Dulwich Hamlet 4 Tooting and Mitcham 1

Dulwich Hamlet 4 Tooting and Mitcham 1
Ryman Isthmian League Division One South
Saturday 19th April 2008

"What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!”

Tooting may have their seat on the play-off carousel, the Terrors may have the Cup Final but Dulwich will have this sublime victory, one to truly stir the heart as their deadliest rivals were subjected to their heaviest defeat of the season as their campaign reaches its final crescendo. Ever in charge throughout a first half where pink and blue waves crashed regularly on the shore of black and white defence but with only a single breach from the boot of Sebastian Schoburgh, the Hamlet had to weather a brief Tooting torrent following the prolific Paul Vines; shoddily conceded equaliser, before a team goal of infinite eminence restored their lead, Charlie Taylor starting and finishing a move that had the Hamlet hordes purring in delight. Further goals from Benson Paka and Henry Darko, both once of the rival Tooting faction, cemented victory, though unfortunately too late to keep alive those faint, fading hopes of bouncing above Worthing into an unlikely fifth place.

With that spot in the play-offs already secured and a London Cup Final mere days away one might have expected Billy Smith to give key players a well-earned rest but Billy is a street fighter cast from gunmetal and never one to shy from a challenge. QED, a XI bristling with the best of an Imperial Fields finest.

But then Smith’s counterpart in the home dugout comes from fighting stock too, Craig Edwards’ all-too-aware of the import of this contest to fans even to the exclusion of mattes of promotion and silverware, his troops rallied by stirring Churchillian words before the off. Beneath iron-grey skies those words still rang in the ears as Dulwich leapt off to a stunning start, a spark to light a tinderbox of a game. Four minutes on the clock and Schoburgh latched on to the ball in Tooting territory. Spotting Paka lurking wide on the left, he swung the ball out to the midfield dynamo before haring into the penalty to be the receiving end of the nattily chipped cross. Dave King between the sticks for the Terrors stood not an earthly as Schoburgh pulled the trigger on a rasping volley to rattle the ball into the embrace of the net.

Irresistible Hamlet drove on. Schoburgh legs a-blur as he danced with Tooting full backs, a able batman in Steve May behind him as cross after cross rained in across the face of King’s goal where Meshach Nugent and Taylor buzzed around like angry, flustering Tooting overworked central half pairing. Through the middle Paka, coiffured like a samurai, fought like one, perhaps enthused by a desire to show the travelling Tooting troops what they had once lost.

With the firebrand Allan McLeod within their ranks, a berserker who could start a fight in a phonebook and dismissed along with Stanley Muguo in Hamlet’s early season victory upon enemy soil, there was always the chance for the combustion that so marks these games to once more flare. However the afternoon’s first major flashpoint had neither protagonist within range as Schoburgh reacted angrily to a follow-through from Colin Hartburn, the defender dragging a boot down the back of the his opponent’s leg as he cleared the ball. The brief outburst betwixt the two gave the villainous-looking and theatrical Mr Meillack the perfect opportunity to flash the first brace of the afternoon’s cautions, though he spurned the chance to add to the mounting toll of red that these derbies engender.

Half a half had gone by before the Tooting troubadours had a chance to exercise their larynx’s in anger as a booming bomb of a delivery was nodded down in the path of Vines some distance from goal, the usually executioner somewhat wayward with a curling drive that drifted harmlessly wide of a diving Jamie Lunan’s right-hand upright. Not long after Paka’s storming run across the face of the penalty area was unceremoniously halted some 25 yards out but young Taylor was unable to craft suitable punishment as he clipped the ball over a wall, slowly creeping towards him but over the crossbar as well.

A curious caution for Vines, perhaps for vocal indiscretions rather than physical ones. Then Tooting threatened in quick succession through Romuald Bouadji, the burly Frenchman muscled aside his markers to meet a free kick bopped in by McLeod, only to be denied a Lunan leapt to tip the goalbound header over his crossbar. Bouadji was again in the thick of things as the corner was walloped deep across goal, met par la tête but over once more.

The relief of Mafeking as Tooting over committed themselves in attack leaving themselves vulnerable to a cavalry charge out of defence, in its vanguard Muguo, a brace of monochrome men on his trial. From twenty yards the Dulwich midfielder unleashing a steaming, dropping volley that seemed to have cleared even the behemoth of King until a hand stretched upwards to touch the ball over the net. Fruity words from Dean Hamlin, none too convinced that Muguo was onside when, he received the ball saw him added to the Master’s naughty boys list.

