#COYD - Come on You Dockers

Roffey 2 Newhaven 2, SCFL Premier Division match #14 Newhaven travelled to Roffey last night for a rearranged league fixture, postponed a few weeks ago due to a waterlogged pitch. With the Dockers currently in a poor run of form, and coming off the back of disappointing consecutive losses against struggling Shoreham and Little Common, Roffey will have been confident of building on their own two-match league winning run. Newhaven’s starting 11 looked as strong as it had done for quite a while, with Callum Edwards back among the starters for the first time since injury, alongside the recently returned from Steyning Alfie Rogers and Ryan Blunt, playing back-to-back matches for just about the first time this season. Before we get to the game itself, I just have to say a quick word about Roffey’s ground which is absolutely lovely (admittedly, that’s a strange adjective with which to describe a football ground, but in this instance the cap certainly fits. The so-called Theatre of Tre...

Shoreham 1 Newhaven 0, SCFL Premier Division match #12 Newhaven reached another milestone during yesterday’s match away at Shoreham, as Ben Cheverton became the 41 st Docker to appear for the first team this season. Typical of how Newhaven’s season is going, Cheverton’s debut was somewhat fast-tracked when Tom Vickers pulled-up injured in the warm-up. It comes to something when the injury jinx is striking even before we make in on to the pitch! Losing a key player so close to kick-off wasn’t exactly ideal preparation. And the day failed to improve from there Shoreham went into the match having accumulated just nine points from their opening 12 games and having conceded 28 goals. Yet the disjointed Dockers only rarely looked like adding any damage to Shoreham's goal's against tally, as the visitors looked largely comfortable on route to what could prove to be three valuable points for them. After a scrappy start from both sides, Newhaven had the game’s first opportuni...

Newhaven 1 East Grinstead 1, East Grinstead win 7-6 on penalties, Sussex Senior Cup Round 2 Newhaven hosted higher division opponents East Grinstead last night in the second round of the Sussex Senior Cup. With injuries still playing havoc with the Dockers early season form, a midweek cup match against a team from a higher league, in a competition that we're unlikely to win, was probably the last thing Newhaven wanted. East Grinstead currently sit in 13 th place in the Isthmian South East Division having taken 8 points from as many games. Yet despite the odds of victory seemingly stacked in East Grinstead’s favour, Newhaven arguably produced their best performance of the season to push their visitors to the very limit. It was the Dockers who created the first clear opening of the game when Lee Robinson was played through on goal eight-minutes in, only to see his effort bounce off the post. Chances were few and far between in what was a largely cagey opening 45 minutes, w...

Newhaven 1 Pagham 0, SCFL Premier Division Match #11 After an unscheduled midweek break courtesy of the weather, the depleted Dockers were back in action yesterday afternoon with a home match against Pagham. While the Fort Road injury crisis has been well heralded, the squad suffered a further blow during the week as midfielder Ryan Warwick departed for Uckfield. However, for the first time in what seems like forever, there were no completely new players in the squad of 16 yesterday, which means our number of players used so far this campaign remains at a rather hefty 40. Pagham haven’t got off to the best of starts themselves this season, having collected just nine points from their opening 11 games, giving the Dockers every reason to feel this was a decent chance of collecting three points in spite of their personnel problems. After a fairly quiet opening ten minutes, the following ten were dominated by the hosts, and they will have reached the midway point of the first half wo...