Comfortable win as road to Wembley begins

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 Anderson was injured in the warm-up. Thankfully, some young kid called Jake Buss was on hand to take his place between the sticks. At this point, it’s probably fair to say that Bussy’s retirement has been about as successful as Tyson Fury’s!

A further change was then needed just a couple of minutes after kick-off, when Tyler Capon pulled-up off the ball, meaning a far earlier than expected introduction for Ezra Roeg.

Despite the changes, Newhaven settled into the game well, and had two decent opportunities to take the lead inside the opening 10 minutes. Both of these chances fell to Billy Oliver, whose direct running was causing Forest Row’s shaky backline all manner of problems. The first was skewed wide, the second was saved by the keeper’s feet.

But as the old mantra goes, if at first you don’t succeed, try again. On 18-minutes, Oliver got the goal he, and the team, deserved. Max Vardy brought the ball out of defence before playing in Rudy Jones. His first time cross was met my Dexter Lambert who forced the Row keeper into a save, only for the ball to bounce straight to Oliver who simply couldn’t miss from close-range.

Five minutes later, the Row goalkeeper was called into action again, tipping over a Matt Gunn header, that looked to be looping into the net.

With half-an-hour on the clock, the Dockers were good value for their lead. In fact, they should have been more ahead. But Row were hanging on in there, and on 33 minutes they called Buss into action for the first time, but the veteran (I’m not sure he officially is yet, but we’ll go with the description anyway) stopper was more than equal to the task.

Soon after, normal service was resumed. Oliver had two more chances to extend our lead, and his goal tally, before Ezra Roeg also wasted a couple of chances to give us a more comfortable cushion going into the interval.

With Oliver feeling the effects of a tough almost 90-minutes on Tuesday, he was replaced at half-time by Lee Robinson.

Unfortunately for Robbo, the chances largely dried up in the second-half, as the game became something of a non-event.

Forest Row had an early chance to equalise with Buss once again making a good save before Vardy cleared the rebound off the line. But aside from that, goalmouth action at either end started to become increasingly sparse.

With the game drifting towards a rather uneventful conclusion, Newhaven made sure of the result 15 minutes from time. Dan Allen found a pocket of space just outside the area before playing a clever pass into Ezra Roeg, who took the ball calmly around the keeper before sliding it into the empty net.

Job surely done. It was.

There was no real response from Row. In fact, it was the Dockers who should have added to the scoreline, not least when Shay Tobin blazed very high and very wide from close-range. Ash Wadhams also had a late chance after a waltzing run from Roeg, but ultimately we had to settle for two goals.

So the Dockers take their place in the Preliminary Round of the FA Cup, where we will travel to face Isthmian South East Division side Whitstable Town on Saturday 22^nd August,

There’s little doubt it’s been a promising (and gruelling) opening week to the season. Four points in the league and progression in the FA Cup to go alongside three accomplished (in different ways) performances. It’s very early days, but there certainly appears to be a platform being laid down for an entertaining (and, fingers firmly crossed, successful) season.

After three games in six days, the boys now have a much-needed week’s break before we host Guernsey in the opening round of the FA Vase next Saturday (14:00 kick-off). It’s fair to say (understatement alert) that we didn’t have the best record against the Channel Islanders last season, so here’s hoping for a change in fortune this season.

We’re back in league action on Tuesday 18^th August when we face Little Common at their place (19:30 kick-off). Just as an aside, I’m not there for either game due to holiday, so there will be no report of these matches (at least not from me). Normal service will be resumed for the Whitstable game.

Regardless of my attendance, the team always appreciates the support you give them, so please do get along to support the lads if you can.

Come On You Dockers!

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Jesse Lambert. A really tidy performance from the young right-back, who kept Row’s dangerous looking left-winger largely quiet throughout, whilst looked to get forward whenever he could.

While I’ve got your attention, if you’re off on holiday and fancy a summer read (or just enjoy reading), please check out my debut adult novel, Snapped (available to download on Kindle). Thank you