Westfield 3 Newhaven 4, Sussex Senior Cup First Round, Tuesday 8th September 2026
Following two league defeats on the trot, Newhaven travelled
to Westfield on Tuesday night for a match in the opening round of the Sussex
Senior Cup.
In need of a confidence-boosting win, the Dockers fielded a strong (although far from full-strength) starting line-up against their lower division opponents, who have made a consistently inconsistent start to the season; winning two, losing two and drawing two of their opening six matches.
However, any Newhaven fans hoping for a comfortable night
watching the team play their way back into some degree of form were to have their hopes
swiftly dashed as Westfield made a strong start to the match.
The hosts were ahead within five minutes, as Jonny
Barnes-Galloway could only parry a fiercely struck shot, leaving George Murphy
with the simple task of tapping home from close-range.
Tyler Capon and Lee Robinson both missed tricky half-chances
to equalise for the Dockers before Westfield soon doubled their lead on 19 minutes.
A brilliant strike from Dan Tewkesbury from just outside the
area gave Barnes-Galloway no chance, although questions may be asked about how
much time the home player had to get his shot away.
Two-goals down and looking far from comfortable, a cupset
appeared very much on the cards.
Fortunately, the second goal seemed to wake the team up.
Newhaven began to move the ball with a bit more urgency and started to stretch
Westfield in a way they hadn’t managed to during the opening quarter of the
match.
The arrears were halved in the 27th minute. A
good advantage played by the ref after Harry Hammond was well-and-truly
clattered, allowed Capon to escape down the right. His ball across goal was
guided into the bottom corner with the aid of a slight deflection by Charlie
Gibson.
Westfield’s winger was somewhat fortunate to avoid a booking
for the initial tackle on Hammond. I can only assume the ref deemed the ensuing goal to be punishment
enough.
The goal galvanised Newhaven who then laid siege to the Westfield
goal in search of an equaliser before the break.
Capon probably should have scored after being sent though by Robbo,
only to pull his effort well wide; Gibson fired over when well places, before a
dangerous Hammond cross was scrambled away by an increasingly desperate – and tired-looking
– Westfield defence.
Just as it looked as though the Dockers would go into the
break trailing, they drew level. Even writing this a day later, I’m not quite
sure how.
After bringing the ball down well, Robbo got his subsequent shot
all wrong, scuffing the ball straight at the keeper. Having turned round in disgust,
the striker was somewhat shocked a second or two later to be told he’d actually
succeeded in scoring; the ball somehow having made its way past the home keeper
and trickling into the net.
It says much that not one Newhaven player celebrated the
goal. I think everyone was feeling a little embarrassed on behalf of the
unfortunate goalie. Who’d be a keeper, hey?
By the interval, the game only seemed to be heading in one
direction, with Newhaven now well on top and back level.
That feeling was further enhanced a minute after the
restart.
Jesse Lambert did brilliantly to nip the ball off the toe of
the Westfield right-back before laying the ball into the path of Robinson, who
squeezed home from a tight angle for his second goal of the game. Neither goal is
likely to trouble the prolific striker’s best-of collection, but they all
count.
The Dockers looked to be in the mood now. Lambert went close with
a shot from range before Newhaven grabbed a fourth in the 55th
minute. Capon was once again the provider, crossing for Ryan Blunt to sweep
over the line from the edge of the six-yard box.
Perhaps feeling the game was done and dusted, and no doubt
with more than half-an-eye on Saturday’s trip to free-scoring league leaders
Eastbourne United (and our ever-growing injury list), Newhaven rang the changes.
At first, these changes didn’t seem to overly impact the
game, albeit Newhaven didn’t carry quite the same threat they had in the minutes leading up to
them. Still, a Westfield comeback looked far from likely.
That was until 20 minutes from time, when a first Westfield attack
in quite a while led to the outside of the post being struck after
Barnes-Galloway had been rounded. In truth, the striker probably should have
scored.
Newhaven didn’t heed the warning. Just four minutes later,
the hosts were right back in the game. A ball over the top wasn’t dealt with,
and Harry Murphy kept his cool to set up a nervier than necessary finish.
Three minutes later, Westfield went close to equalising,
only for Barnes-Galloway to pull of a superb save when the ball seemed destined
for the top corner.
Blunt then went close to putting the match to bed in the
final minute of normal time after a decent run, before in injury-time the hosts
missed a great chance to send the game to penalties, when one of their players headed
wastefully over when unmarked inside the six-yard-box.
Ultimately, though, the Dockers just about managed to hold on
to secure their passage into the next round. There was much to enjoy about the
middle portion of the game, although the way we started and fished it was
somewhat concerning. Still, cup football is all about getting the result, and
we managed to do that last night.
With a few recovering players getting some much-needed minutes
last night, and a couple more hopefully back available on Saturday, fingers-crossed we can
start to rediscover our early season form.
We’ll need to, in truth. Saturday’s visit to Eastbourne
United is arguably the last thing we want (or need) right now. The league
leaders have scored an impressive 30 goals in their opening eight league games, and we’ll
need to be at our battling best to get anything from the game.
After our visit to Eastbourne, we’re back at Fort Road on
the 19th September as bottom-side Forest Row visit us in the league.
Your support at both games will be, as ever, much
appreciated.
Come On You Dockers!
My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Tyler Capon. Starting to look sharper as he steps up his return from injury, Capon grabbed two assists, probably should have scored, and constantly looked a threat when running at the Westfield defence.
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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