Dockers start 2026 with a point

 Newhaven 1 Little Common 1, SCFL Premier Division match #23, Saturday 3^rd January 2026

The Dockers began 2026 with a home match against Little Common, hoping to start the new year with rather more of a bang than they finished the previous one.

Having beaten Common 3-1 at their place earlier in the season, hopes were high that we could quickly banish the memories of last week’s disappointment at Peacehaven.

Not that it would be easy. Little Common came into the game on the back of two morale-boosting victories, including an impressive 2-0 win away to their local rivals Bexhill.

Yet the Dockers almost made the perfect start to 2026, when with just 15-seconds on the clock we created a clear opportunity that Ryan Blunt could only fire wide.

Newhaven continued on the front-foot for much of the early exchanges, but all too often found the final pass lacking when in dangerous areas.

Blunt went close again with a curling shot from the edge of the area, while at the other end Common had a decent chance themselves, only to shoot straight at Roman Chiosa.

Newhaven continued to control the ball for much of the first-half, but failed to penetrate the visitors back-line all too often. Common looked content to play for a point, and maybe hit on the counter if the chance presented itself. Which it rarely did in the first-half.

As a result, the Dockers were restricted to mainly long-range efforts in the opening 45 minutes, with Ezra Roeg and Tarun Rohilla both having decent attempts that drifted just off target.

Shortly before half-time, both teams finally created a clear-cut chance, with both goalkeepers called into action to maintain parity.

First Teddy Wood was denied by the Common goalkeeper, before Chiosa had to save with his feet after a moment of hesitation in the Dockers backline.

It’s fair to say the first-half won’t go down as a classic, but from a completely selfish point of view, at least I got to keep my hands in my pockets with a distinct lack of action to write about on Twitter (yes, I know it’s call X these days but I’m old school, okay!). It was rather cold!

Newhaven started the second-half very much in the ascendancy, playing at a much higher tempo than they had in the opening 45-minutes.

Again, they went close to scoring within a minute of kick-off, when Lee Robinson’s header was brilliantly turned away from goal by the Common keeper.

Minutes later, the visiting custodian was forced into action again, this time preventing Wood from opening the scoring.

Blunt was then off target again after turning cleverly in the area, but the pressure was building…  surely the opening goal was on its way.

On 57 minutes, the Dockers thought they had been given the perfect opportunity to finally breach the away side’s resistance, when the referee awarded them a penalty.

However, after a lengthy discussion with his assistant, the decision was overruled as it turned out two Newhaven players had actually managed to take each other out with no Common player involved in the incident. Chance gone; although with our penalty record this season it would only have been a 50-50 chance at best!

Still Newhaven continued to press and create chances. Robbo was denied by another decent save, before Wood couldn’t quite force the ball over the line from close-range.

The opening 20 minutes of the half had been all one way.

However, in the 65^th minutes, Little Common were awarded a penalty when Richmond Osei was adjudged to have handled in the area,

Thankfully, Roman Chiosa guessed the right way, diving full-length to brilliantly deny the visitors from 12-yards.

Five minutes later, Newhaven were awarded another penalty (and this one did count), after Rohilla was sent tumbling inside the box.

Ezra Roeg stepped up and made no mistake, blasting the ball high into the roof of the net to give Newhaven a fully-deserved lead.

Now having to chase the game, Little Common went more attacking and started to push the Newhaven defence further and further back; albeit without really creating any clear openings.

However, the Dockers' attacking fluency that had been so prevalent in the first 25-minutes of the second-half seemed to have deserted them, and it was starting to look like a second goal would very much be needed to wrap up the three-points.

With five minutes of normal time remaining, it almost arrived. Roeg and Robinson combined well down the left, with the latter laying the ball into the path of Blunt, who shot just over from the edge of the area.

Moments later, the visitors were level. Substitute Arsham Marvali, by far the visitor’s best attacking player, was given too much space down the right, and he skipped through and dispatched the ball past Chiosa.

Suddenly, it was Common who looked more threatening, and if anyone was going to nab a very late winner, it looked more likely to be them.

That being said, it was Newhaven who actually created the best opportunity in injury-time to win the game, but Ezra Roeg could only head over from inside the six-yard box.

So, all in all, a fairly disappointing way to start the new year; gaining a point where three really should have been there for the taking,

There’s no game next weekend (we’ve played more than practically everyone else in the division, so it’s the other teams’ chance to catch-up), but the following Saturday we travel west to bottom side Shoreham hoping for (and surely expecting) three-points to maintain our play-off challenge.

We then have a midweek trip to Surrey (20^th January), as we take on Division One leaders Godalming in the quarter-final of the Peter Bentley Cup, before we welcome Guernsey to Fort Road on 24^th January. Please note, the kick-off for that game will be 14:00.

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

Come On You Dockers!

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Ryan Blunt and Roman Chiosa. Rare joint-award this week. Blunt was once again our main driving force on the pitch, while Chiosa made a few important saves at key moments; including his brilliant penalty stop.