Three in three for slowly improving Dockers

Saltdean United 1 Newhaven 2, SCFL Premier Division match #24

Newhaven made the short trip to Saltdean last night, aiming to make it three league wins from as many games in 2025.

On paper, the Dockers should have been more than confident of claiming three more points against a Saltdean side who are struggling near the foot of the table.

However, as regular watchers of Newhaven this season will be only too aware, the only guarantee with the Dockers at the moment is that there are no guarantees. See Little Common at home for proof of that.

And with former Newhaven coaching stalwart Kieran Ridley at the Saltdean helm, you can always be sure that the Tigers will be extra fired-up for this encounter.

On a bitterly cold evening, and with the match being played on a surface that you couldn’t exactly describe as a carpet (understatement alert), few of the spectators present would have been expecting to watch a footballing classic.  

And they didn’t.

This most certainly was not a 90-minutes for the purists.

Newhaven started the game well enough, and could have been in front within the opening five minutes, as our goalscoring secret weapon Bailie Rogers forced a decent save from the Saltdean keeper.

That aside, though, the Dockers were failing to take advantage of the dangerous positions they regularly found themselves getting into, with the final ball all too often going astray.

The Tigers were offering very little in terms of an attacking threat. It’s fair to say that Josh James will endure far busier 45-minutes that he did in the first half here.

Newhaven took the lead mid-way through the first half; albeit in somewhat contentious circumstances.

While there can be no argument that Jake Robinson was definitely unceremoniously hauled down in the box, the fact that the game did not actually seem to be in-play at that moment left many baffled as to why a penalty had been awarded.

Still, in a season where we’ve had our fair share of bad luck, we’ll certainly take the good when it comes our way. Who wouldn’t?

From the spot, Jake made no mistake, belting the ball into the top corner.

Soon after, the Dockers came close to a second, when a weakly hit back pass left Saltdean’s keeper in all sorts of trouble. A 50/50 challenge with Jake ensued, with the ref somewhat harshly judging the striker to have fouled the keeper with the goal gaping.

That aside, there was very little else to write home about, with Newhaven reaching the break a goal to the good and, for the most part, looking extremely comfortable.

Early in the second-half, the industrious Ryan Warwick had a couple of half-chances to extend the lead, but could only shoot straight at the Saltdean goalkeeper on both occasions, while the Tigers, who were by now going extremely direct, still not really look like scoring.

Needless to say, they did score.

With an hour on the clock, we contrived to sloppily give the ball away in our attacking third. One long ball forward completely dissected our defence, and William Saunders duly punished us to draw the hosts level.

Suddenly the game was completely flipped on its head, with Saltdean’s increasingly direct style really starting to cause us some issues.

However, just as it appeared as though the Tigers were starting to get on top for the first time in the match, the Dockers reclaimed the lead. An attempted clearance clipped the posterior of Ian Robinson, making his first start since injury, and the ball fell kindly to his brother, Jake. Despite being some way from goal, the eldest Robinson brother elected to shoot early, catching the keeper way off his line, and the ball sailed into the net. The veteran striker certainly seemed to enjoy that one!

Saltdean tried to push for a leveller, throwing everything bar the kitchen sink at the Dockers’ defence. For the most part, though, Newhaven’s defence held firm and bar a few scrambles in the area, and one late header that drifted wide, James’ goal remained largely untroubled.

Ultimately, Newhaven held on to claim another three-points. It may not have been particularly pretty - far from it, in fact - but following on from Saturday, at least we’re now finding different ways to win games that we were contriving to lose earlier in the season. 

This three-points takes us back into the top half of the table, in 9^th place. Let’s hope we can consolidate that over the coming months as we look to enjoy a much-improved second-half of the season.

There’s a tough run of fixtures coming up, though, as we now face three play-off challengers in our next three games. First, Crawley Down Gatwick visit Fort Road this Saturday, before we face a tricky trip to Crowborough a week later and then host Haywards Heath on the 8^th February.

It’s a testing run for our fledging manager duo, but I’m sure they and the boys will up for the challenge as we look to extend our unbeaten league start to the new year.

Your support at any of these games will, as ever, be much appreciated.

Come On You Dockers!

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Charlie Connell. A really impressive performance from the young midfielder. Sitting in front of the back four, Connell offered great protection, and used the ball well when he had it.