#COYD - Come on You Dockers

Eastbourne Town 2 Newhaven 0, SCFL Premier Division Play-off Final After a long, gruelling season it all came down to one game. 90-minutes that would decide whether we would finally realise our promotion dream. In fairness, the task in playing Eastbourne Town, at their place, could not have been more difficult. Since the turn of the year, Town have been absolutely flying. Turning themselves from a team struggling to make the play-offs into one that ultimately finished runners-up. Conversely, the Dockers form had dipped in recent weeks, meaning Town went into the play-off final, not only with home advantage, but with momentum firmly on their side. The sizable Dockers contingent that contributed towards a bumper Saffrons crowd – there were well over 1,000 in attendance and, happily, not an ounce of trouble to report – hoped that for 90-minutes the form book could be tossed out of the window. Alas, it couldn’t. Town started the brighter of the two teams. Former Docker James ...

Newhaven 0 Eastbourne Town 4, SCFL Premier Division match #28 Warning (for Newhaven players, managers and fans): This is not an upbeat read! I’ll be honest, it’s difficult to know where to start with this one. Anyone who was at Fort Road yesterday afternoon will have struggled to believe quite what they were seeing. It was a result – and performance – that not even the most pessimistic of Newhaven fans, or optimistic of Eastbourne Town fans, would have been expecting. In fairness, Town arrived at Fort Road in decent form, having won four consecutive league games, while they have lost only once in 90-minutesso far in 2024. Newhaven, of course, had only lost once in the league all season and, although they tasted defeat in the Peter Bentley Cup on Tuesday night, they probably could and should have been out-of-sight by half-time in that one, having missed a plethora of presentable opportunities. A plethora of presentable opportunities was something the Dockers could only dream abo...

Eastbourne Town 1 Newhaven 2, SCFL Premier Division match #19 With Crowborough not in action yesterday, Newhaven headed to The Saffrons knowing that a victory over Eastbourne Town would put them top of the league at Christmas. They also knew they’d have to be at their best to secure those three-points, against an always competitive Eastbourne Town team. The match pitted the side with the best attacking record in the division – Newhaven with 53 goals – against the side with the joint-best defence – Town having conceded just 17 prior to kick-off, along with Peacehaven. Probably no great surprise then that much of the opening half of this match did somewhat resemble an attack vs defence drill. The Dockers started on the front foot, and almost made a perfect start when after only 15 seconds Lee Robinson’s effort bobbled just wide from a tight angle. On a tricky surface and up against a strong wind, Newhaven took the game to their hosts throughout the opening 25 minutes. Town’s go...

Newhaven 3 Eastbourne Town 0, Peter Bentley Cup Round 2 Back in May, Newhaven lifted the Peter Bentley Cup for a second time, seeing off Crowbrough Athletic in a tense final. Fast-forward four months, and their defence of the competition couldn’t have gotten off to a much tougher start. At least on paper. Eastbourne Town have been flying in recent weeks, soaring to the summit of the SCFL Premier Division Table and knocking-out hitherto unbeaten Steyning in the RUR Cup a week ago. Fortunately, after a mixed start to the season, Newhaven have been picking up form of late as well. They headed into last night’s encounter on a four-match winning streak and boasting back-to-back clean sheets to boot. In a battle of two form teams a close, competitive game appeared to be on the cards. As it turned out, it was a rather routine win for the Dockers who put in arguably their best 90-minute performance to date this season. In fact, were it not for Town’s impressive young keeper Toby Bu...

  Eastbourne Town 0 Newhaven FC 3, SCFL Premier Division match #37 What a difference a few days makes. Having looked like their league season was effectively over following Easter Monday’s disappointing performance and result at local rivals Peacehaven , the Dockers will now definitely go into the final Saturday of the season next weekend still in with a chance of claiming a runners-up spot.  Maybe even with an outside chance (admittedly a very outside chance) of winning the title. More on that later. Neither scenario had looked particularly likely at just after 13:00 five days ago. To keep their season alive the equation was simple.  Newhaven had to go to Eastbourne Town and win; then hope results elsewhere went their way. Not being able to affect what happens elsewhere, all the Dockers could do was make sure they returned from the Saffrons with three-points; whilst keeping their collective fingers tightly crossed. It was a task that would be far easier said ...

Newhaven 1 Eastbourne Town 1, SCFL Premier Division match #16 With no Premier League or Championship matches due to take place for the next few weeks because of the upcoming World Cup (something I still can’t quite get my head around), has there ever been a better time for non-league football to enjoy the Saturday afternoon limelight? Probably not is the answer to that somewhat rhetorical question. With that in mind, we’ve been keeping our fingers loosely crossed that all our home games over the next few weeks might draw slightly larger crowds that usual.  And, with more than 300 turning up for this afternoon’s league encounter with Eastbourne Town, it would seem that this hope is well-founded. Hopefully a similar number can be replicated at next week's encounter against Midhurst and Easebourne. In fairness, Eastbourne Town are well known for having a loyal following, enjoying one of the best supports in the division. Even when, as like this season, results have not necessa...

Newhaven 2 Eastbourne Town 3, FA Vase 2 nd  Round Qualifying Littlehampton Town’s heroics in reaching last year’s FA Vase final and earning a day-out at Wembley have undoubtedly made more and more Sussex clubs aware – and believe – that a trip to the fabled Twin Towers really is possible. While it’s fair to say that the competition is not at the top of Newhaven’s priority list this season, it’s equally fair to say that a decent run in the competition wouldn’t go amiss. If only they could make it past these damn qualifying rounds! In Eastbourne Town, Newhaven were facing a side that up until last season had, for a few years, been one of the most consistent in the SCFL Premier Division. While last season probably wasn’t what Town had been hoping for (or expecting) and their start to this campaign has been a tad underwhelming, the Dockers nevertheless knew that a home tie against them was far from a guarantee of progression to the First Round Proper Yet on a great run of form ...