Newhaven v Littlehampton

Golden Tears Newhaven FC v Littlehampton Town in a friendly at Fort Road

Where are we and what's going on?

The Dockers  ⚓are at home to the Marigolds 🌼 on an even cooler July evening. We last played them here in the season they were promoted and went to Wembley. It was a draw that night but we later lost to them in the cup. They are still in the Isthmian South Central League, finishing 11th last season.

We are familiar with most of the faces in the line up tonight. Leo is in goal. In front of him, are Elliot and a player we don’t recognise. Shay Tobin is at right back with Max Vardy on the left. In the middle are Charlie Gibson, Ryan ‘Blunty’ Blunt and Joe Radley Martin. Up front are Lee, Ezra and Tyler Capon.

The Marigolds are all new to us but their goldish kit is nice.

It would be nice to continue the form we showed on Friday. It was starting to take shape as a Dockers style team and performance. More of the same please. We have hot chocolate and are ready to go. Lets get this done Newhaven. Come on you Dockers.

Off we go..

It’s the Dockers attacking the Skate Park End as usual. We are looking good in the early minutes. We get an early goal as Charlie Gibson finds the net on 6 ⚽. 1-0.

It’s a good run from Blunty and a good pass to Lee as he bursts through the defence. A goal for Robbo. Get in. 2-0.

Ezra is looking confident on the left wing. He cuts in but his curling shot goes just high and wide on 19. Nice try Ez, keep going.

Ryan is confident too and his run from midfield sees him pass to Tyler but he’s off balance and his shot goes over on 21.

The Golds first shot on target comes on 23. It’s from long range but it’s dipping under the bar when Leo tips it over.

The Dockers get caught out needlessly taking risks at the back and give away a corner. It’s scored with little apparent challenge from the defence. 2-1.

The Golds striker has a great chance but he chooses and extra few touches and Leo makes an easy save.

It’s a narrow lead for the SCFL team at the break. A couple of good saves from Leo and some good catches from the LA keeper.

There are no changes at the break so it’s as you were. Let’s finish this off.

Five minutes in and the Dockers have a free kick at about 25 yards. Blunty takes it. It clears the wall but also the bar.

Ezra is getting space down the left. He puts in a great cross for Lee who somehow manages to head just wide from close range.

Ezra links up with Lee again and the through ball to our favourite No. 9 is perfect and Lee makes it count on 55 ⚽. 3-1.

Lee gets 5 more minutes before he makes way.  Ash Wadhams comes on to the left wing and Ezra goes up front. Joe goes off and is replaced by No. 14 who goes into the 8. Blunty moves up to the 10. The No. 14 lasts 2 minutes before he is injured and hops off the pitch after treatment. Hope that’s not as bad as it looked. Rudy Jones comes on to replace him.

Rudy soon makes an impact or nearly does as he shoots just wide from range. It seems to be take pot shot from range day. Who will be next?

The next chance is a corner that leads to a scramble that is eventually cleared.

There is a horrible foul on Blunty in the middle of the pitch. He is surrounded and hacked down by a nasty tackle. He needs treatment and the culprit gets a yellow    . He is perhaps lucky it’s a friendly as he could easily have got a red. Blunty seems to be OK which is good news. He takes the free kick but it’s way over.

The Marigolds don’t seem to be taking it well that they are behind. They have gone a bit Barcelona and are falling over at the slightest touch. The ref seems on board with them at the moment. Hope he catches on soon.

Ezra is causing the Golds problems down the left. He puts in a great cross, right across the mouth of the goal but there is no-one there. He takes it on himself next time. His central run gives him a chance to shoot but it’s wide.

The Golds get a better spell of possession as we enter the last 10 minutes. A freekick within shooting range is cleared for a corner on 82.

The visitor think they have scored on 86 but Leo makes and incredible catch from short range. How did he do that? Wow! He releases it quickly and the Dockers break down to the other end. Blunty’s shot is on target but deflected over and the resulting corner comes to nothing again.

The Golds apply some pressure. The first corner is deflected and the second is saved on 89.

It finishes 3-1 to the Dockers. Another great win. Just one more friendly to go. Roll on Saturday and Shoreham.

We think it’s all over..

That was a great game. A good Dockers style win with plenty of attacking play and bodies on the line in defence. The visitors got a bit niggly towards the end but were mostly still trying to play football. It was great to see Lee score a goal. It was well earned for the running he put in and his team mates always know where to find him. With the Golds' big defenders, we thought Ezra was a big threat with his physicality. Also really good was Leo again. How did he catch that? Some skills.

The squad is coming on nicely and it was telling that there were no mass changes at the break. Does that mean that we are getting closer to a starting 11?

We hope No. 14 is OK. It didn’t look good as he hopped off the pitch and was carried across it later.

There appeared to be only 1 Marigolds fan in the stand behind us. They did have a huge fan base back when we last played them in their Wembley season. At least that 1 was well behaved today 👀.

It’s time to head home. Hopefully to return on Saturday for the final friendly where we welcome Shoreham FC’s Musselmen. Need to make sure we get that spelling correct 🦪💪.

The Other bits

POTM: It’s a tough one today as there were a few good performances from those that are regulars here. So instead it goes to new boy,  Joe Radley-Martin for some nifty work in the 10 role. Well done Joe 🏅. Hoping it’s the first of many.

