Derby day delight for dynamic Dockers

Peacehaven 1 Newhaven 3, SCFL Premier Division match #20

Having worked hard to lead the league at the halfway stage of the season, the even harder work of staying there now begins.

And with a number of teams – including Peacehaven – snapping at our heels, any slip-ups could prove costly.

Having suffered a damaging defeat at Piddinghoe Avenue back at Easter, you can bet our local rivals would have been more than keen to shed some late Christmas misery on us this morning – and ensure that our time at the top of the league was fleeting.

 Yet there seems to be a little more steeliness about the Dockers this season.

Whereas last year, matches against the other front-runners proved to be out Achilles Heel, this time out results against the other top teams have been much improved.

Yet Peacehaven away on Boxing Day, is as about as testing as it gets.

A fast start was needed. A fast start is exactly what we got.

In fact, as starts go, this was pretty much perfect.

With just under two minutes on the clock, the Dockers were ahead. 

Having already forced a couple of corners, Rogers’ latest effort culminated with the ball finding the back of the net. It may have been an own goal – I’m sure Alfie will try and claim it if he can – but whoever got the final touch was immaterial in the grand scheme of things. Newhaven were ahead. And that’s all that mattered.

90 seconds later the dream start got even… erm… dreamier(?). Peacehaven’s defence were all at sea, and having failed to clear the ball, despite having a couple of chances to do so, Ryan Warwick – once of Peacehaven – made them pay with a volley from the edge of the area.

Two minutes later, Warwick was within inches of grabbing his second and Newhaven’s third as he sent a shot just the wrong side of the post.

Having been blown away in the opening ten minutes, the hosts, as many of us had expected, did start to settle.

On 22 minutes, they nearly found an unlikely route back into the game when a free-kick from the left was overhit, evaded everyone in the area, and forced Buss to tip the ball onto the bar.

In fairness, although Peacehaven were starting to see plenty of the ball, the only way they ever really looked like scoring was from a set-piece or long throw. 

The problem was, they were having plenty of set-pieces and long-throw opportunities. And looking extremely dangerous from every single one of them.

Indeed, it was a corner that afforded Peacehaven a route back into the game on the half-hour mark. Newhaven failed to deal with a ball into the six-yard box and after a scramble the ball was poked home to halve our lead.

The 15 minutes until half-time seemed to last forever, as ball after ball was launched into Newhaven’s area. It wasn’t pretty, but had it been successful Peacehaven wouldn’t have cared a jot. 

Thankfully, from our perspective, we survived.

In injury-time at the end of the first half, we even had a chance to extend our lead, but Lee Robinson couldn’t get enough purchase onto his shot after good work down the right from Callum Edwards.

The prevailing mood at half-time was certainly that the Dockers would need at least one more goal to secure the three-points. The hosts may have carried very little threat in open play, but from balls into the box they looked deadly.

A fast start like the first-half would have been greatly appreciated. Alas, it was not to be.

In fact, neither side created anything of note in the opening 15 minutes of the half. Importantly, though, the seemingly constant barrage of balls into the box seemed to have been stemmed. Defensively, the Dockers now looked fairly comfortable.

From about the hour-mark on there was only one team that ever really looked like scoring another. And that was the Dockers.

A decent bit of combination play involving Lee Robinson, Tom Cooklin and Alfie Rogers ended with Rogers dragging a shot wide from outside the area.

With 20 minutes remaining, Rogers then curled a shot wide as Newhaven went looking for a Boxing Day knock-out blow.

Two minutes later, that blow arrived. Rogers’ brilliant poked through ball released Lee Robinson who made no mistake when through on goal to send the Newhaven players, bench and fans wild with delight.

From thereon-in, the only question was how the Dockers failed to score more. Ryan Blunt missed a good chance after being teed-up by Lee Robinson – and then was perhaps too honest not to go down when clearly clipped in the area. The ever-lively Ian Robinson then forced a decent save from the Peacehaven goalkeeper.

Jake Buss had to be alert to turn over a Peacehaven header – from a corner, needless to say – but for the most part a home comeback looked highly unlikely.

In injury time, Fin Agnihotri missed a great chance to put the icing on the cake, breezing past the home goalkeeper on the halfway line but unable to find the net from distance.

Ultimately, it didn’t matter. Newhaven’s fairly dominant second-half performance saw them come away with a hugely important three-points and a belated – and much appreciated – Christmas present for everyone involved at the club.  

Attention now turns to Saturday afternoon when we host AFC Varndeanians knowing that a victory will see us top of the table as we enter 2024. A nail-biting second half of the season awaits, and I know that I speak for everyone when I say bring it on.

Come On You Dockers!

Oh, and in case you hadn’t heard, Haven is RED!

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Callum Edwards. The last time Cal played in this fixture he scored a hat-trick… but we don’t like to talk about that. Today, He was asked to play in a far more disciplined, defensive role – and he did it brilliantly. Calm and skilful on the ball, extremely hard-working off it, a fabulous performance.

After the match, Reu caught up with Cal to ask him about his return to Piddinghoe Avenue…