Following the Boxing Day derby defeat, things didn’t get much better two days later – in fact they got a fair bit worse – with a trip to Eastbourne United’s impressive new facilities.

The Dockers looked off the pace from the get go, and could have already been a couple of goals behind before United eventually took the lead in the tenth minute.

Again the Dockers were the masters of their own downfall, giving the ball away on the halfway line and allowing United to break forward and score through Charlie Ball.

Newhaven survived a couple of further hairy moments as the half wore on, offering only sporadic moments of threat at the other end, but looked set to make it through to the interval just a goal behind, when on the stroke of half-time a deflected Gary Ingram effort looped over Webb-Olley and into the net.

An already uphill struggle suddenly became a fair bit steeper.

There was always a feeling that the next goal would be crucial, and despite a slightly improved second-half performance, it was the hosts who grabbed it; Alfie Headland heading home a cross from the left.

Lee Robinson went close to pulling one back with just under ten minutes to go, forcing James Broadbent into a save which he managed to push onto the bar, before Ryan Warwick did pull a goal back with two minutes remaining, having been teed up by Lee Robinson.

However, United restored their three-goal advantage within seconds. In fact, it was so soon after Newhaven scored that I was still sending my Tweet about Warwick’s goal, and didn’t actually see what happened. I am informed, though, that Mason Creese was the scorer and that Newhaven’s defence may not have covered themselves in glory during the build-up to it.

So, all in all, there’s been very little festive cheer at Fort Road this holiday season.

Still, with 2025 just around the corner, surely we can hope for better in the new year, right?

You can find out if we can start 2025 with a bang next Saturday, when play-off chasing Petersfield are our visitors. It would be great to see as many of you at Fort Road as possible, getting behind the boys and helping them to start the new year as we mean to go on. Winning.

Happy New Year!

Come On You Dockers.

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Lee Robinson.