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Thank Good it's FridayNewhaven FC v Seaford Town FC in SCFL Premier League at The Crouch |
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Where are we and what's going on?
It’s Derby Day part 1 so the Dockers visit the Badgers on Good Friday evening. It’s April but it’s cold and windy. Having lost narrowly to the league leaders on Tuesday, exiting the PB Cup. We’re hoping that they can bring some of that confidence and defensive resilience today. They will need it as this is another game on a pitch that isn’t the best.
The line ups are out and it’s Jonny in goal as usual with Dan and Elliot in front. Richmond and Rudi are out wide. It’s Tom in the 6, Charlie in the 8 and Blunty in the 10. The front 3 is Ezra, unusually on the right, Ash on the left and Lee in the middle. Tonight the Dockers are wearing the Reform Turquoise away kit.
In the middle of the Badgers defence is ex Docker Max Vardy. Another familiar name is in the line up is Callum Connor.
Playing on the Friday night ahead of all the other fixtures on Saturday gives us the chance of a brief jump up the table. And it’s a game under the lights. We have a nice view of Seaford Head before it goes dark though.
Will they be tired from Tuesday? Let’s hope that the momentum of that performance pulls them through. Time to find out. Come on you Dockers.
Off we go..
The Badgers kick off with the wind. It is breezy so we’re sheltering in the stand. It’s first chance to the Dockers but Tom’s shot is straight at the keeper. The Badgers have clearly selected Ezra as a target. He is getting plenty of space down the right and making good use of it. He can’t make any use of it though as he is getting fouled again and again. Luckily he doesn’t get injured. They get a couple of yellows for their troubles and there is lots of moaning at the ref.
The next chance goes to Seaford but the shot is straight at Jonny. The next 2 chances go to the Dockers as Robbo heads just over from Ezra and Blunty’s cross skims across the goalmouth to be met by nobody. There are more chances as Ezra’s shot is deflected over. The resulting corner is headed straight at the keeper by Elliot.
Lee gets a good shout for a penalty but he’s not going to get that from these officials. Far too obvious 🤦.
It turns into a dull game of football after the first 15-20 minutes of end to end.
The Dockers kick off for the 2nd half. Playing with the wind now and it seems to have got stronger. It’s causing issues and catching them out a bit.
The Badgers break quickly on 51. There is a trip in the box and the ref points to the spot. The man in our stand that was in line with it says it was a mile offside but the lino was 5 yards behind the play so couldn’t see. Harsh on the Dockers. The penalty taker sends Jonny the wrong way. 1-0.
We come close as Ezra and Blunty combine to come close on 53.
Teddy comes on for Ash who has had a good game. He is soon in the action and scores on 59 but it’s offside apparently.
We score for real this time as Charlie Gibson gets clear to equalise ⚽. 1-1.
It’s still 1-1 as Blunty hit wide on 62. Ditto for Charlie Gibson on 66.
The Dockers are in control now. It's Robbo's turn to miss as he can’t control a cross and hit over on 75.
Robbo is in the action again as he and Ezra get in each others way at the far post and no-one heads home.
Elliot is booked on 80. It’s getting a bit heated. The ref is not having a good day at the office.
Youngster Harley for Charlie on 82.
We are into injury time, this could take a while. It’s getting more bad tempered and the Badger Captain for talking back after the ref was telling off one of his teammates.
The Dockers bench are getting a talking to but refusing to sit down. The ref has lost any control of the game he may of have still had.
Play eventually continues and the Dockers are getting corner after corner. Some are just going straight over, caught in the wind.
A dreadful offside from the lino again. The Badgers keeper is time wasting and it raises the temperature even more. It’s so chaotic, how much time is he going to add on for all this carnage.
At 90+5 Billy (hooray) comes on for Tom. That’s a midfielder off and a striker on. Go Dockers.
The Dockers get another corner from the left (i.e. downhill and with the wind). There is a scramble on the goalline and the ball half crosses the line. It’s not cleared and it’s tapped home by one of the Dockers ⚽. 2-1. The Badgers are furious with the lino but I think they are clean out of favours from the officials tonight.
The keeper is refusing the restart with the ball which is still in the net 😭.
Dexter comes on for Robbo on 90+11.
There are a couple more minutes and it’s all over on 90+13. 2-1. We make a sharp exit in case it all goes off.
We think it’s all over..
Well that was good fun. The first half was not great for football or entertainment. The second had some better football and some top notch entertainment. Especially at the end when it went a bit bonkers 🤪.
The performance was good, especially at the start. We were worried that it would tail off when they got tired. They had a very hard game on Tuesday and gave their absolute all in that. It didn’t show today. The mentality told at the end with the young Dockers staying focused on the match when it was going off all around them. Lee would have been giving the ref grief whatever so making him Captain saves him getting in trouble for it.
The result helped the Dockers climb the league a couple of places. We only dropped 1 place back to 7th when the other games were played on Saturday so we’re still in the playoffs.
In other news, Tranmere lost away to Shrewsbury, glad we didn’t go. Crawley won, so did Harrogate so it’s looking grim for the Rovers at the bottom of league 2.
The Other Bits
POTM: goes to Ezra for causing them nightmares down the right wing. Well done, again, Ezra 🏅.
Officially opinionated: Well, where to start? There were some early mistakes which ramped up the pressure a bit. There were more dodgy calls and the moaning increased. The missed penalty call in the 1st half was a sign of things to come. Breachy provided some feedback and would have been booked had he not been right. It got very feisty at 90 minutes and the Badger’s Captain got sin-binned. The time wasting was the trigger for what happened in injury time. The ref and the uphill assistant were shouting at the Dockers bench for ages. To little effect. They had completely lost control. The worst officiating we have seen in a long long time.
The Scran’O’meter scored the hot chocolate a mediocre 6.5/10.
There was no programme available today. 0/10.
See you soon.
Love Tranmerekat 🐾
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| The Crouch |
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| Under the lights |
