Nine in nine has us dreaming

Newhaven 3 Roffey 1, SCFL Premier Division match #36

Football. It’s a funny old game!

Had you told anyone following our Boxing Day defeat against local rivals Peacehaven that there would be anything riding on the return fixture, then you would almost certainly have found yourself certified.

Yet, here we are, just under four months on, with a match as potentially important as any Haven Derby in recent history.

The winners will go into the last day of the season with at least a mathematical chance of still reaching the play-offs. For the losers, though, any such dreams can probably be extinguished.

That the Dockers find themselves in such a position is thanks solely to a frankly astonishing run of nine-straight victories.

A run that continued on Saturday with victory over another play-off chasing side, Roffey.

At one point, Roffey had looked odds-on for a play-off spot. However, a downturn in form which had brought just one win in seven games prior to Saturday has seen their promotion aspirations hanging by a thread.

With a swirling wind blowing round Fort Road, it was likely that the blustery conditions would have at least some impact on the game; as a spectacle at the very least.

In what was a niggly game throughout, with plenty of aggro from both sides, this was not a game for the football purists.

The Dockers had the best of the early exchanges and went close to opening the scoring after 15 minutes when Henry Watson’s header was cleared off the line.

Cory Smart, lively on his first senior start after impressing for the Under 23s, also went close for the Dockers with a dipping effort from the edge of the area that was just off target.

Roffey’s best chance came ten-minutes later when Johnny Barnes-Galloway did well to block a shot with his feet.

Newhaven proceeded to take the lead a couple of minutes later. A long ball was eventually brought under control by a combination of Jake Robinson and Emmanuel Abudiore, with the latter heading the ball home after his initial effort had been saved.

Roffey weren’t happy about the decision (I’ve no idea what they were complaining about), although they weren’t happy about much. Their number 7 spent so much time talking to the ref during the 90-minutes that it wouldn’t surprise if they’re now besties.

Four minutes later a driving run from Connell culminated with a shot that the Roffey keeper needed to push away, as Newhaven looked to double their lead.

However, Roffey were always in the game, (although quite where their Twitter feed got the word ‘dominant’ from, I have no idea; that was the sort of one-sided propaganda that North Korea would have been prod of!).

Ten minutes before half-time, they levelled from the penalty spot, when a wind-assisted swirling cross from the right caught Richmond Osei by surprise and struck his arm, giving the ref little choice but to award a penalty.

Roffey's bet player, Josh Neathey, made no mistake from 12-yards, comfortably rolling the ball past Barnes-Galloway.

With half-time approaching, both teams were surprised to have what looked to be perfectly legitimate goals chalked off.

First, Abudiore was denied by the off-side flag, after it was raised against Ryan Blunt, despite the fact he not once made any intention to get involved in play (and, more importantly, the ball was nowhere near him).

Moments later, it was Roffey’s turn to feel aggrieved when the ball flew into the net directly from a corner, only for it to be ruled out for what I presume was a foul on the goalkeeper.

The visitors then struck the post on the brink of half-time, when a wind assisted free-kick completely deceived Barnes-Galloway and thudded against the inside of a post. When the ref blew his whistle for half-time, Newhaven would have been the happier team to hear it.

With tensions rising, the second-half was even more niggly that the first, with inconsistencies from the officials not doing much to calm the tempers of players on either side.

On the hour, Newhaven had a second goal controversially ruled out, when Lee Robinson was adjudged to have handled the ball into the net, when it in fact fairly clearly struck his chest.

Fortunately, on this occasion the strange decision didn’t matter as less than a minute later, Jake Robinson lashed home to finally extend our lead.

Cue more moaning and another flashpoint, although quite what caused it I’m not sure as I was too busy tweeting about the goal.

It was clear that the game was reaching boiling point and that this was an encounter highly unlikely to end 11vs11. And so it proved.

With 25 minutes remaining, Roffey were reduced to ten men when one of their players stamped on Abudiore (who had either spent the whole game getting kicked or kicking other people depending who you want to believe) who was subsequently booked for retaliation.

Even this relatively simple decision was somewhat bungled, though, as the ref initially only showed the Roffey player a yellow card, before his assistant helpfully pointed out that deliberately treading on someone really should be a red card, causing the man in the middle to eventually issue a red.

It was soon 10vs10 as Abudiore was sent off for his very next infringement just a couple of minutes later. In the words of Jose, I prefer not to speak.

Roffey missed their best chance of an equaliser with 17 minutes left on the clock when their winger blasted wastefully over when completely unmarked by the penalty spot. It was a huge let-off for the Dockers.

Lee Robinson then struck the post from an incredibly tight angle after being sent through, before he put the game beyond doubt with a typically assured finish after good work from Connell in midfield.

Roffey sent on a couple of big men up front, thankfully to no avail whatsoever, but they did have the ball in the net again right on full-time, only for it to be disallowed for a handball. Not that it would have overly mattered either way as before we could restart the game the whistle blew to bring a bad-tempered – but entertaining -  match to an end.

And so we move onto tomorrow’s match at Peacehaven. In a position that absolutely no one anywhere saw us being in a few months ago. A victory – and results going our way elsewhere – could leave us in with a decent shout of the play-offs (although there would still be the small matter of beating champions Hassocks at Fort Road on Saturday and even more results going our way). Lose and… well, best not to think about it really.

Either way, the effort from the players and management to get us into a position where we’re still actually playing for something at Easter, should be applauded.

It would be great to see as many of you as possible at our final two matches to (win, lxxe or draw) show your appreciation to everyone involved.

Come on You Dockers!

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Charlie Connell. Like last week, it could have been Connell or Ryan Blunt, but Charlie nicks it for me this week. The amount of ball recoveries he makes in a game is frankly ridiculous, and yesterday he also showed a willingness to run with the ball which hasn’t been too often this season. Also played a key role in the third goal.