#COYD - Come on You Dockers

Lingfield 2 Newhaven 5, SCFL Premier Division match #32, Wednesday 18 th March 2026 A midweek trip to Lingfield (well, Whyteleafe) gave Newhaven the opportunity to bounce quickly back from Saturday’s defeat at Pagham. As highlighted in that report, it has been a while since we last won two league games on the trot. The flip-side to that, though, is that it has also been quite a while since we last lost two consecutively. In fact, it hasn’t happened since the end of October when we lost back-to-back games against Steyning and Eastbourne United. While Lingfield may currently be embroiled in a relegation scrap, a recent upturn in form has given them a little breathing space in the dogfight at the foot of the table and led to them being awarded the SNLF Podcast’s team of the month for February. This had all the ingredients of being a tricky Wednesday night encounter. Yet it didn’t turn out that way. Not really. The Dockers made the perfect start to the game, opening the scoring ...

Newhaven 6 Lingfield 3, SCLF Premier Division match #15, Saturday 8 th November 2025 Having bounced back to winning ways with a win at Lancing seven days ago, Newhaven hoped to keep the run going with a match against another team at the wrong end of the table yesterday. However, as is often the case when we seem to face strugglers, Lingfield had played themselves into a bit of form last weekend, winning 2-1 against play-off contenders Bexhill United. And it was the visitors who made the perfect start yesterday afternoon, taking the lead inside the opening minute. Needless to say, we only had ourselves to blame, as a loose pass was seized upon by Deven Reid-Solanki and the skillful winger made no mistake, driving forward before finding the bottom corner with a calm finish. Reid-Solanki was to cause us numerous problems throughout the afternoon, giving one of the best individual performances I’ve seen from an opposition player at Fort Road. Fortunately, though, he was just about...

Newhaven 4 Lingfield 1, SCFL Premier Division match #29 After an enforced lay-off last week due to Little Common’s waterlogged pitch, Newhaven were back in action yesterday, as Lingfield visited Fort Road for the second time this season. The previous meeting back in November was classed as Lingfield’s home game, and resulted in a single-goal victory for the Dockers. Back then, the Lingers were looking like a side destined for a relegation battle. However, they arrived at Fort Road yesterday as one of the division’s form teams; unbeaten since Boxing Day and having beaten play-off chasing Haywards Heath in their last outing. Yet it was Newhaven, whose last match was a 3-0 victory at Horsham YMCA, who started the game in the ascendancy. Two early chances came and went for Newhaven before Alfie Rogers was pulled down for what appeared to be a stonewall penalty, only for the referee to rather surprisingly wave the appeal away. The Dockers kept pouring forward, though, and when the...

Lingfield 0 Newhaven 1, SCFL Premier Division match #16 The Dockers made the lengthy trip to, erm, Fort Road yesterday afternoon to take on Lingfield in what was classed as a home match for the Lingers. The nomadic visitors – or should that be hosts? This could get confusing – are without a ground of their own at present, as maintenance work is carried out at their ground, meaning this fixture was counted as a home fixture for them, despite being played in Newhaven. Got it? Good. With Lingfield hovering just outside the relegation zone, and boasting just two wins from their opening 15 games, in seasons gone by this would probably have been viewed as a home – away? – banker for the Dockers. However, this season is quite unlike recent ones, with injuries, transfer upheavals and various other factors meaning that you never quite know what type of performance to expect from the lads. Or even who the players in the team will be. Yesterday, new-signing Johnson Adesanya became the 45 ...

Lingfield 1 Newhaven 3, SCFL Premier Division match #31 Newhaven travelled to Surrey on Tuesday night for a rearranged league fixture against Lingfield. A victory would see Newhaven leapfrog Steyning into top spot in the league – and provide a fitting way for co-managers Sean Breach and Andy Cook to celebrate a quite remarkable ten years at the helm. While Lingfield may be ensconced firmly in mid-table, it was a match no-one involved with the Dockers was taking lightly. Lingfield are one of only two teams to have beaten us in the league this season, having deservedly taken the three points in the reverse fixture at Fort Road back in September . And it was the Lingers who were quickest out of the blocks last night. They would - perhaps even should - have been ahead within three-minutes, only for a fine Jake Buss save to keep the scores level. On a bobbly pitch, it took the Dockers time to get to grips with the conditions as well as Lingfield’s direct style and pace, and it was t...

Newhaven 2 Lingfield 3, SCFL Premier Division match #6 Steady if not spectacular. This is a sentence that pretty much sums up Newhaven’s opening month of the league campaign. While two wins and three draws isn’t exactly the lightning-fast start we were hoping for, neither is nine points from a possible 15 an unmitigated disaster. It's steady. Not spectacular. Yet hopes that September would be the month that we really got going were dealt a blow (several, in fact) before we even took to the pitch for yesterday evening’s home encounter with Lingfield. Through a combination of injury, holiday, university and work commitments, the Dockers were without a number of players for last night’s match. Bailie Rogers, Billy Barker, Tarun Rohilla, Robbie Keith, Ryan Blunt, Callum Edwards and Luca Page all joining long-term absentees Lee Robinson and Harry Reed on the unavailable list. It says much for Newhaven’s strength in depth that, despite these missing players, they were still...

  Newhaven 3 Lingfield 1, SCFL Premier Division match #23 After last week’s defeat against league leaders Crawley Down Gatwick , Newhaven returned to action this afternoon knowing that, if promotion is to be achieved this season, there is little room for any further error. Their promotion aim was undoubtedly made somewhat harder earlier in the week, with the departure of talisman and top-scorer Alfie Rogers, who signed for higher-division Whitehawk (his former club).  While his absence will no doubt be keenly felt at Fort Road, the return of Lukas Franzen-Jones from Haywards Heath has perhaps managed soften the blow somewhat. Find consistency, and promotion still remains a real possibility for the Dockers come the end of the season. Not that this afternoon’s opponents Lingfield would be a pushover. Despite their fairly lowly league position, the Lingers have proved tough to beat. They’d run fellow title challengers Broadbridge Heath and Crawley Down Gatwick close in re...

 L ingfield 2 Newhaven 3, SCFL Premier Division match #12 The Dockers headed to Surrey this afternoon for one of their longer away trips in the league, shorn of a number of key players. A mixture of injuries, suspensions and other absences have bitten hard in recent weeks, meaning Newhaven’s squad depth is currently being tested to the absolute max. However, with Lingfield on a run of four straight defeats it was hoped (by those of a Newhaven persuasion, obviously) that even a patched together Dockers would still possess too much for their hosts. Given the unfamiliar Newhaven line-up, it should probably come as no surprise to discover that the early stages of the match were a tad disjointed. Neither team started particularly brightly, with not much quality on show in the opening ten minutes. Then, with literally the first meaningful attack of the match, Newhaven took the lead. Demas Ramsis, whose speed and direct running caused his marker problems all afternoon, drove i...