With the rain not showing much sign of disappearing any time soon it was once again taking the back up plan on Tuesday evening as the South East continued to be plagued by the wet stuff.
Tunbridge Wells vs Glebe was the original destination and a catch up with a couple of friends, but with the Wells game postponed on Saturday the midweek fixture was looking highly unlikely.
And sure enough just before 3pm the dreaded news came through so the back up plan of Newhaven vs Pagham became the destination for me and my PNLP podcast mate Gaz.
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Half price entry as well was a Halloween special and not weather induced, although it took a brave few to battle the elements and shelter in the main stand, a few hardy souls deciding the touchline was a better place to watch the game.
The pacey Dockers side were quickly into their stride and opened the scoring inside five minutes, Rob Manilla put in by Lee Robinson calmly putting Newhaven into the lead.
Less than ten minutes later the home side were awarded a penalty, a clumsy challenge inside the box gave Alfie Rogers the chance to double the lead and the striker duly smashed the ball home, Pagham with a lot to do early in the game.
Every time Newhaven attacked you felt there was the likelihood of at least a shot on target let alone a goal and a third arrived with less than 25 minutes on the clock. After Robinson had missed a glorious chance to score he teed up Callum Edwards to provide a fine finish.
Robinson finally got his goals on 36 minutes after some near misses, the striker clean through on goal and giving Connor Kelly no chance in the visitors’ goal, seemingly a very hard route for Pagham back into the game from that point.
If you thought things couldn’t get much worse for the Lions it did just two minutes later, Robinson brought down by Kelly inside the box for another penalty and the keeper sent off for the foul.
Up stepped Rogers again but this time sent the ball wide of the target, Pagham a slight sigh of relief but still going in 4-0 down at half time.
The second half didn’t start any better for the visitors either, conceding within the first five minutes, Edwards again profiteering from good work by the front two, Rogers and Robinson.
The scoring was completed on 63 mins when the replacement Pagham keeper hit his clearance against Rogers and the ball bounced into the net for a resounding victory for the home side, the Dockers taking the opportunity to rest a few players after the sixth goal.
They did have the ball in the net again on 89 minutes but Ryan Walton’s effort was ruled out for offside and a place in the next round of the Peter Bentley Cup was that of Newhaven’s.
Credit to the young side of Pagham, they gave it a good go in the second half and played some nice passing patterns at times but were very toothless up front, the more experienced Dockers side no match for the visitors but a good experience to learn from.
The hosts could have had double figures if they hadn’t spurned so many chances, the pace of the game slowing once the substitutions kicked in and chasing around the park with only ten men it was a tough ask for the young Pagham lads.
No trip to Newhaven is every complete without the ferry coming in to dock lit up in the night sky, it’s fairly unique and one reason for saving the trip for the latter months of the year as you can see below.
Great as always to see fellow blogger and Newhaven man David Fuller plus PNLP listener and supporter Jake, catching up with people at every ground is something you don’t get much higher up, there’s too many people and you’re just a number, but not in non-league.
