley, as proven by fellow Sussex club Littlehampton a couple of years ago; while near neighbours Peacehaven enjoyed a run to the quarter-finals last time out. Alas, it’s also a competition that Newhaven have struggled in during the past two seasons, having failed to make it out of the preliminary stages. Have successfully navigated the preliminaries this year by beating Rusthall , their reward was a tricky looking home tie against Sporting Bengal United. A team currently sitting third in the Essex Senior league – a division equivalent in level to our own. After a typically cagey opening between two teams with little knowledge of each other, Newhaven felt they should have had a penalty in the 11 th minute when Demas Ramsis appeared to be caught by the ...

Newhaven 0 Chichester City 5, SCFA Senior Cup Round 2 Newhaven crashed out of the Sussex Senior Cup last night as they were well beaten by a very good, higher-division Chichester City side. In fairness, this competition is unlikely to feature as a major priority for either team this season, with both sides fielding changes from their last league match. The Dockers made four changes from the team that beat Eastbourne United on Saturday , with Lee Robinson, Harry Reed, Josh Tuck and Toby Reeder all absent from a starting 11 that saw 18-year-old Rio Connelly make his first senior start for the club. Chichester City are currently flying high in the Isthmian South East Division, having tasted defeat just once in their opening seven games to sit third in the table, with a game in hand on both teams above them. It always looked like it was going to be a tough night’s work for the Dockers. And that’s exactly what it proved to be. Chichester’s class – and extra pace, especially in att...

Eastbourne United 1 Newhaven 2, SCFL Premier Division match #13 It’s fair to see that the fixture list has been fairly kind to the Dockers in the early months of the season. In fact, prior to this afternoon’s visit to Eastbourne United, Newhaven hadn’t faced any other team in the top eight (in the league, that is) going into this round of fixtures. To be honest, very few of the teams who would probably consider themselves among the genuine promotion contenders have met head-to-head yet (something that is very much set to change over the next few weeks). In Eastbourne United, Newhaven were facing a side who have, like us, consistently finished in the upper echelons of the table in recent seasons – and are threatening to do so again this year. Always a tough team to play against – especially at their Oval Ground where they went into   this afternoon’s clash unbeaten in the league – Newhaven new they would face a real battle to get anything from this encounter. The Dockers s...

Newhaven 2 Pagham 2, SCFL matchday #12 For the second time in the space of a week, Newhaven left it late (very, very late, in fact) to get something from a game they had moments earlier seemed certain to lose. Following Wednesday’s dramatic win Bexhill , Dockers fans were hoping for something a little bit more straightforward at home to Pagham. Having taken 11 points from their opening 11 games, Pagham currently sit in lower mid-table, meaning a Newhaven side on a run of seven straight victories should have been confident of extending their winning run. Yet a sloppy start to this afternoon’s encounter had the Dockers chasing the game from as early as the ninth minute. Pagham dangerman Dan Simmonds ran unchallenged at the heart of the Newhaven defence before firing a clinical shot into the bottom corner, giving Jake Buss little chance. Newhaven almost responded immediately with Ryan Warwick forcing a good save from the Pagham goalkeeper from a free-kick. The Dockers, though,...

Bexhill 3 Newhaven 4, SCFL Premier Division match #11 Football! Bloody hell! Even now, the morning after the night before, it’s hard to get my head round quite what happened last night. Two goals in injury time saw Newhaven come from behind to secure a vitally important three-points at a ground where we rarely win.  In fact, you have to go back to 2013 to find the last time we came away from the Polegrove with a victory. We were promoted that year (just saying). Yet the scoreline only scratches the surface of the full story of last night’s events. This was a patched together Newhaven 11, with some players playing through illness and injury to make sure we could field a strong team. There was also a missed last-minute penalty from the Pirates that would have put them 4-2 up. Dramatic! Put simply, this was a game we would have almost certainly lost nine times out of ten. But there seems to be a greater resilience to the Dockers this year. They don’t know when their beaten. It...

AFC Uckfield 0 Newhaven 1, SCFL Premier Division match #10 Momentum has been steadily building at Fort Road in recent weeks, and it was hoped that yesterday’s trip to Uckfield would see it continue to do so. The Uckers haven’t recorded a victory (or even a draw) since a 2-1 win over Saltdean in the Peter Bentley Cup on the 19 th August. A run stretching back nine games. With Newhaven on a run of five consecutive victories, it would have taken a brave person to have put money on anything other than a comfortable away win. Ultimately, of course, Newhaven did pick up the win. But comfortable it was now, with the Dockers riding their luck at times on the way to extending their winning run. It was a much-changed Newhaven side that took their place on the famously ‘tricky’ Oaks pitch yesterday, with four players who had started the impressive midweek victory over Eastbourne Town missing from the starting 11: Jake Buss, Josh Tuck, Rob Malila and Callum Edwards. Yet, nevertheless, ...