Pre-season Friendly
Fort Road, Newhaven
Admission: £3.00
Programme: None
Attendance: 60 (estimate)
I certainly wanted to make the most of a very warm and sunny evening by taking in a game, and I had a decent choice along the East Sussex coast this evening. In the end, I decided to make my first visit to Fort Road in four years, seduced by the prospect of a very pleasant drive to get there, and the nice setting of the ground.
There have not been any major alterations to the ground since my last visit. The large and imposing main stand still straddles the half way line, and whilst it still will not win any beauty contests, it is great to see that it is virtually fully functional now, with changing rooms, a bar area and a tea bar all located on the ground floor. Up a flight of stairs, the main area of seating offers terrific views, not only of the action, but also of the rolling hills of the South Downs, the Newhaven - Dieppe ferry arriving and docking, and at the the foot of the steep Fort Hill behind one end, a new skate park and pump track has very recently been constructed, and provides quite an eye catching backdrop. Further seating available at ground level of the stand. Uncovered seating is still present behind both goals, although only the end closest to the entrance was open today, and behind that is now redundant shallow uncovered terrace, with a small wooden stand, although that seems to be occasionally used to serve drinks and a hot food from. The remaining length is just hard standing, although only about two thirds from the entrance is accessible. Unless my memory fails me, an interesting addition is a small boat just inside the entrance, Unsurprisingly, no programmes were produced for this fixture.
Newhaven had a good season last season, finishing fourth in the Step 5 Southern Combination League Premier Division, whilst Hailsham Town finished in eighth place in the division below, Division One.
This game started quite evenly, and Hailsham came close to opening the scoring on 10 minutes, almost benefitting from a bit of a mix up by a defender allowing the Hailsham forward to nip in and tap the ball past the keeper but the ball trickled just beyond the far post. But within a minute, Newhaven were awarded a penalty following a foul bringing down a Newhaven player in full stride. The penalty was struck into the bottom right corner, sending the keeper the wrong way. They scored again on 19 minutes when a cross from the left was deflected into his own net by a defender, and they were given a helping in hand in scoring their third too, on 27 minutes, when the keeper passed to his defender, who then lost possession to a Newhaven forward, who passed to his team mate in a central position for an easy finish past the keeper. 3-0 was a little harsh on the visitors, and they finished the half strongly and after going close a couple of times, they did pull a goal back on the stroke of half time, when a low ball from the byline was tucked in from close range.
As the ferry was just coming into berth, Newhaven scored their fourth, on 49 minutes, following a perfect cross from the right wing which was headed in unmarked at the far post. And their fifth followed on 53 minutes, when their player turned from the left wing, running with the ball towards a central position, before firing the ball home from the edge of the area. They had a couple of other chances to further extend their lead, but Hailsham also created some decent chances and were unlucky not to score again themselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment