Southern Combination League Premier Division
Fort Road, Newhaven
Admission: £6.00
Programme: £1.00
Attendance: 102
I was originally planning to watch this game when it is was originally scheduled, on Bank Holiday Monday 27th December, but the game was called off on that day due to a waterlogged pitch. With not many games scheduled locally this evening, I instead looking forward to taking in this usually rather feisty local derby, with just over 2 miles separating the two clubs along the A259.
As in recent seasons, Newhaven are going well again this season, and came into this game up in third place in the table, following 15 wins and and seven draws from their 25 league games, and are just a point off leaders Littlehampton Town, but have played three games more. They were in decent form too, unbeaten in their last six games in all competitions, a run which included a 2-1 win the cup against tonight's visitors Peacehaven in the cup in mid December. Peacehaven were in ninth place in the table, following ten wins and four draws from their 24 league games.
On a dry evening under a moonlit sky, this game certainly had an explosive opening, with three goals scored in the opening ten minutes. Peacehaven opened the scoring on 2 minutes when Charlie Morley received the ball at the edge of the area after a defender slipped, and he struck a low shot past the keeper. But on 4 minutes, Newhaven equalised when the ball lofted across goal, the keeper could only fumble the ball, spilling for Lee Robinson to head home. On 8 minutes, the visitors restored their lead when Max Hollobone sent in an inswinging cross from the left, and evaded everyone in the box, including the keeper, to find its way inside the far post and into the net. The game then settled down, although both sides created the odd half chance, but Newhaven were looking rather disjointed, and Peacehaven deserved their 1-2 lead at the break.
Newhaven certainly looked better in the second half, and with barely a minute played after the restart, Robinson broke clear down the left and through on goal, but his eventual shot was blocked by the keeper's legs. But they did equalise on 57 minutes, when a cross into the box wasn't properly dealt with by the keeper or defenders, and Lukas Franzen-Jones stabbed it into the roof of the net. The game threatened to get away from the visitors when they were reduced to ten men on 76 minutes when Conor Morley was shown a second yellow card and then a red, and they seemed to be happy to cling on for the draw, using plenty of time wasting tactics. But on 86 minutes, the hosts scored what looked to be the winning goal when Alfie Rogers poked home a shot on the stretch, sending it just inside the right hand post. That certainly woke the visitors into life, suddenly showing much more urgency about their play, and in the fourth minute of added on time, Peacehaven were awarded a penalty when a driven shot was blocked by a Newhaven's defender's hand. Tyler Scrafton struck the ball down the middle, and the referee immediately blew the full time whistle. So an eventful, action packed, high scoring game which certainly had an edge to it at times - everything that would be expected of a local derby.
No comments:
Post a Comment