Godalming Town 1 Dulwich Hamlet 0

Godalming Town 1 Dulwich Hamlet 0
Surrey Senior Cup – Second Round
Tuesday 27th November 2007

Ah autumn, season of misses and mellow fruitlessness as Dulwich to return the Surrey Senior Cup to Champion Hill after a seemingly eternal hiatus was railroaded at mist-shrouded Wey Court. To damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, and, without sneering, teach the rest to sneer, for the spark is seeming lost from the Hamlet. A fusillade of cannons blazed goalwards barely a ten day ago but now they are silenced, the powder dampened. First Chipstead now Godalming, 180 minutes with nary a shot in anger and not a goal for the hardened traveller to cheer. One would hope this goal famine is merely a blip, a minor drought before the clouds open once more.
Proclaimed as a grudge match between managers, Hamlet’s Craig Edwards and his erstwhile custodian Chuck Martini, whose acrimonious parting of the ways earlier this season might have kindled feisty flames amidst their charges, the contest instead embered like damp coals, barely able to summon up a lick of fire in a pusillanimous first half. The G’s prime threat in the early exchanges came from the direct delivery, freekicks hammered hard in to the heart of the Hamlet penalty area. Chris Wales’ 4th minute delivery had a few hearts pumping as Sheikh Ceesay lost the ball under pressure but was reprieved as Christian Webb failed to capitalise on the loose ball larruping the ball wide from a good position, if a tight angle. By contrast Dulwich’s threat was almost nonexistent. Strike partners Henry Darko and Scott Edgar in the vanguard, the little and large of the Hamlet attack, together for the first time were starved of the oxygen of possession as Dulwich’s midfield struggled with their demons, stray passes finding only yellow shirts, allowing Godalming to build and break, only to ultimately stumble on the paucity of their own finishing, the nocturnal ambulants of Farncombe more at danger than Ceesay’s goal, though he was called upon to deny Vitor Kiri after the lively midfielder had latched on the ball following some penalty area ping pong and lash the ball towards the net. A couple of ricochets but Ceesay reacted fast down to smother. All the more surprising then that the evening sole goal would arrive through error barely three minutes later. A long ball of the overhit variety should have been a simple matter to be dealt with but Ceesay and Ricky Dobson were on different wavelengths, the pair colliding allowing the ball to spill from the ‘keeper’s hands. A bemused Webb might not have been expected such an early present a month before the arrival of Old St Nick and for a moment it appeared as he had made a hash of the finish but his stabbed effort trickled inside the near post as defenders laboured in vain to reprieve their fallen ‘keeper.
Through anguished pleas for a penalty pierced the still night air when Benson Paka zipped along the goalline, only to be robbed as he sped into the six yard box, Dulwich remained determinedly second best, on the ropes as the yellow peril remained. Shooting remained as wild as ever and not until the final throes of the half did the G’s truly endanger Ceesay’s net. A Godalming corner caught Dulwich cold as Richard Brightwell made an unannounced, unsummoned reappearance on the field after a brief visit to the sidelines for treatment. Unattended he delivered the ball into the penalty area with a mighty wallop where Tyrone Peters pounced, his shot pinging around the box but failing to bear fruit as skipper Steve May hoovered up the ball on the goalline. Moments later came a rare break for the speedy Darko, his diminutive form battling past weightier opponents into the box, only for Yousef Metwali’s last ditch tackle to belt the ball from his toes as he made to strike the ball towards goal.
A goal to the bad, disjointed, disinterested Dulwich would face of the wrath of Edwards behind the walls of their dressing room, china cracking, paint blistered off the walls by stern, honest words. That lacklustre 45 minutes a change at the restart as the out-of-sorts Eniola Oluwa, an invisible man in midfield, made way for Sebastian Schoburgh. Though Godalming had the first threat with Webb’s drilled shot for the top corner clawed out by Ceesay in the first minute, the introduction of the wind on the wing fuel-injected the Hamlet forward drive with Dulwich slowing gaining the upper hand in the middle of the park. Unfortunately where it mattered they remained as impotent as ever failing to test a home ‘keeper who had looked a trifle shaky even when dealing with the most routine of crosses and back passes. Ten minutes in and Dulwich’s incision won a corner, deep delivery to the back of the six yard and Shayne Mangodza, resplendent in red bandana to match his attire, bulleted a header back that flashed across the face of goal. Five minutes later and the same threatening figure looming out of the mist but this time the centre-half’s header looped too high and plopped on to the roof of the net.
First a bulldog then a whippet, Schoburgh mugged Brahim Elloumani for the ball swinging away from him with a balletic turn before putting his foot on the accelerator, shrugging off a challenge from before lashing the ball through the face of Aneke Emeka’s goal but laden with too much pace for Edgar to apply the final, killer touch.
The wing attack intensified as Billy Chattaway reported for duty on the left whilst Stanley Muguo would add his drive to the forward impulse, Darko and debutant Vitor Tavares those to make way. But frustration remained at every turn, May earning a caution as that frustration manifested itself following the award of a contentious free kick. As time slipped through their fingers, Dulwich threw heart and soul into rescuing the game. Refusing to surrender a back pass, Chattaway hunted down the uneasy Emeka, David to the ‘keeper’s goliath, robbing him of the ball but turning the ball well wide of the target from a near impossible angle. With five minutes remaining at last a shot on goal as a free kick pumped into the box with meekly headed out to Muguo, predatory on the edge of the box, but his shot was as meek as the clearance though Emeka still struggled, spilling the ball but with no one on hand to punish him. Delaying tactics from the hosts meant only more stoppage time to suffer.

Teams:
GTFC: Aneke Emeka; Chris Wales; Brahim Elloumani; Desmond Patterson; Yousef Metwali; Richard Taylor; Richard Brightwell (Spencer Walsh 60); Tyrone Peters; Graeme Purdy (Glen Stanley 51); Christian Webb (Dennis Zadeikis 87); Victor Kiri
Substitutes not used: Matt Steer; Garry Aulsberry

DHFC: Sheikh Ceesay; Steve May (Capt); Gbenga Sonuga; Shayne Mangodza; Ricky Dobson; Vitor Tavares (Stanley Muguo 65); Sol Patterson-Bohner; Benson Paka; Eniola Oluwa (Sebastian Schoburgh HT); Henry Darko (Billy Chattaway 65); Scott Edgar
Substitutes not used: Nej Hussein (GK)

Officials:
Referee: Mr R Smith
Assistant Referee: Mr A Connor & Mr S Scott

Attendance: 83

Goalscoring:
1-0 GTFC Christian Webb 26th minute