More penalty heartache for much-improved Dockers

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, with both teams seemingly happy to push and probe without being too gung-ho.

That said, the recently ‘retired’ Jake Buss made a good stop five minutes before the interval, tipping over a well-struck shot for what was the Wasp’s best chance of the half.

The only other talking point in the first-half was a booking for Robinson for kicking the ball away. While their can be few complaints about the decision itself, what their can be rather more complaints about (and were) is that only moments earlier a Grinstead player had been let off for doing the exact same thing.

Please, refs, consistency. It’s all people want. It’s really not that hard.

The game opened up hugely after the interval, and after a blistering start to the second-half from the hosts it was something of a miracle that the game reached the hour-mark with the scores still level.

Within seconds of the restart, Charlie Curran skewed a Bailie Rogers pull-back wide of the post. Moments later, Tom Vickers went close with an audacious long-range lob that drifted just wide. Curran was then twice denied by the East Grinstead keeper, while Vickers was again narrowly off target from the edge of the area.

The Wasps had a couple of chances in this period, too, both of which were hit high over the bar and into the skate park.

With Newhaven having been the better side for much of the second-half, it was somewhat inevitable that it would be The Wasps who would take the lead. With 18 minutes left, substitute Charlie Harris cut inside before unleashing a long-range shot which bounced awkwardly over the diving Buss and into the net.

The goal seemed to rock Newhaven momentarily and within a couple of minutes East Grinstead went close to putting the game to bed when they hit the bar. In fairness, it would have been a controversial goal had it gone in, with the assistant flagging for a Newhaven throw-in, which East Grinstead then took quickly (I’m assuming the ref had overruled the decision to no Newhaven player’s knowledge) before creating a chance that really should have been taken.

Having survived, Newhaven got the equaliser that their performance more than merited a few minutes later. A cross-field ball found Rogers in space, and his hooked cross was superbly headed home by Robinson.

With time running out, Newhaven had to dig deep as the visitors finished the game strongly, creating a number of presentable chances to win the game in normal time. The last of these, deep into injury time, left Jake Buss and Regan Clarke-Salter prone on the floor, with the latter having to come off injured, and the former visibly hobbling. The injury to Clarke-Salter added to one already picked up by Joss O’Halloran earlier in the half, as the Docker’s injury jinx shows no sign of abating.

So, for the second time in the last few weeks, a cup match at Fort Road went to penalties. And, for the second-time in the last few weeks, we lost the shoot-out. After 13 perfect penalties (Newhaven’s six being scored by Robinson, Shonk, Vickers, K. Osei, Huchu, and Farrell) Luca Page was the unfortunate player to fail from the spot, with his effort clearing the crossbar.

However, in spite of our Sussex Senior Cup campaign having come to an end, there was a clear sense of pride around a very wet and windy Fort Road as the players left the pitch. As said earlier, this was arguably the best performance the Dockers have produced so far this season and they were extremely unlucky to lose.

Hopefully it’s a performance that we can look to build on as we now face two games which, on paper at least, should be winnable.

First we travel to 18^th-placed Shoreham on Saturday, before hosting bottom club Little Common on the 26^th October. There is no game currently scheduled for the 19^th, which I’m sure will be greeted with great relief by all those at Fort Road as it gives the injured players an extra week to recover and the fit players some much-needed time to recuperate.

Your support at these games, as it always is, would be much appreciated.

Come On You Dockers!

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Charlie Curran. The winger looked lively throughout, and struck up a really good partnership with Bailie Rogers – especially in the second-half – as the Dockers consistently threatened down the left flank.