Dulwich Hamlet 0 Corinthian Casuals 0

Dulwich Hamlet 0 Corinthian Casuals 0
Ryman Isthmian League Division One South
Tuesday 5th February 2008

For the 111th time of asking in the Isthmian League, Dulwich Hamlet crossed swords with the Casuals, who eschewed the Chocolate and Pink motley of Corinthians in favour of a plain unadorned strip reminiscent of that historic club who, in former, better times, swapped the white of the Casuals for the white of England. Not since the grey days of early seventies, when strikes and power cuts blighted the land and the only flare came from one’s trousers, had these teams, who had bestrode amateur football like colossi in the sepia tinted days of yore, failed to produce at least a goal in their clashes. However the curse of that fateful number, 111, Nelson seemed to hand over benighted Champion Hill like a pall. Early Corinthian assaults, testing Sheikh Ceesay to the utmost, gave way to Trojan defending from the visitors albeit aiding and abetted by a Dulwich side, blunted in its own attacking ambitions since the curtains came up on 2008.
Dewayne Clarke, the only change for Hamlet from the side that had stilled the tide of Dover for so long on Saturday; his weekend replacement, the electric eel of the wing, Sebastian Schoburgh retaining the place in which he had finished that encounter. For his part Casuals supremo Brian Adamson, the icy presence of relegation hovering at his shoulder, shuffled his pack like a drunken gambler hoping to bring an end to a ten game winless streak, the last five with nary a point. Former hero of the Hamlet, the acrobatic Tyrone Myton whose travels had taken him to suburban Tolworth via Scandinavian fields, started.
By the far the lively in the opening exchanges were the visitors. Hamlet seemed almost stunned that such lowly visitors had the audacity to rise up like neophyte Christians, loath to be devoured by Hamlet lions, the main course ready to smite the diners upon the nose. In a rambunctious opening passage it was the Casuals who would come closest to an early opener, the quicksilver Myton lashing an angled drive fiercely across the goal matching by a flying save from the sprightly Ceesay, turning the ball around his far post with an elastic dive.
Half the half had gone before Dulwich could muster a response as skipper Shawn Beveney muscled and squirmed his way through a wall of white on the edge of the box, only to be robbed of the chance of a shot as the gallant goalkeeper, Paul Smith, flung himself at the striker’s feet to smother the ball. But a moment’s respite for the Hamlet as Casuals’ rapier-like incision won them a corner, taken short to catch Dulwich short. An impudent effort from Matt Smith as he curled in a cross cum shot from wide had Ceesay stretched as if on the rack but the ball crept over the Hamlet custodian’s crossbar.
Stung Hamlet hit back with a corner of their own as Scott Hassell’s timely headed inception cut out Billy Chattaway’s leftwing cross bound for the head of Schoburgh. The delivery found the head of Shayne Mangodza, rising unchallenged but though met with aplomb his effort just failed to find the top corner of the net.
Chances swapped as Matt Smith’s low drive from outside the box after an incisive run fund only Ceesay before the action switched and Paul Smith reacted well to shovel a creeping angled strike from Beveney around the base of his left hand upright. Once more the Hamlet were in the ascendancy as the corner swung across but Beveney could only flick his header agonisingly across the face of goal. However best opportunity of the first 45 would fall to Myton as a cruel bounce deceived Ricky Dobson, letting the Casuals attacker in on goal. A crashing drive on the volley threatened a goal but the ever-alert Ceesay had sprung from his line to narrow the angle and batter down Myton’s shot.
Strangled by his markers, Meshach Nugent at last escaped their clutch on 38 minutes pirouetting on the ball to let loose a strike from 25 yard out. Paul Smith though was its equal as he smothered the shot in textbook style. Allowed to run too far by hesitant Hamlet, Ayokule Olusesi carved a hole through the middle before slipping the ball wide to Byron Brown but he failed to crown the chance with a drive, though on target, too close to Ceesay. Yet Dulwich still found the time to time back once more, another corner fast, Mangodza looping a header on to the roof of the net, but not before the long-travelled referee had spotted an infringement elsewhere.
The break saw a change for Dulwich as Daryl Plummer took over the wing wizard mantle from Schoburgh, almost instantly announcing himself as a rival for that position with some lunging thrusts at the Casuals flank. A trio of corner saw early siege laid at the gates of Casuals’ goal, Nugent twice denied as headers were flicked away upon the very threshold of the goal line. A powerful punch denied Beveney as Paul Smith beat him to the most tempting of crosses. Beveney’s run then set up Chattaway but from 15 yards out he scooped a drive over the bar, having held of a marker twice his bulk. Hamlet had the Casuals under a blanket of Pink and Blue, but on the hour mark a free kick could, nay should, have given them the vital fillip of a goal as Brown ran into the heart of the penalty area, free as a bird, to connect with a chipped in free kick, only to flick his header away from goal, almost as if in agoraphobic fear at the space granted him.
Sweet switchback as Dulwich sculpted an opening with crafted football, Chattaway the ultimate beneficiary as he burst into the box only to stumble under the challenge of Hassell. A brief wail of “penalty” rose from the knot of chilled fans, unsated by their annual spot kick award of the weekend, but unmoved; Mr Burton was in parsimonious mood.
A change was in order and Benson Paka, unrecognisable in form, out of sorts, made way for striker Charlie Taylor. His fellow replacement, Plummer, though was soon earning more plaudits as he won the chase for a long cross field ball, zipping past Richard Price, before clouting the ball goalwards from an unexpected angle, Paul Smith powerless as the ball singed the topside of his crossbar. Not long to wait for Taylor to have an impact, his instinctive run on goal creating the opening for Beveney but upon the tricky surface he drove his effort in the body of the Casuals’ custodian.
All power to the engines as Junior Baker became the final Hamlet substitution with less than a dozen minutes of football ahead. More corners forced, more hardy resistance and no white flag from the men in white, though skipper Chris Horwood might have found himself drowned in ignominy had his wild clearance inside his own six yard not cleared the bar. Gamesmanship that might have riled the spectres of the past gazing down from the Elysian football fields now took hold but it served its purpose as the match dragged into stoppage time, five minutes in all but even that was not enough to throw Hamlet a lifeline, as Chattaway was set up by Beveney, himself the beneficiary of Steve May’s industry in the corner, but the shot dug out rose over the bar.

Teams:
DHFC: Sheikh Ceesay; Steve May; Ricky Dobson (Junior Baker 82); Benson Paka (Charlie Taylor 73); Shayne Mangodza; Marc Cumberbatch; Shawn Beveney; Billy Chattaway; Meshach Nugent; Stanley Muguo; Sebastian Schoburgh (Daryl Plummer HT)
Substitutes not used: Dewayne Clarke; Lumumba Amena

CCFC: Paul Smith; Richard Price (Russell Banyard 86); Dale Hennessey; Scott Hassell; Chris Horwood (Capt); Lee Matthews; Matt Smith; Ayokule Olusesi; Daniel Green; Tyrone Myton; Byron Brown
Substitutes not used: Hinga Amara; Carlton Murray-Price; Danny Sacha; Colin Harris (GK)

Attendance: 264

Officials:
Referee: Mr Gary Burton (Reading, Berkshire)
Mr Stephen Earl (Mitcham, Surrey) & Mr Jeff Lengthorn (New Eltham, London)