Consistency still proving elusive

Pagham 2 Newhaven 1, SCFL Premier Division match #31, Saturday 14^th March 2026

DWLWLWLW. 

No, its not the name of a small Welsh village (at least, I don’t think it is. It could be. I haven’t actually checked). It’s Newhaven’s league form since the start of 2026. A run of inconsistency that has all but ended our play-off hopes after a stronger than expected first half of the season.

We made the long trip to Pagham on Saturday afternoon, hoping we could make it back-to-back league victories for the first time in 2026.

Unfortunately, our wait for consecutive victories will have to continue for a while longer, as this match perfectly encapsulated in microcosm the inconsistency that has hampered us over the last few months.

After a sluggish opening five minutes, in which Pagham went close to scoring only for Rudi Jones to clear off the line, the Dockers took the lead from practically their first attack when we were awarded a penalty for handball after good work from Teddy Wood down the right.

Ezra Roeg made no mistake from the spot, finding the corner with a well-struck penalty.

The goal seemed to settle Newhaven as we began to look a lot less hurried and harried in possession than we had been in the very early exchanges.

Aside from two decent efforts from Pagham that would have been ruled out for off-side anyway, Newhaven were keeping the hosts at arm’s length and if anything looked to be carrying the greater threat on the counter.

Five minutes before the interval, a clever Lee Robinson pass sent Wood scampering clear, but the winger was denied at close range by the chest of the Pagham keeper.

Moments later, Robbo thought he’d doubled our advantage only to be denied by an off-side flag. It wasn’t the only time during the 90-minutes that a decision riled the Newhaven contingent. Still, I’ve often been told that if you can’t say anything nice about someone it’s best not to say anything at all. With that in mind, I won’t be mentioning the officials again in this report.

The Dockers were arguably well worthy of their lead at the break and could easily have been two ahead.

They weren’t, though, and a first-half of promise was unfortunately followed by a second-half of pure sloppiness which allowed their hosts back into the game.

The scene was set straight from the kick-off when we somehow managed to give the ball away within two-seconds of the whistle being blown.

Roman Chiosa was then called into action within a minute of the restart before Elliott Bresciani became the second Docker to hack a shot off the line inside the opening moments of a half.

Unlike the first-half, however, this time we couldn’t ride-out our sloppy start and in the 50^th minute the hosts were level,

A cross into the box found James Liddiard unmarked at the far post, and his header across goal found the corner of the net.

The goal seemed to really knock the stuffing out of Newhaven, and it was the hosts who began to assume control of the match, albeit without ever really peppering our goal with shots.

With 15 minutes remaining, Pagham snatched what proved to be the winning goal in appropriately scrappy style. Despite having a few opportunities to clear our lines, we failed to do so, and the ball was eventually fired across goal where Tom Jenkins was waiting to tap home.

The Dockers had struggled to lay a glove on Pagham for much of the half and if anyone looked likely to add to the scoreline it was likely to be the hosts.

That said, in the final minute of normal time a brilliant raking pass from the left found Robinson free in the area, but Robbo couldn’t quite make the desired contact with his shot and was denied by the keeper. The subsequent corner came to nothing as Newhaven were once again forced to settle for a defeat after a victory.

On another note, this match marked Ryan Blunt’s 150^th senior appearance for the Dockers. Some achievement for a 21-year-old. There can’t be too many players who have reached that milestone with one club at such a young age. Here’s to the next 150 (please).

So our run of form now reads DWLWLWLWL. We now head to Lingfield (or, rather, Whyteleafe) on Wednesday night where we will be aiming to put another ‘W’ on the board. We’ve got to keep the pattern going for now, right? However, with the Lingers currently fighting for survival it will be far from an easy task.

There’s no game again next Saturday, so after Lingfield we’re next in action on 28^th March when Forest Row visit Fort Road.

Three days after that we face Steyning at Shoreham in the semi-final of the Peter Bentley Cup. How good would it be to be going into that game on a run of back-to-back victories? One can only hope.

As it always is, your support at any of these matches would be much appreciated.

Come On You Dockers!

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): No outstanding candidate this week.