#COYD - Come on You Dockers

Newhaven 1 Horsham YM 0, SCFL Premier Division match #4, Saturday 29 th August 2026 Newhaven kicked-off August Bank Holiday weekend with a home match against Horsham YM. Just a few weeks ago, this fixture was probably viewed as being one of the most challenging of our early league matches. YM were many people’s favourites for a play-off place at the very least, having reached the post season matches last season and then further strengthened during the summer. Come yesterday, though, no one knew quite what to expect from our visitors. A very early-season manager departure was followed by a player exodus, leaving YM to field a virtual team of kids in their past few games. A new manager appointment in the week brought with it a large influx of new signings in time for yesterday’s match. Staggeringly, after yesterday’s game YM have already used 51 players this season! We’re not even through the first month! Hence, no one knew quite what to expect from yesterday’s game! Especia...

Newhaven 4 AFC Varndeanians 1, Peter Bentley Cup Round 2, Tuesday 25 th August 2026 Newhaven returned to Fort Road last night, looking to bounce back from Saturday’s disappointing FA Cup defeat at Whitstable. However, doing so appeared to be a far from straight forward task. On paper, at least. With injuries already playing havoc with Newhaven’s season, the management have been forced to bring in reinforcements. Step forward Harvey Wheeler and Thomas Sekyere (from Burgess Hill) and Matt Feeney-Hill (from Forest Row). All three were thrust straight into the starting 11 last night, against an AFC Varndeanians team who have made a very solid start to the season. Given the many changes made to last night’s team, the Dockers could have been forgiven for looking slightly disjointed.  Not a bit of it. If anything, the first 45 minutes of yesterday’s match was as good as anything Newhaven have produced yet this season (at least in the games that I’ve seen). The three new signing...

Whitstable Town 5 Newhaven 0, FA Cup Preliminary Round, Saturday 22 nd August 2026 The road to Wembley is officially shut. Well, for us it is, anyway. Not that it was ever really open following last week’s FA Vase defeat against Guernsey. But one can always dream. The Preliminary Round of the FA Cup, saw us make the lengthy journey to Whitstable Town in Kent. A side who not only play at a higher level, but one that has actually successfully traversed the long and winding road to Wembley. And even conquered it. They won the FA Vase a couple of seasons ago. As ever, a long journey brought with it what has become the customary annual coach trip. A trip that, this year, I was unfortunately unable to make due to a post-game engagement. Well, I say unfortunately. Given that the coach left Fort Road at 10:30, and didn’t actually arrive at the ground until just gone 14:00 (due to a closure on the M20), maybe being forced to miss the coach trip this year wasn’t such a bad thing. The te...

Forest Row 0 Newhaven 2, FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round, Friday 7 th August 2026 The season may be less than a week old, but on Friday night Newhaven faced their third game of the fledgling campaign, travelling to Three Bridges for an FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round tie against league rivals Forest Row. Wembley may still be some way off yet, but it’s still nice for non-league clubs to have an early-season FA Cup run. Not least for the additional finances traversing a few rounds brings to a club. With Row starting the season with just one point from their opening two league games, hopes were high that Newhaven could keep their unbeaten start to the season going, and make it to the heady heights of the Preliminary Round. Following two hard-fought games in a matter of days, the Dockers management opted to shuffle the pack somewhat for this encounter, making a few changes to Tuesday night’s starting 11. The pack was then further shuffled moments before kick-off when goalkeeper Leo ...

Hassocks 1 Newhaven 2, SCFL Premier Division Match #2, Tuesday 4 th August 2026 Football is well and truly back! We’ve not yet reached the end of the first week in August and we’re already two league games down. Following hot-on-the-heels of Saturday’s home draw with Crawley Down Gatwick, was a jaunt to Hassocks; a team widely being tipped for an immediate return to the Isthmian League. It’s no secret that it was results (or lack thereof) against the teams towards the top end of the table that ultimately cost us a potential play-off berth last season. This was an early opportunity to show that we’ve learned lessons from that campaign, and that we can at least compete with the best teams in the league. On a perfect evening for football, it was the Dockers who made the more positive start. Although early chances were few and far between, Newhaven did manage to force a succession of corners which ultimately went unrewarded. For their part, Hassocks seemed to be finding it hard ...

Newhaven 1 Crawley Down Gatwick 1, SCFL Premier Division Match #1, Saturday 1 st August 2026 It may be just me, but I’m sure every year the football off-season seems to get shorter and shorter. Maybe it’s because the World Cup only finished less than two weeks ago. Maybe it’s an age thing. The older I get the quicker time seems to fly (I swear it was only Christmas a month or so ago). Whatever the reason, the fact remains. Football is back. And most of us wouldn’t have it any other way. Saturday saw Newhaven kick the 2026/27 SCFL season off with a home match against Crawley Down Gatwick. In what many are expecting to be one of the most open divisions for many years, both the Dockers and the Anvils have gone under the radar when it comes to pre-season predictions. No one seems sure quite what to expect from either team. From the Dockers perspective, though, pre-season has been largely positive. Yes, a few players have left – that goes with the territory at this level. But the m...