Late drama as Dockers break Bexhill curse

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’s a trait that all successful teams have. Long may it continue.

In fairness, there was little sign of the late drama to come in an opening half that was short on entertainment.

Lee Robinson had an early shot well-saved by the home keeper, before sticking one in the net a few minutes later only to be flagged offside.

Jake Buss made a good save to deny the Pirates from a corner, and that was pretty much all there was in terms of clear opportunities… Until stoppage time at the end of the first-half.

A long-ball forward was flicked on, the Dockers went to sleep, and Samways raced through to give Bexhill a half-time lead.

The Dockers came out at the start of the second-half fired up. Within four minutes they were level.

Brilliant work from Ryan Warwick down the right-hand side culminated with a cross that was headed in by Alfie Rogers.

For the next ten minutes, Newhaven remained on the front-foot. Lee Robinson looked like he should have had a penalty when he was clumsily bundled over in the area, but the ref - and his assistant - saw nothing untoward. 'Typical Newhaven'. Hmmm.

Having ridden the early storm, Bexhill began to grow back into the game. Newhaven were looking a little leggy – hardly surprising given the injuries and illness in the starting 11 – and the Pirates started to gain the upper hand.

Midway through the half, they regained the lead in, it has to be said, fine style.

Again, Newhaven didn’t cover themselves in defensive glory, allowing Ollie Hull to roam forward too easily. He played a smart one-two before dispatching the ball with precision into the top corner.

Newhaven’s response was immediate. Within a minute, Ian Robinson was the first to react to a loose ball, before cutting inside and unleashing a low shot from just outside the area that found the bottom corner.

Parity restored.

Surely now the Dockers would push for a winner.

Again, though, it was Bexhill who struck next. A speculative effort from Charlie Playford seemed to wrong-foot Buss and the hosts were back in front. 

Having gone four games without conceding this wasn’t in the script – although given that only one player who made up the back five on Saturday started this match – and he’s a winger – it probably wasn’t overly surprising.

Could the Dockers strike back again?

For a long-time the answer appeared to be no. Newhaven were really struggling to make headway against a determined Bexhill outfit who were doing all they could to hold onto their lead at the third time of asking.

With three minutes of normal time remaining, the Pirates were afforded the perfect opportunity to put the game to bed from the penalty spot. 

The award of the spot-kick looked harsh from my vantage point (admittedly 80 yards away) but fortunately, after a delay of over two minutes (no idea why) the Bexhill striker scuffed his penalty against the post and Newhaven survived.

This bit of good fortune (the second in two games after Uckfield also missed a penalty on Saturday) gave Newhaven the belief they needed that the game wasn’t quite done yet.

In the first minute of injury time, Dockers’ talisman Alfie Rogers took it upon himself to drag Newhaven level, running at the heart of the Bexhill defence who kept backing off and backing off, affording Rogers the chance to get within striking distance – and Newhaven’s top scorer promptly blasted the ball past the Bexhill keeper.

The Pirates were deflated. But worse was to follow for them. Two minutes later, Rogers was adjudged to have been tripped in the area – in my opinion, the one on Lee earlier in the half was more clear-cut… but never-mind.

Regardless, a penalty was awarded. Unlike the Bexhill striker, Rogers held his nerve to fire the ball hard and low past the keeper to secure his hat-trick and the unlikeliest of victories for Newhaven. It was a result no one had seen coming five minutes earlier.

Despite the officials finding almost another seven minutes of play from somewhere, Newhaven managed to do what Bexhill had failed to do three times, namely hold on to their lead and pick up what could turn out to be a hugely valuable three points.

After two away games on the spin, we return to Fort Road on Saturday when Pagham are the visitors. Hopefully we can keep the good run going (it’s seven wins on the bounce, now), ideally in rather less dramatic and heart stopping circumstances.

Get yourself down to Fort Road and cheer the boys on.

Come On You Dockers!

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Alfie Rogers. Nothing controversial about this; Newhaven’s hat-trick hero dragged his team from the brink of defeat to an astonishing victory.