Lancing 3 Newhaven 1, SCFL Premier Division Match #6, Saturday 5th September 2026
Warning. Spoiler alert.
This is not going to be the longest blog I’ve ever written.
Nor is it going to be the most enjoyable. Not, that is, if
you are of a Newhaven persuasion.
The Dockers travelled to Lancing on Saturday keen to put
Monday’s first league defeat of the season firmly behind them.
We may have been beaten 5-1 by Haywards Heath on the Bank
Holiday, but that defeat wasn’t anywhere near as bad as the scoreline may suggest.
In fact, up until the final 25 minutes of that game, we’d been well in it,
before it quickly unravelled late-on.
With a (mostly) young Lancing team having only taken three points
from their opening six matches, hopes were high that Newhaven could bounce
quickly back to form with a morale-boosting win.
Needless to say, that’s not what happened.
There can be no denying that, to a man, the Dockers were
miles off it on Saturday.
Lancing simply looked hungrier throughout and were duly rewarded
with a win they fully merited.
True, Newhaven’s cause wasn’t helped by some iffy (or at
least massively inconsistent) officiating at times (especially from one of the
assistants who I can only assume was on some form of commission for each time
he raised his flag), but that doesn’t hide the fact that on the day we simply
weren’t good enough.
Just after the quarter of an hour mark, we thought we’d
taken the lead, only for Ezra Roeg’s strike to be chalked off for off-side.
Lancing soon took advantage of their reprieve. Ash Wadhams looked
to have been caught in the area, but the ref waved it away. The left-back required
treatment, which subsequently required him to leave the field for a minute
(them’s the rules… well, when the ref feels like it) and while he was off, in a
case of Déjà vu to what happened on Monday, the opposition scored.
Archie McGonigle finishing off a decent move down the right.
Roeg should have equalised almost immediately, but pulled
his shot wide when through on goal, before just past the half-hour mark the
Dockers drew level. Joe Radley-Martin just about managing to force Roeg’s
pull-back over the line.
Going into the break level, it was hoped that the
second-half would see Newhaven rediscover some of the attacking verve that they’d
been showing in the early weeks of the season.
For whatever reason, though, (and I’m sure key injuries and other absences are
playing a significant part), the Dockers just couldn’t get it going, and it was Lancing who
took control.
By the time Mo Khedidji latched onto a sloppy pass in
midfield to race through and score ten minutes after the restart, it was hard
to argue that the goal hadn’t been coming.
The goal did spark a brief response from Newhaven who created
a flurry of chances in the next ten minutes which could have brought an
equaliser. Max Vardy and Ryan Blunt forced The Lancer’s custodian into a couple
of decent saves, while the returning-from-injury Tyler Capon spurned the best
opportunity, lofting an effort just the wrong side of the post when through on goal.
However, with 20 minutes remaining, Lancing scored a killer third. Again
it was all too easy as a driven free-kick was guided to the back post, where
the unmarked Ryan Plummer was waiting to tap home from inside the six-yard box.
This time there was no real response from Newhaven. By full-time, Blunt had entered the sin-bin, having let his frustrations with the officiating
get the better of him, and Roeg was struggling with a rib injury, effectively
leaving us playing with nine-men (all subs having been used).
It was an afternoon to forget for a very off-key Dockers.
On Tuesday night we travel to Westfield in the opening round
of the Sussex Senior Cup (19:30 kick-off), before we face a really tough task
next weekend with a visit to current league leaders Eastbourne United, who are flying at the moment.
Let’s hope we can rediscover our early season form in time
for that one. A repeat of the Hassocks performance would be most welcome.
We’re back at Fort Road on the 19th September
when we entertain Forest Row in the league, having already beaten them in the
FA Cup earlier in the season.
Your attendance at all these games would be most welcome.
Come On You Dockers.
My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Sorry.
No stand-out candidate on this occasion... Again
While I’ve got your attention, my debut adult novel, Snapped
is now available to download on Kindle. You can check it out here:
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