Early goals help us ease to victory

Newhaven 4 Wick 0, SCFL Premier Division match #26, Saturday 31^st January 2026

The Dockers hosted Wick on Saturday, hoping to maintain their record of following a disappointing performance and result with a good one.

With Wick occupying the lower mid-table reaches of the division – not going up and in no real danger of going down – it was a good opportunity on paper for us to bounce back. After all, on the whole this season, we have been fairly good at getting results against teams in the bottom-half.

And after a blistering opening 20-minute salvo on Saturday, it was clear (or at least as clear as it can be where we’re concerned) that we’d be bouncing back from a poor performance in the best possible way yet again.

Newhaven were 2-0 up inside ten minutes.

First Lee Robinson took full advantage of a misjudgement in the Wick defence to finish stylishly across goal, before Ezra Roeg doubled our lead from the penalty spot.

Ryan Blunt had already gone close to adding a second moments before that, shooting inches wide from the edge of the area.

Not that Wick were without their chances in the early exchanges. In fact, they really should have been level shortly after we’d scored our first, only for their number 4 to head tamely at Roman Chiosa when unmarked inside the six-yard box.

Another chance came the visitors way moments before we scored our third, only for a shot to be smashed into the side netting. Wick looked a danger going forward, but they were wide open at the back.

The miss was duly punished as Robbo soon after got his second of the game, swivelling on a sixpence before firing the ball into the top corner with a sublime finish.

What then followed was perhaps one of the most bizarre five minutes of football I’ve seen, with Wick’s James Thurgar seemingly doing everything he possibly could to get himself sent off.

Having avoided a caution after acrobatically throwing himself to the ground after the slightest of shoves from Elliott Bresciani (I’m not sure if he was trying to be funny, but it was), he spent the next few minutes raking studs down legs, leaving his foot high, before he eventually got a straight red for kicking out at Arthur Rawlingson off the ball. It was all very weird.

With Wick down to ten men, and three-behind, the game was all but up as a contest. Surely now the question would be how many could we score. And could we keep a clean sheet for the first time in seven games.

The Dockers missed three more good chances before the interval, with Blunt (twice) and Robbo all going close to extending our first-half lead.

It had been a breathless opening 45-minutes, and while the second was more subdued, chances continued to come (mainly) our way at regular intervals.

Teddy Wood went close with a shot against the post. Robbo could only pull the rebound across goal.

Blunt was twice denied by the Wick keeper after racing on to clever through balls.

Wick then had a chance to reduce the deficit, only for their winger to get his shot all wrong with the goal gaping, and launch the ball into the skatepark.

On the hour-mark, Robbo had another chance for his hat-trick when he headed just off target, after some exquisite interplay down the right featuring Blunt, Noah Hoffman and Wood.

Not to worry. The Hat-trick finally arrived in the 67^th minute (insert meme here), when he latched onto a Blunt through ball, and finished assuredly past the keeper.

It was the striker’s last involvement of the match, as he was immediately replaced by Dexter Lambert.

With a host of subs being introduced (including a long-awaited return for Charlie Gibson after injury), it took a while for us to rediscover our attacking fluency, but with time running out we once again began to create, and miss, chances.

Roeg was off target after cutting in off the left, Blunt inadvertently blocked Lambert’s goal-bound effort, Roeg bent another effort wide, before Blunt couldn’t quite force home Roeg’s fizzed cross.

So three-points, a comprehensive victory and a clean sheet mark a good afternoon’s work for the Dockers.

Should the margin of victory have been more? Yes, almost certainly, especially given the number of decent chances we created and the fact that Wick were down to ten men for over an hour.

However, with most of the other play-off contenders all winning, three points were a necessity as we look to at least try and stay in the race as the season enters its final straight.

Next week we face Steyning for the first of two matches against them this month. On Saturday, we travel to their ground to face them in the league, before on Tuesday 17^th February we play them in the semi-final of the Peter Bentley Cup in a match that will be played on Shoreham’s ground.

In between these games, we travel to Bexhill on 14^th February in the league.

Our next game at Fort Road sees us host Eastbourne United on 21^st February.

All of these games are going to be tough tests, and come the end of them we’ll have a fairly good idea at the direction our season is likely to take in the final months.

Therefore, your support in helping the boys get something out of all these fixtures is essential.

We hope to see you at as many of the games as possible.

Come On You Dockers!

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Lee Robinson. A hat-trick of consecutive man-of-the match awards for the hat-trick hero. As I said against Godalming, a hat-trick will always equal man of the match. On this occasion, though, Robbo would have been in the running anyway, producing a fine overall display, along with Hoffman, Blunt and Wood who were also all very good.