Late goal gets Dockers over the line

Newhaven 3 Shoreham 2, SCFL Premier Division match #7, Tuesday 23^rd September 2025

Having suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time this season (albeit one by penalty shoot-out), all eyes were on the (mainly) young Dockers to see how they would respond as league action returned last night.

Having not played in the league since winning 3-1 at Wick on 6^th September, Newhaven took on Shoreham at Fort Road, looking to maintain their unbeaten start to the league campaign.

Shoreham started the season well, winning three of their opening four league fixtures, but have tailed off a bit in recent weeks, and headed to Fort Road on the back of just one win in their last six matches. And that via a shoot-out.

Early-on, there was no sign of any lingering hangover from the two cup defeats we’ve suffered in the past week.

The Dockers flew out of the blocks and could have been ahead after just two minutes, when Ezra Roeg flew down the left and crossed for Lee Robinson, who couldn’t turn the ball in at the near post.

No matter, just a couple of minutes later the hosts did hit the front. Roeg was again instrumental with a similar driving run. This time his cross picked out fellow winger Pacey Bean who opened his senior account for Newhaven with a well-taken header.

Newhaven pushed for more. Robinson and Teddy Wood were both denied by the Shoreham keeper, while numerous dangerous crosses into the box weren’t capitalised on.

Shoreham had a couple of half-chances in the early exchanges, but for the most part the only question regarding the outcome of the match appeared to be how many goals Newhaven would score.

The visitors best chance in the opening half-an-hour came in the 23^rd minute, when their striker seemed certain to get a clear shot at goal, only for Ash Wadhams, returning from injury, to deny him with a superbly-timed last-ditch challenge.

Still Newhaven continued to dominate, but they remained unable to apply the finishing touch when it mattered most, despite numerous opportunities to do so.

With 33 minutes on the clock, Elliott Bresciani struck a post. Whilst going for the rebound he was judged to have been caught by a defender and the ref pointed to the spot, much to Shoreham’s consternation.

For most teams, being awarded a penalty would be seen as a positive. I’m not sure that was the overriding emotion at Fort Road last night, given our well documented issues from the spot so far this season.

Enter former Shoreham player Tom Howard-Bold, back from a suspension, who stepped up to double our lead with a well-taken spot-kick that bounced in off the post.

Three minutes later, the Dockers should have been awarded a second penalty when a Shoreham player went full Michael Jordan in the area, but the ref bafflingly gave nothing. For my money, it was far more obvious than the one he gave… but there you go.

Still, with five minutes of the half left, Newhaven looked entirely comfortable.

Until, suddenly, they didn’t.

Not for the first time this season, we failed to adequately clear our lines following a good Roman Chiosa save, and James Lyon-Monk reduced the arrears after a spot of penalty area pinball.

The goal shook Newhaven and galvanised the visitors. Just four minutes later they were level.

Alfie Marchant, by far the visitor's best player, did will down the left before cutting inside and blasting the ball past Chiosa.

Not many at Fort Road could quite believe what was happening.

So rocked were Newhaven by the two goals, that it wouldn’t have come as too much of a surprise had Shoreham gone into the break ahead, with the Dockers hanging on in a game they had been largely dominant in.

The second-half was a far more even affair, although it was Newhaven who continued to create the clearer openings.

The best of these fell to Robinson just before the hour mark, but he was denied by the Shoreham keeper from close-range.

Five minutes later, Shoreham went close to completing the turnaround, when they hit the post via a shot that deflected off the back of Chiosa. It was huge let-off for the hosts, who were struggling to regain their early control on proceedings.

Arguably the critical moment of the second-half – and indeed the match – occurred with just under 20 minutes remaining. Shoreham were temporarily reduced to ten men due to a sin-bin and, just as they did at Wick earlier this month, the Dockers took full advantage.

A great through ball from Roeg sent Wood scampering away, and he kept his composure to find the corner of the net with a low drive.

With eight minutes remaining there was still time for Shoreham to get back into the game, and they nearly did just that as the match entered injury time. Chiosa had to be alert to scramble backwards and claw the ball off the line.

Billy Oliver then missed a golden opportunity to seal the victory, as he was denied when through one-on-one, but it wasn’t to matter as the Dockers held on to claim another three-points.

A Newhaven victory had looked little more than a foregone conclusion after 30-minutes, and while the points did indeed come our way in the end, blimey it was more difficult than it should have been. That said, credit has to go to Shoreham who showed real grit and determination to hang in there, battle back and then cause us considerable problems in the second-half when many other teams may have wilted.

It’s another league outing on Saturday with a trip to Gurnsey (there will be no blog for that one as I’m not going on our overseas adventure, unfortunately), before we visit Crawley Down for the second time this season next Tuesday, this time in the Peter Bentley Cup.

We are back at Fort Road on Saturday 4^th October when early pace-setters, and title favourites, Haywards Heath are our visitors.

We’ll need all the support we can get for that one. See you there.

Come On You Dockers!

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Tom Howard-Bold. A strange game in many ways, as lots of players showed flashes of brilliance, but couldn’t maintain it for the full game. Howard-Bold was steady throughout, winning a number of crunching tackles, and getting himself on the scoresheet from the spot.