Peter Bentley Southern Combination League Charity Cup Round Three
Fort Road, Newhaven
Admission: £4.00
Programme: £1.00
Attendance: 102
For my midweek action, I had originally planned to visit Tunbridge Wells this evening, to meet up with an old school friend, but when that was inevitably postponed considering persistent rain which had been falling lately, I then changed my plans to take advantage of the safety of a 3G pitch at Newhaven - indeed, this being my first vist to Newhaven since the 3G pitch had been laid last year. An added bonus of a visit this evening was that half price entry was being offered, due to a run of home games hosted by Newhaven.
Newhaven have consistently been in the top five in recent seasons, and this season looks like being no different, as they came into this game in third place in the table, having won eight and drawn five of their opening 14 league games. Pagham are usually one of sides challenging towards the top of the table, but after a very difficult season in the Wessex League Premier Division, when they finished second bottom, they are currently mid table this season, in 13th place, having won four and drawn three of their 13 league games. To set up this evening's tie, Newhaven had beaten Eastbourne Town 3-0, while Pagham won 0-2 at Shoreham. The two sides had met at Fort Road in the league earlier this month, with that game ending in a 2-2 draw.
On a very wet evening, with rain of varying intensity falling throughout the game, Pagham actualy started the game quite positively, but once Newhaven took the lead, it was really all one-way traffic. They opened the scoring on six minutes, when Lee Robinson crossed the ball low to Rob Malila, who took a touch before stroking the ball past the keeper. And they were awarded a penalty on 11 minutes, when a Newhaven player was tripped towards the outer corner of the penalty area. and Alfie Rogers struck the penalty down the middle to double Newhaven's lead. They came close to scoring a third on 16 minutes, when Lee Robinson was played in to run through on goal, but his eventual shot was blocked by the keeper. By they did score their third on 23 minutes, when another good through ball from Robinson played in Callum Edwards, and faced with a one-on-one, cooly placed the ball past the keeper. On 35 minutes, Robinson saw a shot come back off the post, but within a minute he did score, yet another through ball finding his run, and this time he did managed to strike the ball past the keeper. The game was looking all but over at this stage, and an evening that was becoming pretty miserable for the visitors got even worse on 38 minutes, when a ball down the right found Robinson, the keeper came out of his area, and after Robinson knocked the ball past him, the keeper chased him before unleashing a rather ugly high tackle inside the area, conceding a penalty as well as earning a straight red card, meaning that an outfield player would need to go in goal for the remainder of the game. A bad error by the referee allowed the sent off player to stay on the bench for the remainder of the half, which no doubt would have been duly noted by the assessor. Surprisingly, the penalty was missed, Robinson sending the keeper the wrong way, but sending the ball high and wide of the right hand post.
So the game was all but settled by half time, with Newhaven four goals and one man to the good, and they scored their fifth within two minutes of the restart, when Edwards tapped home a low cross from the left from close range. And Newhaven came so close to scoring their sixth on 53 minutes, when Robinson saw a shot come back off the underside of the bar, and within a minute, Ryan Blunt saw a curling effort from the edge of the area go just wide. But they did score again on the hour mark, when Rogers blocked an attempted clearance by the stand-in Pagham keeper, and the ball bounced into the net. Newhaven very much took their foot off the gas during the second half, and there were no further goals, when in truth, the scoreline could easily have reached double figures.
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