How Eastbourne Town and Newhaven saw off Hassocks and Crowborough to reach SCFL play-off final

The sides who finished second and fourth in the final league table both won their semi-finals on Tuesday night, Town beating Hassocks 2-0, also at the Saffrons, and Newhaven coming through a penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw at Crowborough Athletic.

It’s the first time the sides finishing second to fifth in the SCFL premier have all had a shot at joining the champions – this time Steyning Town – in moving up to step four of the non-league pyramid.

Below, from Kevin Anderson and David Fuller, are the full reports on how Town and the Dockers got through. Check this website on Sunday for news of who’s celebrating promotion on Sunday night.

Eastbourne Town 2 Hassocks 0

by Kevin Anderson

Proper football: hosts Eastbourne Town welcomed Hassocks FC on Tuesday night to a keenly contested Southern Combination play-off semi-final, and the home side’s 2-0 victory was a winner in every sense.

The crowd figure was announced as 601, but it felt more like a thousand and one. Of all local grounds, there is none quite like the Saffrons. Perhaps it is the town centre location, perhaps the sense of seniority – Town and United are actually only a couple of years apart in their formation, with about three hundred years of football between them, and both more venerable than those upstarts from Langney!

Other grounds may sell the naming rights to the most tempting bidders. But at Eastbourne Town FC, you’ll always be sitting under the Sid Myall and Taffy Jones Stand now extended with the Roger Addems Stand. And you’ll bump into a good few people who knew Sid and Taffy and Roger, or even played alongside them. Like a lodestone, it draws local sporting folk back, again and again.

Tuesday night was no different. The perimeter railings were squeezed for space, and you couldn’t walk twenty yards without seeing someone you knew. Town welcomed Hassocks Football Club, another shining beacon of Sussex sport, run by families of volunteers and proudly amateur in the true meaning of the term – playing for love.

Among those families, the Hardings, whose Dad Matthew tragically lost his life returning from a Chelsea match in 1996. And what about son Pat Harding, a great servant of Sussex football who we thought had officially retired, to a standing ovation, at last Saturday’s game against Newhaven?

Well, there is always one more game: and turning out at the Saffrons, in the Robins’ number 11 shirt, was a certain P. Harding. This, surely, would be the actual last hurrah.

As the last evening of April drew on, the green Saffrons pitch - in excellent condition - shimmered under the lights.

At kick-off we could still see the Town Hall clock, sounding out each quarter-hour in sombre warning as minutes slipped on: Son et Lumiere, Eastbourne fashion. By the second half, the dusk had darkened and we only had the Son – since the Borough Council now no longer lights the clock faces. Ah, the cutbacks strike everywhere!

The fixture itself was an innovation: a play-off semi-final for a place in next season’s Isthmian League South-East. Both clubs came into the game in excellent form. Under Jude Macdonald, Town have been an increasingly powerful force, currently enjoying a remarkable seventeen-game unbeaten run – 15 victories and two draws. Hassocks have risen to their highest league placing for ages. Game on then!

From the start, the yellow and blue Town shirts pressed forward in waves, quick and direct and physically powerful. Tom Vickers – may we call him a veteran? – wore the no 5 shirt but was in charge everywhere, including with his dead-ball kicks and long throws.

Hassocks were defending deep and working hard, but they had no out-ball, and their long clearances simply kept coming back at them. After several close calls, as that Town Hall clock was sounding thirty minutes, the impressive James Hull slammed Town ahead after a smartly executed corner.

The Robins did respond with better movement off the ball, but their closest effort was actually a remarkable half-volley by defender Harvey Blake, from just inside the Town half, which only just cleared the home crossbar.

At 0-1 the visitors were in the game, but with the interval in sight, the home lead was doubled – James Bull again, with a slightly mistimed shot which just found the bottom left corner of Fraser Trigwell’s net.

The two-goal cushion looked to be sufficient, but as the second half unfolded, it didn’t quite go to plan for the home side. Hassocks were keeping possession and combining much better now, and they actually took an increasingly strong hold. In young substitute Leon Turner they had the quickest and most eager player on the field, and Town actually looked a bit sluggish.

But Town had their own hero. With regular keeper Chris Winterton unfit, they had called in Albion youngster Toby Bull – who played beyond his years with excellent positioning and agile shot-stopping. Not to mention a touch of what the professionals call game management, but older spectators might wryly still regard as time-wasting!

Could Hassocks turn it around? Even late in the game, a goal would have set up a really gripping finish – and as we entered eleven minutes of added time, the visitors earned a penalty for a rash Town challenge in the box. Twelve yards away from a gripping finale, then – until Toby Bull saved the spot-kick! And that was Hassocks’ last hurrah.

Meanwhile, Town will proudly and deservedly advance to a Play-Off Final on Sunday, kick-off 3.00pm, at – of course – the Saffrons. The grand old sports ground has seen some splendid occasions, and this showdown with Newhaven Town will be a thriller.

The Robins had gone out of the play-offs with dignity and, as one of their Twitter posts declared, “ It wasn’t meant to be the fairytale ending for the lads…. this group have over-achieved with no money and the best togetherness I’ve seen in football! Congratulations to Eastbourne Town, deserved winners tonight!”

Crowborough Ath 1 Newhaven 1

(Newhaven won on pens)

by David Fuller

Newhaven progressed to the SCFL Premier Division play-off final with a nerve-jangling penalty shoot-out victory over Crowborough Athletic.

Looking to bounce back after two back-to-back heavy defeats, the Dockers made the perfect start when they took the lead in the 22nd minute. Crowborough could only half clear a corner, and centre-back Robbie Keith took full advantage, smashing the ball into the back of the net on the half-volley.

Newhaven had been the better side in the early exchanges, but Crowborough’s physical, direct style means they will always pose a threat. The Crows equalised from their first real chance of the match, Will Puffette forcing the ball over the line from close-range following a goalmouth scramble.

If Newhaven had edged the first-half, then the second firmly belonged to the hosts. In fact, were it not for Newhaven skipper Jake Buss, the Docker’s promotion dreams would have been ended in normal time. The keeper made four brilliant saves in a tense second-half – three of which came in a barmy injury-time in which Crowborough went hell-for-leather to grab a winner – to ensure the game went to penalties.

Newhaven were perfection personified from the spot, with Alfie Rogers, Lee Robinson, Ryan Warwick, Luke Donaldson and Callum Edwards all giving The Crows keeper not so much as a sniff from 12-yards.

Meanwhile, Buss saved the Crows’ third penalty (although this save was far more routine than any of those he had made in normal time) to ensure it is the Dockers who travel to Eastbourne on Sunday afternoon for the play-off final (3pm kick-off).

The league’s form team, Eastbourne Town, is now the only barrier that remains between Newhaven and their dream of winning promotion to the Isthmian League for the very first time in their history.