Bouncebackability on full display

Crawley Down Gatwick 1 Newhaven 2, Peter Bentley Cup Round Three, Tuesday 30^th September 2025

It’s probably fair to say that Saturday’s trip to Guernsey didn’t go quite as well as hoped. Either on pitch or off.

However, as I wasn’t there to witness proceedings, to my mind it never happened so we’ll just conveniently gloss over those events and move on.

As mentioned in a report a couple of week’s ago, the true test for this young Dockers team is how quickly they can recover from setbacks. To coin a phrase first used by the Northern Irish Adonis Iain Dowie some years ago, ‘bouncebackability’ is the key.

Last night’s trip to Crawley Down Gatwick in the Peter Bentley Cup gave the boys a chance to wipe what happened in the Channel Islands from their collective memories and move on with their season.

Having already been to The Haven once this season, playing out a 2-2 draw in a proverbial game of two halves back in mid-August, hopes were high that we could get back to winning ways against a team that has only managed to record one league win from their opening eight games.

That said, while the Anvils haven’t been winning much, they haven’t been getting hammered either. They had been 2-0 up against play-off hopefuls Roffey on Saturday, only to throw it away in the second-half.

Progression would not be easy.

After a fairly non-eventful opening 20 minutes, probably best described as cagey, the Dockers created the game’s first true opening on 24-minutes, only for Pacey Bean’s effort to be well-saved by the Crawley Down keeper.

Around a minute later, though, Newhaven did take the lead. Having just kept his team level, the home keeper was then at fault for the opener, swiping and missing at a bouncing ball outside his area, affording Billy Oliver the simple task of tapping into an open net.

In a game of few chances, Tom Howard-Bold went close with a free-kick that deflected just wide, but the half’s biggest talking point occurred eight minutes before half-time, when home striker Oli Leslie somehow avoided a second-yellow card after committing a carbon copy offence for which he had been booked just a few minutes earlier. Make it make sense!

It's fair to say, the ref didn’t exactly cover himself in glory last night, at one point awarding Newhaven a free-kick for a backpass, only to change his decision when the Crawley Down bench, correctly, pointed out that the decision was wrong with the aid of Google. There were many other strange decisions, too, but everyone's entitled to a (very) off night, right?

Three-minutes before half-time, the Dockers felt hard done by again when Bailie Rogers was penalised for a foul that they felt should have gone the other way, leading to the hosts being awarded a penalty.

The reprieved Leslie stepped up and fired the ball past Roman Chiosa, who went the right way, to restore parity. It was a bitter pill for Newhaven to swallow as the hosts hadn’t really looked like scoring up to that point.

Just four-minutes after the restart, though, Newhaven were back in front. Ezra Roeg sweeping Pacey Bean’s inch-perfect free-kick into the net at the far post.

Soon after, Crawley Down were temporarily reduced to ten-men courtesy of the sin-bin. Somewhat bizarrely, the following ten-minutes was probably their best of the match.

On 54 minutes they were almost level, when a fine first-time effort from outside the area drifted just wide. It really would have been some goal.  

Five minutes later, Richmond Osei produced a stunning last-ditch tackle (having moments earlier carelessly ceded possession) to deny the Anvils a clear sight at goal, before Chiosa saved well with his feet to keep us in front.

Having been restored to their full quota of players, however, the hosts seemed to run out of ideas, resorting to pumping hopeful long-balls forward in the hope of unsettling Newhaven’s defence. It was a tactic that rarely looked like working.

The Dockers had to survive some typically nervy moments, mainly from corners and set-pieces, but in truth looked comfortable enough in holding on to their lead.

A great piece of defending from Harry Hammond with the game entering injury time typified a solid evening’s work from the entire Newhaven defensive unit.

So after a torrid weekend, the Dockers showed true grit and great bouncebackability to progress into the next round of the Peter Bentley Cup. Iain Dowie would be proud.

Unfortunately, there’s yet another tough test awaiting us on Saturday, as title-favourites Haywards Heath bring their 100 per cent league record to Fort Road. We’ll certainly need to be at our best for that one!

Next Tuesday we face neighbours Seaford at Fort Road for the second time at this season, again in a cup; this time the Sussex Senior Cup.

We then travel to second-placed Horsham YMCA on 11^th October for another tough-looking league encounter. It's certainly not getting any easier.

Your support at all these games would be much appreciated.

Come On You Dockers!

My man of the match (aka
, the controversial part): Richmond Osei. The centre back just gets better and better with each game, and was solid throughout last night. Atoned for his one error by immediately making a brilliant potentially goal-saving tackle that he really had no right to make.