Ashford Town (Middlesex) 2 Dulwich Hamlet 3

Ashford Town (Middlesex) 2 Dulwich Hamlet 3
Surrey Senior Cup – 1st Round

Dulwich squeezed past Ashford Town (Middx.) of the Combined Counties League in a pulsating match that at time threatened to run up a cricket score. The CoCo might be a three divisions below the Ryman Premier League, but Ashford have been their champions in 4 out of the previous 5 seasons and look like repeating that feat this year. They have high ambitions of gaining promotion to the Ryman League and on this showing would not look out of place.
New man Kamu Laird was ineligible so Carl Bartley, having served his suspension, returned to the side. Also returned, although not to the side, was Peter Garland, freshly tanned from his suspension in the Caribbean.
The game sparked into life right from the start. After four minutes, Tony Houghton gave the Hamlet the lead when his low shot from outside the box, beat Simon Kent inside his left-hand post. However the lead was short-lived when Ashford hit back 5 minutes later. A free-kick was awarded against Francis Duku for handball in the middle of the park. It was taken quickly and found Andy Frost behind the Dulwich defence. Despite the best efforts of Tony Chin and Justin Gregory to tackle him, he battled his way through before slotting the ball past Les Cleevely.
Back Dulwich came and Carl Bartley went close to regaining the lead for the Hamlet within a minute. Michael Azzopardi’s run and cross saw Barts with the ball on the edge of the six yard box but his close range shot struck the heel of Ian Miles before spinning away for a corner.
In the 17th minute Bartley could only look on helplessly as his shot beat Kent attempted chargedown only for the ball to fly the wrong side of the upright. However this was to be a precursor of the Hamlet’s second goal on 23 minutes. Running on to Mark Garland’s through ball, Dean Holness left Jason Zazzera for dead before lofting the ball over Kent into the unguarded net.
Three minutes later and Dulwich built themselves the luxury of a two goal cushion when Danny Carroll outpaced the defence down the right before pulling the ball back inside to Dean Holness. He rolled the ball across the edge of the six yard box to the waiting Bartley who smashed the ball past two defenders on the line.
Still Ashford would not give and on the half-hour they had reduced the deficit to 2-3 when Dulwich were caught flatfooted at the back and Des Vertannes sneaked in to round Les Cleevely and slot the ball home. In stoppage time at the end of the half, the ever impressive Frost had a gilt-edged opportunity to level the scores but grazed the wrong side of the post from close in.
The second half may have lacked the goals of the first but missed none of its excitement. After 59 minutes Tony Eggington was offered a glorious chance to level things after a slip by Mark Garland, only for Cleevely to spare the defender’s blushes with a fine save. Dulwich might have claimed a fourth with Azzopardi going close and Veli Hakki striking the post with a delightful curled effort, but Ashford would rue their missed chances especially when a foul by Tony Chin on the edge of the post gave them a free-kick in a potentially lethal position only to be blasted high and wide.
So Dulwich marched on to a Second Round encounter with perennial bogey side Walton & Hersham, leaving Ashford to count the cost of missed chances. Still the hospitality they afforded the players, officials and fans of Dulwich Hamlet will not be forgotten in a long time and we long forward to marking their acquaintance again, perhaps in the Ryman League Cup next season.

Team:

1. Les Cleevely
2. Justin Gregory
3. Michael Azzopardi
4. Danny Carroll
5. Mark Garland
6. Francis Duku
7. Veli Hakki
8. Dean Holness
9. Carl Bartley
10. Tony Houghton
11. Tony Chin

Subs not used:
12. Dean Palmer
13. Mark McGibbon
14. Sheldon Brown