Dockers suffer frustrating start to the New Year

Shoreham 1 Newhaven 1, SCFL Premier Division Match #22

Newhaven’s first game of the New Year saw them travel west to a lowly, but improving, Shoreham side. It’s fair to say this is a very different outfit from the one we brushed aside quite comfortably at home earlier in the season.

Following a week of heavy rain (again), it was touch-and-go just a couple of days ago as to whether the game would go ahead with parts of Shoreham’s Middle Road pitch underwater.

It does much credit to the volunteers at the club that they were able to remove the water and get the pitch playable enough to get the match on.

Of course, the flip side of that coin is that it left behind the type of bobbly, boggy surface that has so often proved to be the Docker’s kryptonite over the past few seasons. Those pristine 3G pitches just don't quite prepare you for a grass pitch in the middle of a wet British winter.

The pattern of the match was established very early on. Shoreham were content to let Newhaven have the ball as much as they liked, whilst getting as many men behind the ball as possible to make life difficult for their opponents. 

It was a tactical approach that surprised no one, but an approach that, it has to be said, they pulled off with great aplomb.

Newhaven struggled to create any chances of note in what was a fairly turgid first 45-minutes of football. Entertainment was at a premium.

The Dockers tried to prise open Shoreham’s defence but, aside from an early Ryan Warwick effort that went straight at the home keeper, they never really looked like breaching the disciplined wall of blue shirts in front of them.

The visitors weren’t helped by a serious-looking knee injury to Ian Robinson, who had started the match in typically lively fashion, only to be stretchered off at around the 20-minute mark. Hopefully Little Robbo won’t be absent for too long.

All in all, Shoreham were looking largely comfortable and even had a couple of moments where it looked like they might be able to hit Newhaven on the counter. Albeit without ever threatening Jake’s Buss’ goal.

With the game meandering towards a goalless first-half, the crowd were suddenly woken up with two goals in the last five minutes of the half.

It was Shoreham who struck first. Robbie Keith was adjudged to have fouled an opponent right on the edge of the area. From the resulting free-kick, Curtis Gayler, smashed his free-kick low into the bottom corer.

Thoughts of Bexhill away last season immediately flooded to my mind. On that occasion, we had similarly struggled to find our rhythm on a tricky surface, conceded right on half-time and gone on to lose the match.

Thankfully, this time around the Dockers found a quick response. Having been denied a penalty a moment or two earlier when Lee Robinson’s shot looked to have been blocked by a Shoreham hand -albeit at very close quarters – the ref had no hesitation in awarding Newhaven a spot-kick when Alfie Rogers was pulled down.

From the spot, Rogers found the back of the net to ensure parity was restored by the interval.

Newhaven started the second-half looking a little brighter, attacking with more intensity.

However, aside from a Billy Barker shot from distance that Shoreham’s keeper did well to push behind for a corner, the Dockers were still struggling to create any opportunities of note.

With 20 minutes remaining, Newhaven’s hopes of finding a winner were dealt a further blow when Lee Robinson was sin-binned for ten-minutes.

Yet, it was in the period that we were down to ten men that we created our two best chances of  finding a winner.

First, Warwick’s effort was parried by the goalkeeper, and Shoreham just about managed to scramble the ball away, before substitute Toby Reeder skewed a close-range effort wide when he really should have at least hit the target.

Back to a full compliment of players for the final 10 minutes, Newhaven pressed for a winner, but with the pitch really cutting up by now, they just couldn’t find a way through Shoreham’s organised defence. And, in truth, never really look like doing so.

At no time did it ever really feel like Shoreham might make it a smash and grab with a late goal of their own, but equally it was hard to truly imagine that Newhaven might snatch a winner themselves.

Ultimately, the importance – or not – of this point won’t become clear until the end of the season. For now, it puts us a point clear of Crowborough, whose game was postponed yesterday meaning they have two games in hand on us (albeit we still have to play them twice).

I said in one of my previous blog posts that there will be many more twists and turns to come between now and the end of the season. There’s a long way to go and while yesterday’s result – and performance – may have been frustrating, it was far from a complete disaster.

Next Saturday, we travel to Little Common before we host the re-arranged top-of-the-table clash with Crowborough on Tuesday 16^th January. The previous one was abandoned ten minutes before the final whistle due to fog.  We were leading 1-0. You may have heard us mention it.

Your support at both games will, as ever, be much appreciated.

Come On You Dockers!

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Ryan Blunt. As industrious as ever on a tricky surface. Typically neat and tidy in possession and always looking to keep the ball moving in spite of the surface.