Dulwich Hamlet 5 Croydon Athletic 2

Dulwich Hamlet 5 Croydon Athletic 2
Ryman Isthmian League Division One South
Saturday 17th November 2007

Dulwich went nap against their local rivals to continue their climb up the table. Hamlet’s whippet of wing, Sebastian Schoburgh opened the scoring on the quarter hour with a low drive from 18 yards that crept inside the near post of Rams' 'keeper Sam Mott. Five minutes later and it was skipper Shawn Beveney on the scoresheet for the ninth time this season, collecting a defence-splitting pass before calmly rounding a grounded Mott before tucking the ball into the now unguarded net. Though Jordan Kiffen tested Sheikh Ceesay, between the sticks for the Hamlet, with a smart drive that was scooped away by the young custodian at the base of his right hand post, the pressure was very much on the visitors goal as dogged defending kept the score down. Then a cracking goal out of nothing threw the Rams' a lifeline as a deep throw picked out the lively Moses Ademola, the young striker holding off his marker before turning sharply to rattle an acutely angled drive across the face of Ceesay's goal and into the face corner of the net.
A last-ditch hack to safety from Bradley Duke rescued the Rams as Shawn Beveney, sent scampering through once more, tucked the ball past Mott from a tight angle, Duke's clearance denying the lurking Billy Chattaway. The overworked Mott was in action once more as he was down smartly to save from Beveney as Dulwich heaped on the pressure. A speculative long distance curling effort from Liam Shirley punctuated Dulwich's dominance, the ball swinging on the breeze but dropping on to the roof of Ceesay's net. As the half drew to a close Beveney again went close, oblivious to the presence of a trio of defenders as he spun on the edge of the penalty area before drilling a low shot wide of the diving Mott's near post.
There was no let up from Dulwich after the break and Meshach Nugent, a constant thorn in the side of the Athletic defenders, served notice with a cracking volley after a throw in was flicked into his path. Intention turned to execution before the hour when the battling Chattaway mugged a dithering Matthew Way for the ball, pushing it back into the path of Nugent and a guided missile of a drive left the shell-shocked Mott once more plucking the ball from the back of the net. He had barely five minutes to recover when Schoburgh added a fifth, the nifty winger’s slight frame a blur as he zipped through a forest of yellow and blue shirts before unleashing a pinpoint low drive from the edge of the area, Mott beaten for a fourth. Number five was not far away. Still a quarter hour remained but Hamlet’s foot was still hard down on the accelerator. A left wing cross from the single-minded Benson Paka, Beveney rising on a column of belief, the connection perfect and a header flying past a leaden footed Mott. “Oi’ll give it foive”. Poor Mott seemed to be wishing he was elsewhere so perhaps a kindly spirit looked down on him as Nugent connected with Schoburgh’s low ball in from the right, the strike crashing back off the underside of the crossbar, rapping Mott on the back of the head to rouse him, the fortunate custodian turning to find the ball bobbling on the line behind him.
A trio of Hamlet subs as Schoburgh, Nugent and Chattaway left the field to a rapturous ovation that rang loud around Champion Hill. One of those replacements, Henry Darko, came close to making sexy football “six-y” football but after a long throw had instigated chaos in the Athletic six yard box, he somehow making to clip a close effort up against the underside of the crossbar when to score seemed easier. Right at the death a deep Croydon cross struck a hand in the Hamlet penalty area to present the Rams’ with a late opportunity to add a modicum of respectability to their nightmare afternoon. Kiffen’s spot kick was straight out of the textbook and straight into the net but only the ultimate visiting optimist or Dulwich pessimist could anything but a Hamlet triumph and so it was. Victory lifts Dulwich up to 9th, four points away from the play-off zone.

Teams:
DHFC: Sheikh Ceesay; Sol Patterson-Bohner; Ricky Dobson; Benson Paka; Shayne Mangodza; Steve May; Shawn Beveney; Sebastian Schoburgh (Gbenga Sonuga 82); ; Meshach Nugent (Scott Edgar 82); Stanley Muguo; Billy Chattaway (Henry Darko 82)
Substitutes not used: Jermaine Hinds; Tim Roberts (GK)

CAFC: Sam Mott; Matthew Way; Michael Harney; Bradley Duke; Richard Blackwell; Liam Shirley; Martin Debrah (Tomiwa Oni 45+1); Reis Aslan (Arafat Kabuye 61); Moses Ademola (Austin Gacheru 72); Jordan Kiffen; Luke Adams
Substitutes not used: Ryan Watts; Nathan Campbell

Attendance: 376

Officials:
Referee: Mr Ian Regan (Ashford, Kent)
Assistant referees: Mr Michael Argile (Guildford, Surrey) & Mr Ian Kitchen (Otterhsaw, Surrey)

Goalscoring:
1-0 DHFC Sebastian Schoburgh 15th minute
2-0 DHFC Shawn Beveney 20th minute
2-1 CAFC Moses Ademola 32nd minute
3-1 DHFC Meshach Nugent 59th minute
4-1 DHFC Sebastian Schoburgh 65th minute
5-1 DHFC Shawn Beveney 76th minute
5-2 CAFC Jordan Kiffen 90th minute (penalty)