Dockers made to work hard for three points

Shoreham 1 Newhaven 3, SCFL Premier Division match #24, Saturday 17^th January 2026

Following a run of two games without a win, Newhaven had the ideal chance to get back to winning ways on Saturday with a visit to rock-bottom Shoreham.

Without a league win since August, an extremely youthful Shoreham side (they’re even younger than us!) have been in free-fall in recent months, although their recent results suggest that they are becoming far more competitive than they were a couple of months ago, when they shipped 43 goals in just 8 games.

Perhaps sensing the need to lay-down an early attacking marker, Newhaven started the match quickly; seemingly intent on finding some early goals to knock the confidence of our young hosts.

Twice in the opening six minutes, Shoreham’s keeper had to be alert to keep out well-struck efforts from Billy Oliver and Lee Robinson.

However, after ten minutes of largely Newhaven dominance, Shoreham served their first reminder that this was not going to be a walk in the park for the Dockers. A quick, well-worked break led to their right-winger being played through, and he rattled the bar when he probably should have done better.

Fortunate to still be level, the Dockers once again put their foot down in search of early goals.

A couple of minutes after the hosts had hit the bar, Newhaven thought they had taken the lead when Lee Robinson turned in a rebound from close-range only to be denied by the flag.

No matter, less than a minute later the Dockers were in front. Noah Hoffman and Teddy Wood combined well down the left, culminating with Wood playing the ball into the path of Oliver who finished smartly into the bottom corner.

Rather than knock Shoreham’s confidence, falling behind in fact seemed to galvanise them and rock us!

Suddenly, the Dockers weren’t finding the route through to goal so easy to come by. If anything, it was the hosts who were beginning to look a touch more threatening.

Indeed, on 27 minutes they were level. Take nothing away from George Hendriks’ perfectly guided header from by the penalty spot, but I’m sure questions will be asked regarding how easy it was for Shoreham to get a cross in, and how Hendriks was given so much space inside the area.

Three minutes later, Roman Chiosa was tested with a decently enough struck shot which he did well to gather into his chest, as Shoreham pushed for a second.

Eight minutes before half-time, Newhaven created their first chances for quite a while. First, Hoffman’s goal-bound shot was well blocked, before Robinson had a chance at the far post that he was unable to take.

A couple of minutes after that, it was Shoreham’s turn to be denied by the off-side flag. 

The early promise Newhaven had shown had been well and truly snubbed out by a battling Shoreham side who were giving everything to the cause.

So much so that it was arguably Newhaven’s players who would have been happier to the hear the half-time whistle. Although I’m guessing they may not have been looking so forward to the half-time ‘chat’ that probably awaited them.

The second-half started slowly in terms of goalmouth action, with neither side really looking overly threatening during the early exchanges.

However, the longer the half wore on, the clearer it became to see that Shoreham were tiring, and Newhaven’s players clearly sensed it.

With 68 minutes on the clock, Newhaven created the half’s first true opening. Tom Howard-Bold’s perfectly flighted free-kick was somehow not  turned home by any of the three unmarked players at the far post.

Fortunately, it was only to be a temporary reprieve for the hosts. Eight minutes later, Arthur Rawlingson’s ball up the line sent Robinson scampering away down the right, his cross evaded Ryan Blunt, but fell kindly to Hoffman who finished calmly to restore the Docker’s advantage.

Surely that goal would knock the stuffing out of a clearly knackered Shoreham side.

Not quite.

Just four minutes after we’d taken the lead, we were indebted to Chiosa for keeping us ahead. A poor, needlessly rushed clearance was pounced upon by the hosts, and Chiosa pulled off a great double save to maintain our lead.

That was to be as close as Shoreham would come to an equaliser as Newhaven finished the game as they’d started it; looking for goals.

Ryan Blunt came close to nabbing our third with a shot that whistled just wide of the far post, before with the 90 minutes all but up, Robbo made the game safe. The recently introduced Ezra Roeg drove down the left before playing a perfect low-cross into the path of the striker whose poked first-time finish went through the legs of the Shoreham goalkeeper.

So, as we’d hoped (and expected) it was indeed a return to winning ways, but take nothing away from Shoreham who pushed us all the way and will probably feel a tad unfortunate not to have gotten something out of the game.

With all of the other teams in the top seven (Haywards Heath excluded; they weren’t playing) also winning, this was a vital three-points for the Dockers. With the table as tight as it is, it seems there will be very little room for error as the season reaches its climax. Wins against teams in the bottom half are now essential if we really want to vie for a play-off place.

We’re back in action on Tuesday night as we make the long trip to Godalming in Surrey for a Peter Bentley Cup Quarter-Final clash against the current SCFL Division leaders (19.45 kick-off).

And if that’s not tricky enough, we then welcome fellow play-off chasers Guernsey to Fort Road on Saturday. Having been well and truly beaten over there in September, we’ll be hoping for a much better outcome (and performance I’m guessing; I wasn’t there) this time around. Please note the slightly earlier kick-off time of 14:00 for that one.  

It would be great to see as many of you as possible cheering the lads on at either of these games.

Come On You Dockers!

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Noah Hoffman. Easily the midfielder’s best game in a Docker’s shirt to date; always looking to go forward when he could, he was involved in most of our best attacking moments and fully deserved to get his name on the scoresheet. Honourable mentions to Tom Howard-Bold and Billy Oliver who also both played their part.