Dockers bounce back to winning ways (again!)

Lingfield 2 Newhaven 5, SCFL Premier Division match #32, Wednesday 18^th March 2026

A midweek trip to Lingfield (well, Whyteleafe) gave Newhaven the opportunity to bounce quickly back from Saturday’s defeat at Pagham.

As highlighted in that report, it has been a while since we last won two league games on the trot. The flip-side to that, though, is that it has also been quite a while since we last lost two consecutively. In fact, it hasn’t happened since the end of October when we lost back-to-back games against Steyning and Eastbourne United.

While Lingfield may currently be embroiled in a relegation scrap, a recent upturn in form has given them a little breathing space in the dogfight at the foot of the table and led to them being awarded the SNLF Podcast’s team of the month for February.

This had all the ingredients of being a tricky Wednesday night encounter.

Yet it didn’t turn out that way. Not really.

The Dockers made the perfect start to the game, opening the scoring inside the first minute.

A raking pass from Blunt sent Lee Robinson away down the left, where he twisted and turned before getting a cross in.

Robbo may or may not have been aiming for the onrushing Blunt on the edge of the box (he definitely wasn’t), but the ball reached the midfielder anyway, who sent a quite magnificent header looping over the Lingfield keeper to give the Dockers the perfect start.

In an open first 25 minutes, both teams had chances to add to the scoring, with Jonny Barnes-Galloway called into action on a couple of occasions for Newhaven, and Robbo slightly overrunning the ball when through one-on-one, allowing the home keeper to deny him.

Lingfield swiftly equalised. Newhaven failed to clear a corner, and Denzel Owoahene-Akyeampong pounced to level the score.

Now, there have been times this season (quite a lot of them actually) when conceding a goal has really knocked Newhaven’s confidence and allowed the opposition to assume control of the game.

That didn’t happen last night. In truth it never really looked likely to. The Dockers clearly sensed that the game was there for the taking. As good as Lingfield can be going forward, they are just so open at the back (we saw that in the 6-3 win against them at Fort Road earlier in the season). Every time Newhaven attacked, the hosts looked bang in trouble.

Just four minutes after the Lingers had levelled, the Dockers were back in front. Rudi Jones’ perfectly-weighted through pass found Robbo on the edge of the area, and he turned well before finishing low into the corner.

Soon after, Barnes-Galloway had to be alert to turn away a fiercely-struck free-kick from distance, but it was Newhaven who were clearly posing the greater threat.

When Ezra Roeg struck our third five minutes before half-time, it came as no great surprise. Teddy Wood cut inside before playing a cross-field pass that a Lingfield defender made a complete hash of cutting out, allowing Roeg to gather the ball in his stride before finding the far corner.

Before the interval there was still time for more chances with Blunt and Shay Tobin both going close to perhaps putting the game beyond the host’s reach.

3-1 up at the break, Newhaven knew the game wasn’t over. Lingfield had shown enough going forward to suggest they could score goals with some more composed finishing. The question, though, was could they keep them out at the other end.

We didn’t have to wait too long for an answer.

Seven minutes after the restart, Roeg set Robinson away with a glorious, lofted pass, and the striker made no mistake, deftly lobbing the keeper from the edge of the area.

Game over.

Lingfield continued to pour forward, desperate to find a way back into the game, but Newhaven’s defence looked a lot sturdier in the second-half than it had in the first, and clear-cut opportunities for the home side were few and far between. In fact, the second 45-minutes was one of Newhaven's better defensive performances this season.

With just under 20 minutes remaining, Roeg grabbed a fifth for the Dockers, with another delightfully lobbed finish (the touch to set it up wasn’t bad, either).

It was a score-line that accurately reflected Newhaven’s overall dominance.

Billy Oliver and Blunt both had decent chances to further extend Newhaven’s advantage before deep in injury-time Lingfield grabbed a consolation from Torrez Davey-Corlis. A goal that made no difference to the outcome, but took just a smidgen of sheen off what had been a fine evening’s work from the Docker boys.

We’ll have to wait a while to see if we can finally make it consecutive league wins, though. With no game on Saturday, we’re not back in action until 28^th March when Forest Row visit Fort Road.

On 31^st March, we then face Steyning in Shoreham for a place in the final of the Peter Bentley Cup. Two huge games, and ones we could really use you support in as we look to end what has been an overall promising season to date on a high.

We hope to see you at both games.

Come On You Dockers!

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Ezra Roeg and Lee Robinson. Unlike on Saturday, there were actually plenty of candidates for this award last night, any one of whom could have rightly claimed it. In fact, I could easily have given it to the whole team, and I don’t think it would have been overly controversial. However, two goals and an assist each from Robinson and Roeg give them the nod from me.