#COYD - Come on You Dockers

Crawley Down Gatwick 1 Newhaven 2, Peter Bentley Cup Round Three, Tuesday 20 th October 2026 Having battled to hard-earned point away at Pagham on Saturday, Newhaven took to the road again last night to see if they could build on that promising display in the Peter Bentley Cup against Crawley Down Gatwick. The Peter Bentley Cup is a competition that the Dockers have thrived in over the past decade or so, and last night’s match gave the boys a chance to further build some confidence after a spell of indifferent form. Overcoming Crawley Down, though, would be far from straightforward. The Anvils currently sit a couple of places above us in the league, albeit having played a few games more, while their last home match saw them overcome current league leaders Haywards Heath 2-1. An opening day 1-1 draw at Fort Road, hinted that there’d be little to choose between the two teams last night. And so it proved. That said, had Newhaven been slightly more clinical, especially in the firs...

Pagham 1 Newhaven 1, SCFL Premier Division match #12, Saturday 17 th October 2026 After a much-needed ten-day break, Newhaven returned to action with a tricky long-distance trip to Pagham on Saturday. On a run of six league defeats in seven games, and with injuries still biting hard, the Dockers arrived in West Sussex desperate to come away with something to try and reignite their season. Pagham, though, have been flying in recent weeks, finding the net 14 times in their past three games, and currently sitting just outside the play-off places. Yet it was Newhaven who started the game by far the brighter of the two sides, controlling large periods of the opening half, and looking far more confident on the ball than they had for quite some time. The returning Pacey Bean went close to opening the scoring inside the opening ten minutes, when his curling corner was clawed off the line by the Pagham keeper. From my vantage point, it looked like the ball had hit the net, but having s...

Newhaven 1 Bexhill 4, SCFL Premier Division match #10, Sunday 4 th October 2026 Newhaven 1 Guernsey 3, SCFL Premier Division match #11, Tuesday 6 th October Two home games in the space of just over 48-hours gave the Dockers a great chance to kick-start their new season after a run of indifferent form. Instead, with no points coming from either of those two games, it’s now starting to look like what many had hoped to be a blip after a highly promising start to the season, may actually be something a little more serious. On Sunday afternoon, we entertained Bexhill United in what was the final part of the SCFL Groundhop Weekend. In front of a healthy crowd of just under 400, though, Newhaven failed to ever really awaken from their Sunday slumber. By the time I arrived at the ground (I was 15-minutes late due to my youngest’s own match that lunchtime) we were already a goal behind. ‘Calamitous defending’ was a description muttered to me a number of times as I made my way to my vant...