Curtain comes down on a promising season

Newhaven 3 Horsham YM 5, SCFL Premier Division match #38, Saturday 25^th April 2026

And so, in what seems like a blink of an eye, the 2025/26 season is confined to the past

It doesn’t seem all that long ago that I attended the first pre-season friendly back in the summer; leaving that game as part of a fanbase convinced we were in for a season of real struggle.

What a difference nine months makes.

While there may have been nothing of great note riding on our final league match of the campaign – a hugely creditable 8^th place finish having already been secured – the fact is that everyone involved in the club can look back on this season with will pride.

A young side, many of whom were playing their first full year of senior football, have acquitted themselves superbly, and but for a lack of consistency, we could have made a stronger push for the play-offs that we ultimately ended up doing.

In front of a decent-sized crowd on Saturday, Newhaven hosted Horsham YM, a side who had already qualified for the play-offs. While there may have been nothing riding on the game for us, for YM a win would give them at least some chance of avoiding a trip to Guernsey in the play-offs, just so long as the Channel Islanders didn’t beat already relegated Lancing.

As we did against Haywards Heath a week earlier, the Dockers started this match on the front-foot. Unlike a week earlier, though, on this occasion we made the most of our fast start.

With just 20 minutes on the clock, we were already 2-0 up courtesy of two similar-ish goals. Two Ryan Blunt headers from two Lee Robinson crosses the source of our early joy.

However, just a few minutes later, Newhaven suffered what was to be the first blow in a run of back luck leading up to half-time.

Richmond Osei, who had started the game brilliantly, was forced to leave the pitch injured, leaving us with just two recognised defenders on the pitch.

Perhaps understandably, YM slowly but surely began to turn the screw, and within six-minutes they had a goal back; albeit in rather farcical/controversial circumstances.

From my vantage point there was a trace of offside in the build-up, but the flag stayed down and Richard Pingling scored.

It later transpired that a cricket ball had flown over the fence from the outer field, and as the assistant had tried to buzz the referee to get him to stop the game so it could be removed, he hadn’t stayed up with play, meaning any potential off-side was missed.

Non-league at its finest!

Moments later, Roman Chiosa pulled off a great save to keep us ahead, as YM sensed blood.

Yet, with half-time approaching, we seemed to have stemmed the flow and looked to be heading into the interval with a slender league.

Then came another controversial moment. And if the officials can be forgiven for the unusual nature of the first goal, then this one was purely baffling.

Battling for the ball, Teddy Wood took a stray arm to the face, right in front of where I was standing. Definitely accidental and no trace of a foul. But Wood had a head injury so play stops, right? 

Wrong.

For reasons known only to himself, the ref continued to play on while Wood stayed down on the ground. It was only when the ball went out of play some half-a-minute later that he eventually let the physio on. The Newhaven players, understandably incensed by the ref’s decision to not stop the game as per, you know, the rules, complained. Unfortunately, Blunty was deemed to have taken his complaints too far and was swiftly sin-binned.

Down to ten men (even temporarily) wasn’t exactly what was required against a YM team already pushing for an equaliser.

That equaliser duly arrived moments before the break; Pingling once again the scorer, this time from a free-kick.

With Blunt still off the pitch for the opening seven minutes of the second-half, YM came out looking to make their man advantage count and had a flurry of early chances. We didn’t exactly help our cause when Chiosa picked up a backpass, but we managed to survive until we got our full compliment of players back onto the pitch.

Albeit not for long.

Just three minutes after Blunt had returned to the field, we fell behind; and lost a second player to the sin-bin.

There looked to be a clear shove from a YM player in the build-up. Once again, the ref didn’t give anything, the ball was worked to James McElligott who scored at the second time of asking. To compound matters, Elliott Bresciani was then temporarily removed for ten minutes for his protestations.

Once again looking to make the most of a temporary man advantage, YM swarmed forward and had a couple of chances to put the game to bed.

However, it was the Dockers who scored next. A YM player blocked a goal-bound shot with his hand, and while the ref waved it away (shock horror), the assistant finally persuaded the man in the middle to point to the spot.

Ezra Roeg made no mistake from 12-yards to bring us level.

Parity lasted barely five minutes, as another Pingling free-kick sent YM back in front, thus completing the lively striker’s hat-trick in the process.

With Bresciani once again back on, it was hoped that the 11-men of the Dockers could find a response. Alas, it was YM who scored what was to be the game’s final goal, as a misplaced clearance led to Adam Adam racing through to open up a two-goal lead.

With 15 minutes remaining, Robbo missed a great chance to respond, blazing over from close-range, before the ref then actually did us a favour (yes, really) by denying YM what appeared to be a stonewall penalty.

The game finished with the visitors winning an entertaining contest 5-3. However, with Guernsey beating Lancing 3-0, it means Horsham YM still have to travel to the Channel Island next week for their play-off semi-final, while Haywards Heath host Peacehaven in the other one.

So as the veil comes down on another season, I think it’s fair to say that, providing we can keep the majority of this group together, and add a couple of experienced heads here and there, there’s no reason why we can’t look ahead to the 2026/27 season with a sense of real optimism.

Roll-on July.

Thank you for all your support throughout the season.

Come On You Dockers!

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Charlie Gibson. A second consecutive mom award for the midfielder, who has finished the season really well after coming back from injury.