#COYD - Come on You Dockers

Newhaven 3 Saltdean 2, SCFL Premier Division match #5 Following Sunday afternoon’s monumental victory in the FA Vase (we’re though, who cares), and subsequent viral social media explosion (which sounds far worse than it is), it was back to the relative normality of league action last night as a fully kitted-up Saltdean visited Fort Road. With both sides struggling for early season form, it was a game that would give each team a chance to really kick-start their season. The Tigers, given their numerous close connections to the Dockers through their manager and playing staff, will have been well aware that now is as good a time as any to be playing us. Not that you would have known it given how the first half-an-hour of the match went. The Dockers started rampantly, playing with the type of confidence and swagger that has so entertained the Fort Road faithful over the past three or four seasons. They got off to the perfect start when, on just 5 minutes, Lee Robinson raced onto a ...

Newhaven 2 Bexhill United 2, SCFL Premier Division match #4 With the FA Cup already a distant dream for another season, Newhaven hosted Bexhill United – another team who had fallen at the first hurdle in that competition – in the only league action to take place in the SCFL Premier Division yesterday afternoon. With both sides scrambling for form in the early weeks of the season – The Pirates had picked up only a solitary point from their opening three matches compared to the Docker’s four – both sides will have been viewing the game as an ideal opportunity to kick-start their season. From the off, it was Bexhill who looked far more likely to do so. The visitors could have been ahead inside the opening two minutes. A misplaced defensive header sent a United player through on goal, but Newhaven’s latest stand-in ‘keeper, Josh James – the third different custodian in as many games – did enough to smother the first effort, and the hosts managed scramble the ball away. With 18 minu...

Newhaven 3 Horsham YMCA 3, SCFL Premier Division match #3 Just seven days after suffering a heavy defeat at Horsham YMCA in the FA Cup, the same team travelled to Fort Road this afternoon for a league encounter. With the Dockers not exactly riding high on confidence following a disappointing loss at Crawley Down Gatwick in midweek, and YM still unbeaten in league and cup, another tough 90-minutes lay ahead. In the early stages, though, you would have been hard-pressed to tell which team was the one who was low on confidence. Newhaven started strongly, and could have been ahead inside a minute. Callum Edwards did well down the right, his pull-back found Ryan Warwick on the edge of the area, and Warwick’s well-struck shot rebounded off the crossbar. A few minutes later, the Dockers had another chance to score. Edwards again caused problems down the left before crossing for Lee Robinson, who skied his close-range effort over the bar. Still Newhaven continued to press, with Edwards...

Crawley Down Gatwick 4 Newhaven 3, SCFL Premier Division match #2 Newhaven travelled to Crawley Down Gatwick last night hoping to put memories of Saturday’s chastening FA Cup defeat at Horsham YMCA well and truly behind them. Like the Dockers, Crawley Down have started the season with a heavy defeat and a narrow win – albeit their defeat came in the league and their victory in the cup. Newhaven started fairly brightly, creating a couple of early half-chances.  The best of these fell to Lee Robinson, who shot just wide from a tight angle after being set free by his brother, Jake, from a well-worked set-piece. However, on 8-minutes Newhaven’s defensive vulnerabilities from Saturday quickly resurfaced. A myriad of mistakes led to the Anvils getting through far too easily for the first time, and it was more by luck than judgement that the scores remained level. Still, on the whole it was the Dockers who carried the greater attacking threat in the early exchanges. Joe Summerbell...

Horsham YMCA 5 Newhaven 1, FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round I suppose if there is a good time to get comprehensively beaten (and, let face it, there isn’t; not really), it’s in a competition that you’ve got no chance of winning. Don’t get me wrong, from a financial (and prestige) point of view, exiting the FA Cup at the first hurdle is far from ideal. In the long run, though, if you’re only going to have one absolute horror-show in a season (and fingers-crossed it will only be one) this is as good a time as any to have it. It’s impossible to quite pinpoint exactly what went wrong for the Dockers away at Horsham YMCA this afternoon. Don’t get me wrong, YM played very well but, my word, Newhaven made it incredibly easy for them at times. Maybe, had Tom Vickers’ fourth-minute header found the back of the net instead of flashing wide, this report may have ended up being far more enjoyable to write than it has ultimately ended up being. Unfortunately, it didn’t, and from that moment ...