#COYD - Come on You Dockers

Newhaven 2 Midhurst and Easebourne 3, SCFL Premier Division Match #10 Newhaven’s season hit something of a strange milestone yesterday afternoon, as centre midfielder Sam Geard became the 40th different player to don a first-team Dockers shirt this season. In case you need reminding, it’s not even the end of September yet! It’s fair to say that no-one could have foreseen this start to the season coming, with injuries really threatening to derail our season already. The mere thought of being able to field the same team twice in a row seems little more than a pipe dream right now and, unfortunately, the unfamiliarity of the players is unsurprisingly being taken advantage of by too many teams who, pre-season, we probably would have been expecting to beat. That said, the Dockers couldn’t have asked for a better start than the one they got against Midhurst. With barely two-minutes on the clock, the patched-up hosts took the lead. Tom Vickers’ fizzed in a cross from the left which wa...

Newhaven 0 Eastbourne United 1, SCFL Premier Division match #9 It’s fair to say that the 2024/25 season hasn’t exactly gone to plan for the Dockers thus far. With the season not even yet two-months old, a crippling injury list has seen Newhaven already use a staggering 39 different players in just 14 matches. It’s testament to everyone involved behind the scenes that the Dockers have managed to stay largely competitive in the opening weeks of the season, as unfamiliar 11s take to the field, many of whom have never played with each other – they quite often haven't even met each other – prior to kick-off. And following last night’s home-match against Eastbourne United there seems no sign of the injury crisis abating, with both Harry Reed and Jake Robinson departing the action before half-time with knee injuries. Even the management bench was depleted last night, with Sean Breach, Andy Cook and Tony Coade all absent from the dug-out. Seriously, whoever’s been running over thos...

Newhaven 2 Lydd Town2, Lydd win 4-2 on penalties, FA Vase 2 nd Qualifying Round After five straight away games, the Dockers returned to Fort Road on Saturday afternoon as they hosted SCEFL Premier Division side Lydd Town in the FA Vase. Lydd currently sit 16 th in their division, with seven points from their opening eight matches, suggesting Newhaven should have felt confident about taking a positive step on the long road to Wembley. However, with the Docker’s absentee list seemingly growing by the week rather than shrinking, one gets the feeling that not much is likely to be straight forward this season. Not for a few months at least. The Dockers struggled to get to grips with Lydd’s physical direct style in the early exchanges, with the visitors clearly looking to target Newhaven’s 16-year-old keeper Johnny Barnes-Galloway, who stood up well to the challenge. It was the visitors who missed the game’s first clear-cut opportunity, one of their players skying over the bar from...

Horsham YMCA 1 Newhaven 2, RUR Cup Round 2 The season may still be in its infancy, but Newhaven met Horsham YMCA for the third time in less than two months last night, this time in the RUR Cup. Having been heavily beaten in the FA Cup, then denied three-points in the league after conceding an injury-time equaliser, the Dockers were hoping it would be a case of third time lucky. However, with a frankly astonishing 16 first-team players unavailable (mainly through injury), progression into the third round of the cup, against the competition’s current holders, would be far from straightforward. It’s no longer a case of not knowing what team we’ll have out each week, it’s whether we’ll even recognise all those who are there! The answer for the past couple of games has been no. After an even start to the match, it was the Dockers who had the first meaningful shot, with a long-range effort from Ryan Warwick stinging the palms of the YM keeper. In truth, though, neither team could r...

Petersfield Town 1 Newhaven 2, SCFL Premier Division Match #8 Newhaven made a rare trip to Hampshire this afternoon to take on division newcomers Petersfield Town. With Petersfield traditionally having plied their trade in the Wessex League, very little was known about our opponents apart from the fact that it takes about three-days to get there (okay, that’s a slight exaggeration, but that’s certainly how it feels). After a strong start to the season which saw The Rams win their first four league matches, their form has tailed off somewhat in recent weeks. They last tasted victory in normal time on 10 th August. However, with the Dockers still far from at their fluent best, and player availability an ongoing issue, no one knows quite what to expect from a Newhaven game this season (except for the fact it's likely to be an uncomfortable watch). The early stages today were promising enough, mind you. Newhaven settled quickly, seeing plenty of the ball in dangerous areas. Tw...

Billingshurst 2 Newhaven 3, Sussex Senior Cup Round 1 Newhaven’s injury-ravaged squad were back on the road last night for a tricky-looking Sussex Senior Cup first round match against lower-division Billingshurst. Billingshurst have started the season well, having tasted defeat just once in their opening seven league matches and currently sitting third in the SCFL Division One. It was an unfamiliar Newhaven line-up (unfamiliar through necessity as opposed to choice) that actually settled into the game more quickly, dominating the ball in the early stages without ever really threatening the opponent’s goal too often. Yet despite the lack of clear opportunities, it still came as no real surprise when the Dockers took the lead just after the 20-minute mark. Luca Page did well to work himself some space down the left, and his low shot from the edge of the area was diverted into the net by Lee Robinson. At this point, a fairly comfortable evening appeared on the cards as Billingshur...

Haywards Heath 2 Newhaven 0, SCFL Premier Division match #7 Newhaven headed to Haywards Heath this afternoon with the injury crisis at Fort Road showing no sign of abating. Tom Vickers became the latest to succumb to the treatment table after failing a fitness test prior to kick-off. With Heath having enjoyed a fine start to the season, dropping just two points from their opening five games – conceding just one goal in the process – it's highly likely that a fully-fit Dockers squad would have had their work cut out for them. A squad that reached bare bones status some three or four injuries ago was always going to find things tough going. And so it proved. Haywards Heath were dominant from start to finish, and look clearly a cut above any of the other teams we’ve played this season to date. With the Dockers prepared to let the hosts have the ball and sit in to at least try and make life difficult for Heath, the pattern of the game was set from the outset. The hosts went c...

Crowborough 3 Newhaven 1, Peter Bentley Cup Round 2 Last night, Newhaven faced Crowborough for the second time in a matter of days, this time in Crowborough in the Peter Bentley Cup. Having won the league encounter on Saturday, despite being far from at their best, hopes were high that the Dockers could build on the momentum of having secured back-to-back wins for the first time this season. However, with the number of absentees almost rivalling the number of players in the matchday squad, the task of making it three wins in three was always going to be extremely difficult. That said, it was the depleted Dockers who made the better start, settling into the game far more quickly than they had on Saturday. Callum Edwards fired the first chance of the game high and wide after 10 minutes having been found by Pritchard, before the lively Pritchard set Jake Robinson away, but the striker could only find the side-netting from a tight angle. At the other end, Crowborough were being k...

Late goals hand Newhaven an unlikely victory Newhaven 3 Crowborough Athletic 2, SCFL Premier Division match #6 Looking to build on Tuesday night’s victory over Saltdean, the Dockers welcomed Crowborough Athletic to Fort Road yesterday afternoon, for the first of two meetings with them in the space of four days. Like us, The Crows entered the season looking to replicate last season's form which took them all the way to the play-offs. Also like us, the opening weeks of the season haven’t quite gone to plan, with a new-look team taking time to gel. With all three matches between these two teams ending 1-1 last season, the odds on this match being similarly tight were high. Yet for long periods yesterday afternoon, this match was nowhere near as tight as the final scoreline may suggest. Had Crowborough had their shooting boots on, the outcome could easily have been very, very different. The visitors could conceivably have been two-up inside the opening ten minutes, with the f...