Last gasp header brings Dockers derby day delight

Newhaven 1 Peacehaven & Telscombe 0, SCFL Premier Division match #34

And, so, in what seems like the blink of an eye, we enter the final month of the regular league season.

Despite a couple of stumbles in our last two games, we arrive in April still with the destiny of the league title in our own hands (although it’s a claim that another couple of teams can also make).

While it may be easy to type that sentence on a computer, reeling off the five wins needed is going to be a humungous challenge.

It comes to something when, of our last five games, this morning’s derby game against Peacehaven is the fixture that, on paper at least, looked the easiest.

However, cliché though it may be, football is not played on paper. While in terms of league position Peacehaven may be the lowest ranked of the teams still to come, it’s fair to say that our local rivals would have loved nothing more than to have severely hampered our league campaign for a second Easter running.

In front of a decent-sized Easter Monday crowd, the early stages were understandably cagey. Unfortunately, there was to be no repeat of the blistering Boxing Day start that helped put Peacehaven to the sword a few months earlier.

However, it was the Dockers who were, unsurprisingly, showing the greater attacking intent. Callum Edwards was off-target with an early effort before Ryan Warwick rippled the side-netting with a shot from the edge of the area.

Unfortunately, Warwick’s involvement in the game wasn’t to last much longer as he soon hobbled off with a hamstring injury that looks set to prematurely end his season. A huge blow for us if this indeed turns out to be the case.

While Newhaven continued to see plenty of the ball, Peacehaven’s defence remained disciplined rendering clear chances hard to come by.

In fact, on 35 minutes it was the visitors who carved out the first really clear opportunity of the match, with Ross Barclay bursting clear only to be denied by Jake Buss. It was a huge let-off for the hosts and a warning that, while Peacehaven may not have been too bothered about attacking, they certainly carried a threat on the break.

If that chance was good, though, then right before half-time, Newhaven had a better one still (two, in fact).

Lee Robinson got free down the right and found Alfie Rogers in acres of space with the goal at his mercy. His first effort was brilliantly kept out by a diving Nathan Stroomberg-Clarke, with the follow up save, also from an Alfie effort, potentially even better. It’s easy to say that Alf should have scored, but it’s also fair to say that very few keepers would have kept out the first effort, let alone the second. It was an outstanding piece of goalkeeping. Credit where it’s due.

The second-half followed much the same pattern as the first. Peacehaven looking to sit deep and frustrate the Dockers, whilst trying to hit them on the break.

Twelve minutes into the restart, Alfie Rogers again tested Stroomberg-Clarke with a fierce effort that the keeper did well to claw over, before Robinson shot wide from an angle after getting through one-on-one.

A succession of Alfie and Edwards corners, along with John Lucero long-throws, threatened to break Peacehaven’s resolve, but some dogged defending kept Newhaven chances to a minimum.

With 15 minutes remaining, the visitors had perhaps their only noteworthy effort of the second-half, when a free-kick into the box was headed goalwards, only to be hooked off the line by Lucero.

With time running out, Newhaven went increasingly attacking as they searched desperately for the goal that would keep the title’s destiny in their own hands. This, of course, afforded Peacehaven opportunities on the counter, which, thankfully, they never really looked like taking.

With two-minutes of normal time remaining, Callum Edwards almost scored one of the goals of this – or any other – season, when he turned into prime Messi, danced his way past practically the entire visiting defence, only to be denied once again by Stroomberg-Clarke. It would have been some goal.

And so into injury-time. With Peacehaven now having well and truly dug themselves in with every single player behind the ball, it looked like once again being one of those afternoon’s (it was just about afternoon by this point) for the Dockers.

Then, in the sixth minute of injury time, a long Lucero throw was attacked by both centre-backs, Robbie Keith and a stooping Josh Tuck. It was Tuck who made the final contact, diverting a quite brilliant header into the corner of the net past the despairing dive of Stroomberg-Clarke.

Cue pandemonium at Fort Road, as players, managers and fans celebrated joyously as one, each aware how important that goal could potentially prove to be. Peacehaven were utterly devastated, but… hey-ho.

The game barely had chance to restart before the referee blew his whistle to signal full-time. The destiny of the title remains in our grasp, literally by seconds.

In truth, the manner of this victory could prove to be just as important as the three-points itself. Don’t get me wrong, a 3- or 4-0 scoreline would have been great, but it doesn’t give you quite the same buzz as a last-minute winner against your closest rivals does.  

We need to take this momentum onto Saturday where we face another of the teams who can claim the title with a 100 per cent end to their season, Crowborough Athletic. Massive does not begin to describe how important this game will be regarding the outcome of the title. (Is that Steyning I can see praying for a draw?).

We then visit play-off chasing Haywards Heath on Tuesday 9^th April, before hosting Steyning in our final home match of the season on 13^th April. We visit another play-off chasing side (the title now looks beyond them, although not yet mathematically), Hassocks for our final game of the season. 

At least, tet’s hope that will be the final game of the season. I don’t think my heart could cope with the play-offs!

A huge month awaits. We hope to see you at as many of those games as possible.

Oh, and, in case you’ve forgotten, HAVEN IS RED (again)!

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Josh Tuck. In fairness, could have been any one of a number of players. Ryan Blunt was industrious as ever, more than once stopping a counter attack in its tracks; John Lucero had his best game in a Newhaven shirt… but Tuck’s last-gasp heroics give him the nod (not that he seems overly bothered by who scored it).

Also, I need to offer my congratulations here to co-managers Andy Cook and Sean Breach who were awarded mementoes for ten-years’ service to the Dockers prior to kick-off. What a way to celebrate! Here's to another ten years!