Officially opinionated: The officials had a fairly easy night. The foul on Blunty could have been a red but a yellow is probably the right decision in a friendly. He didn’t fall for much of the visitors throwing themselves to the ground when they were losing.

The Scran’O’meter put too many sugars in the hot chocolate. Maybe just 1 next time but a solid 7 anyway.

Ferry watch 🔭: The Côte d'Albâtre was 10 minutes early. Nice 👌.

See you soon.

Love Tranmerekat 🐾

What happened to the summer

The Cote Ablair is here on time

(Your Lard Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher

Horsham FC play Littlehampton Town FC in the Sussex Chalenge Cup Final at the AMEX Stadium

One last outing to the AMEX this season for the Sussex Senior Cup🏆 . It’s the Hornets 🐝 again. This time their opponents are the Marigolds 🧤. We’re in the south end of the West Stand with the Lardy Army 🧈 supporting the Hornets who have just been crowned 👑 the Isthmian Champions 🏅. Up to the NLS for them next season. They are also the holders so looking to retain the cup tonight. The Marigolds (I’m glovin’ it) finished 18th in the Isthmian South East after an unremarkable season leaving them 40 places below the high flying Hornets. We haven’t seen the Hornets this season but remember some of the players. We also recognise Ole O from Lewes who moved as part of a recruitment raid on the Rooks by Horsham last summer. No Dougie this year as he has gone back to Bognor. Some season he has had, leaving the Hornets who get promoted ⬆, to join the Rocks who got relegated ⬇. Coincidence? Or is he still on the Hornet's payroll to sink their rivals. Probably not, he hasn’t played much and isn’t that influential on the pitch these days. There are no fireworks or taking the knee tonight. There are lots of photos as it’s a big occasion for non-league players. Let’s get going as it’s 5 minutes late for kick-off already. Blood and guts non-league football incoming. Hopefully 🙏🏼.

The Hornets are on the front foot and put the ball in the net in the 3rd minute. It’s disallowed for off-side to zero protest. There follows lots of scruffy football with the Hornets trying to play their passing game and the Golds trying to play long. Most notable event of the half is the Gold keeper collapsing in pain and having to be replaced. It’s level at the break. 

The Hornets looked a little leggy or maybe hungover from the league win in the first half. Need to step it up now. They do for a while and get a series of corners. It’s the Gold who look the most up for it though and their tackling becomes even more spirited.  The Golds keeper looks to be injured as he sits down, Zinsberger style. Are we going to see another keeper change? He recovers and we start. Wonder who would have gone in goal? The Golds have their tails up and look full of energy. They need to be careful of the outlets for that energy as their rate of bookings goes up as well. The ref is filling up his little black book but is being mostly fair with it. Although he does miss a big 2 footed tackle on one of the Hornets. They are applying all the pressure as we go into 6 minutes of injury time. The Gold fans have started to make themselves heard but it’s limited to “Your support is effin shit” (which it most certainly isn’t) and “we hate Horsham” although they play in a different league. Weird, predictable and boring. The Lardy army haven’t stopped singing with old favorites like “Start spreading the lard” and “The Yellow and the Green” despite looking second favorites to win it from here. The Hornets break out of the Golds press but are stopped by a challenge within sight of the Golds goal. Into the last minute as Hammo steps up to take the free kick. He hasn’t scored from a direct free kick all season but no-one will remember that because he sticks this one in the top corner ⚽ with just seconds left on the clock. Unbelievable scenes in the Lardy end. It’s still chaos in the stand as the whistle goes straight after the restart . Some last gasp win for the Yellow and Green.

Wow. That’s 3 big wins for us in 6 days. The Hornets retain the Cup 🏆. Littlehampton must be broken 😭 to lose that so late on. They looked most likely to score as the clock ticked down but a free kick shattered their dreams with almost the last kick. Made up for the Lardy Army who have got behind the Yellow and Green for the whole game. We could hear them still singing in the ground from the Bridge car park. The Hornets looked slightly off the boil tonight. Too much celebration after their promotion or a bit of complacency from the holders. Makes no difference now. The Golds were certainly up for it and a little bit too committed in some of the tackling. They tried to apply some level of dark arts but were fortunately beaten by a side focused on quality football. We are made up for the Hornets. They have been building to this for years and to do the double is amazing for them. The Lardy army certainly played their role in the season and tonight. Hope the Hornets are back next year to beat another opponent. This is the last of 4 visits to the AMEX this season. Hope to get to a few more next season. The U23 final was also tonight and Newhaven lost to the all conquering Hassock who have won everything this season. Congrats to the Robins.

POTM: There can only be one winner here. It goes to James ‘hammo’ Hammond for the goal. He won the game with that kick. Congrats. That won’t be forgotten for a while. 

The officials had a mixed night. Missed a few fouls and offsides. It was certainly busy for them and they managed to upset both sets of fans. Ref will need to add some pages to his little black book after that. 

The Scran’O’meter downgraded the Veggie pie 🥧 from 9/10 to 8/10 due to the temperature or lack of. Bottle tops were removed as usual for fortress AMEX.

That's it for men's football now. See you in Birmingham for the last game of the WSL season.

Love Tranmerekat 🐾

AMEX under the lights

Winners again