Early return leads to a bonus game

Newhaven Town 1 Eastbourne Town 1, Southern Combination Football League Premier Division, Monday 26^th August 2019

Truth be told, I hadn’t expected to get to a game this Bank Holiday Weekend.

A few months ago, my wife and I booked family tickets for the Victorious Festival in Portsmouth, which took place this weekend.  With the festival scheduled to finish on Sunday night, the initial plan had been to pack up and head home on Monday morning, meaning I had pretty much written off any chance of attending a match.

Then, around Friday lunchtime, I  suddenly remembered something. I absolutely loath camping. Hate it. Not only that – I’m rubbish at it.

The fact is whenever I camp something always goes wrong. Every. Single. Time!

However, this year’s effort surpassed all previous attempts. Having arrived at the campsite late Friday morning, it swiftly transpired that wifey and I had, somehow, combined to forget to pack the tent (which, of course, is man-speak for ‘it was all my fault')!

Brilliant!

Following a quick trip to the Argos located just across the road from the festival campsite, I thankfully managed to purchase two small two-man tents that would have to see us through the weekend. The fact that the combined cost of these two tents totalled just over £50 probably tells you everything you need to know about their quality.

Fortunately, we got extremely lucky with the glorious weather. Had it rained, I’m sure we would have all been soaked.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, after the first uncomfortable night shrivelled up inside my tiny temporary base alongside my youngest who, in spite his small size still managed to take up over half the space, we (I) decided that we’d just pack up Sunday morning, put our stuff in the car and drive home once the festival (which was brilliant, by the way, and thoroughly recommended) finished that night. Which we did.

The fact that this meant I’d now be able to attend a game on Monday and avoid the notoriously bad Bank Holiday traffic, never once entered my mind. Okay, maybe it did. Just a little.

Still, having spent large swathes of the past 72 hours outside in the baking temperatures, dancing (well, my version of dancing; it’s more excited bouncing, really), walking miles and dealing with two exhausted and emotionally drained children, on top of having had hardly any sleep, there was no chance of me venturing too far.

Indeed, I ultimately decided on nothing more strenuous than a 15-minute walk down the road to watch my hometown team of Newhaven Town take on my (and many other people’s) pre-season favourites for the SCFL Premier Division title Eastbourne Town.

You can read about my previous visit to Newhaven’s Fort Road (as a groundhopper, at least) here.

Entrance to the ground was £6, but due to an unspecified error there was unfortunately no programme to add to my rapidly expanding collection.

The opening half of this match did little to change my pre-season belief that this is to be Eastbourne Town’s year. The visitors made light of the early morning kick-off time of 11am and searing temperatures, settling immediately into their rhythm, controlling possession and constantly probing the Dockers’ resolute backline.

 

That said, the early kick-off time did seem to affect the normally boisterous Town fans, who were a lot quieter than what I’ve seen them in the past and, thankfully given my still shattered condition, didn’t seem to have their drums with them for this match.

Not helping matters for the hosts was the fact that, for a combination of reasons, they were severely depleted, with the league’s perennial top scorer, Lee Robinson, absent along with a number of key players including Seb Saunders, Ebou Jallow and Jayson Sowter.

It took Town just seven minutes to take the lead. Dockers’ goalkeeper Jake Buss made a good save initially, but the ball fell to the feet of an Eastbourne attacker who was promptly brought down by a combination of the goalkeeper and Rob Malia. From the resulting spot-kick, Tom Vickers put just enough purchase on his kick to send the ball past Buss’ outstretched arm (see video below).

Town continued to knock the ball around confidently, with the hosts barely able to lay a glove on their classy visitors. The only criticism I could level at Eastbourne was that for all their good play and clear territorial advantage, they didn’t create too many clear-cut opportunities.

As half-time approached, the Dockers had barely been in the visitor’s half, let alone come close to scoring. Then, following a rare foray forward they won a corner from which Conor Sidwell found himself completely unmarked in the centre of the area, but he could only head Lukas Franzen-Jones’ delivery against the bar. 

The miss was almost punished in the most severe fashion less than a minute later when Town’s Aaron Capon beat the offside trap to find himself one-on-one with Buss, but could only send his attempted lob the wrong side of the post.

The half-time whistle must have come as a great relief to Newhaven’s hardworking players. The truth is, they had been battered during the opening 45 minutes, but at only one goal behind they were still very much if with a shout of getting something out of the game.

The second-half started in much the same pattern in which the first half had played out. Eastbourne in total control. The hosts survived another anxious moment when, following a fumble from Buss, the ball fell invitingly at the feet of visiting left back Sam Cole, but he could only skew his shot high, wide and not very handsome.

For the first hour, Newhaven’s only real chance of a route back into the game appeared to be from a set-piece. Yet on the 60-minute mark they had their first sniff of goal from open play. Freddy Beale burst into the box but his inviting cross-shot evaded everyone and flew harmlessly wide.

This brief glimpse of goal, though, seemed to give the Dockers the belief they had lacked up till this point, and suddenly they began to get a foot-hold in the game.

While it would be a stretch to say they began to dominate proceedings, they certainly looked the more threatening attacking side.

Much of this was down to the endeavours of much travelled striker Jack Langford (by my count he’s on his fourth or fifth club since I started my groundhopping adventure just over 12 months ago, and had been at Saltdean up until a week or so ago). As the match wore on, the pacey forward began to cause the Town backline plenty of problems and he twice forced visiting keeper Jason Tibble into good saves before having a third effort cleared off the line. If he sticks around at Fort Road long enough, him and Robinson could form a deadly partnership.

Just as it seemed the visitors had done enough to claim the three points and maintain their 100 per cent start to the season, a series of calamitous errors in their defence led to Dan Huet squaring the ball across the box for Franzen-Jones to force the ball over the line and equalise for the hosts.

It was enough for the Dockers to snatch a point that had looked highly unlikely at half-time but, on the balance of play in the second-half alone, can rightly claim they deserved.

A decent enough game, all in all, and the perfect way to end what has been a really enjoyable weekend.

Apart from the camping, of course!

Enjoyed this blog post? Then you may be interested in reading my kindle book which recounts my 2018/19 groundhopping journey (take alook, it’s only 99p).