Dockers back to winning ways

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 signings all played their part in this, with each already looking more than comfortable in a Dockers shirt.

In fact, it took Wheeler just two minutes to make an impact on the game, as his sublime cross (one of many) was eventually turned home by the head of Dexter Lamber, albeit with the aid of a deflection.

Newhaven enjoyed plenty of the ball in the early stages, with Sekyere looking their main attacking threat. His pace and quick-feet continually caused the V’s backline a whole heap of problems, and he twice went close in the opening 15-minutes to opening his account for the Dockers.

However, Varndeanians were no slouches themselves going forward, and just before the quarter-of-an-hour mark they hauled themselves level.

An uncharacteristic error from Ryan Blunt in midfield was ceased upon by the visitors, and in the blink of an eye Fraser Middleton-Tozer was away and clear. He made little mistake in beating Fraser Trigwell to restore parity.

Just a couple of minutes later, things almost got worse for the Dockers as Shay Tobin was adjudged to have brought down a V’s player just inside the area (given after consultation with the assistant). Fortunately (for us), lady luck was smiling on Newhaven, as Middleton-Tozer struck the post from 12-yards.

Having survived the scare, Newhaven once again got on top of their opponents, knocking the ball around nicely and looking to stretch the V’s backline at every opportunity.

Ezra Roeg went close with a header from Lambert’s cross, before, with 32 minutes on the clock, the makeshift striker got his first of the evening.

This time a pinpoint Sekyere cross was turned home at the near post to give Newhaven a deserved lead.

Varndeanians almost levelled immediately, but Trigwell just about managed to claw the ball off the line. It would be interesting to know what goal-line technology would have made of that one!

Roeg then went close with another header from Wheeler’s umpteenth sublime cross of the night. Honestly, I can’t remember a half when we’ve delivered as many quality deliveries from both flanks as we did yesterday.

Come the break, much of the talk centred on how good this makeshift team had looked so far, especially given the fact that a couple of the players hadn’t even met many of the others up until 90-minutes before kick-off.

It’s probably fair to say that the performance level dropped somewhat in the second-half, but from the moment Ezra grabbed his second of the night ten minutes after the restart, the outcome of the game was never really in any doubt.

Lambert battled his way down the left, riding his luck on a couple of occasions, before finding Roeg at the back post, and he finished calmly to give the Dockers a deserved two-goal advantage.

A raft of substitutions followed from both teams, ultimately taking much of the flow away from the game.

Varndeanians huffed and puffed looking for a way back into proceedings, but at no stage did a comeback ever really look likely.

Matt Gunn had a great opportunity to make the game well-and-truly safe ten-minutes from time, but was denied by a good save from close-range, before Trigwell was called into action, making a decent stop to ensure the last few minutes weren’t any nervier than they needed to be.

With the game deep into injury-time (and even now I’ve no idea where all the time came from), Newhaven put some gloss on the scoreline, with Roeg completing his hat-trick. V’s contrived to give the ball away by the halfway line, and Ezra ran with the ball from just inside his own half, outpacing the entire defence, before keeping his cool to score his third of the night.

Come full-time, there could be little doubt regarding the fact that Newhaven fully deserved their victory. They looked by far the more accomplished side throughout. It’s probably fair to say that some of those players who came in last night may be about to give the coaching staff some selection headaches in the coming weeks as others return from injury. Nice problems to have, though.

Just a quick word here on Rudy Jones who was playing last game for the club last night, as he’s off to live (and play) in Spain. Best of luck Rudy, we hope to see you back at Fort Road in the future.

After three cup games in a row, attention now turns back to the league, with a bumper Bank Holiday weekend’s worth of action coming to Fort Road.

First we entertain Horsham YM on Saturday (3pm kick-off) before hosting Haywards Heath (boasting a plethora of ex-Dockers) on Bank Holiday Monday (11am kick-off).

We’re hoping to see big attendances for both, so get down there and support the boys.

Come On You Dockers!

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Ezra Roeg. In my eyes, a hat-trick will more often than not merit a man of the match award. And this was the case last night. It may not be his preferred position, but Ezra played the role of striker to perfection. To be fair, his third goal probably saved me having to make a tricky decision as there were a number of other candidates for the award, including all three new signings.

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.