Dulwich were a eurhythmic euphony, a swirling symphony, drum marshals at the rear, pipers of pan in the van, leading befuddled adversaries a merry dance. First half over, second half awaited as a child awaits St Nicholas on a starry eve. It did not disappoint. A symphonic move as Alex Martin wove the midfield baton, swinging the ball out to Schoburgh in full flow down the right, inch perfect delivery to Taylor but not so the finish and ‘twas relief that the assistant’s flag would have nullified any goal. A corner forced moments later met by the head of Marc Cumberbatch, cresting his earthbound markers but plucked out of the air by the hands of King. Taylor, high octane charge down the left, cutting aside the leaden footed Hamlin before a ripper of drive bounced wide of the far post.

Then as to remind one of the fragility of man, the mortality of humankind came a Tooting equaliser, if not out of the blue as painful as a knife to the heart. Twice corners were repelled but then Jamie Byatt whipped in another, poor by past standards but deadly effective as the low ball was missed at the near post and the arch-poacher himself, Vines, hurtled in to hammer the ball into the roof of the net past a mortified Lunan. A spark ignited in one side, that same spark almost extinguished in the other as a Tooting tumult rattled the doors of the Hamlet defence. Dulwich rocked, Tooting rolled. Carl Hutchings latched on to the loose as yet another corner caused chaos in the area, the Tooting man swinging on the ball to whack in an angled strike that cracked against the near post with such ferocity it rebounded almost to the far touchline. Madcap McLeod marauding forwards produced a howitzer of a drive from fully thirty yards that brought the best out of Lunan as he battered the strike away. In disarray Dulwich came within a fraction of conceding a second as May and Lunan tangled under pressure from the hovering Vines, the ball squirming free to Jon Henry-Hayden but with the goal gaping before him like the gateway to hell, he hammered the ball upwards and against the underside of the crossbar from whence it bounced out, Lunan recovering his ground to punch the ball away as Vines thundered in hungry pursuit of the rebound. Dulwich prospects matched the lowering skies. May was cautioned as a crunching tackle laid out Jason Pinnock. But strange days as a substitution designed more to shore up defence proved the precursor for a second Dulwich score; Ricky Dobson replacing Martin and reclaiming his right back spot as Billy Chattaway pushed forwards. Seconds later Taylor began the move he would crown with a goal, slipping the ball out to Chattaway on the wing. A slide rule pass, neatly stepped over by Schoburgh and allowed to run to Nugent was craftily flicked wide of him by the forward, his almost physic understanding of his striker partner’s intention paying off in full as Taylor latched on to the pass, driving the ball low and hard towards the bottom corner of King’s net, even the giant hands of the ‘keeper unable to keep the ball from dribbling home.

“When woes come, they do not come as single spies, but in battalions”. Spots of rain, Tooting tears as rampant Hamlet added further goals to the tally, both from players deemed surplus to requirement at Imperial Fields. First from the samurai Paka, the tip of the blade of a nihontō that would slash a gapping wound in Tooting ranks. AWOL black and white defenders had no answer when Chattaway’s rifled pass across the park picked out Paka scampering into verdant space on the right, the midfielder larruping the ball past the exposed King. Though Vines would threaten twice with booming headers, the last bouncing mere millimetres wide of Lunan’s near post, the final word would belong to another of Tooting’s discards as Dulwich last pair of replacements, Kraig Rochester and Darko combined for number four. Only seconds remained when the ball was delivered low and hard across the six yard box by Rochester, taking on Schoburgh’s rapier role on the wing, the pocket rocket Darko hurtling in at the back stick to wallop the ball into the back of the net.

Even the news that Worthing had finally killed off those waning play-off hopes could not dampen the mood at Champion Hill for with Dulwich playing such mouth-watering football the summer break cannot pass fast enough.

Teams:
DHFC: Jamie Lunan; Steve May; Billy Chattaway; Benson Paka; Ryan Bernard; Marc Cumberbatch; Sebastian Schoburgh(Henry Darko 85); Stanley Muguo; Meshach Nugent; Charlie Taylor (Kraig Rochester 85); Alex Martin (Ricky Dobson 69)
Subs not used: Daryl Plummer; Sheikh Ceesay

T&MFC: Dave King; Dean Hamlin; Colin Hartburn; Romuald Bouadji; Carl Hutchings; Oliver Hunt; Allan McLeod; Jason Pinnock; Paul Vines; Jon Henry-Hayden; Jamie Byatt
Subs not used: Vernon Francis; Guilherme Lopez-Dacruz; Ben Abbey; Ryan Gray; Ronnie Green

Attendance: 431

Match Officials:
Referee: Mr Frank Meilack (Crowborough)
Assistant Referees: Mr Gareth Mays (Epsom) & Mr Adam Williams (Worcester Park)

Goalscoring:
1-0 DHFC: Sebastian Schoburgh 4th minute
1-1 T&MFC: Paul Vines 57th minute
2-1 DHFC Charlie Taylor 70th minute
3-1 DHFC Benson Paka 79th minute
4-1 DHFC Henry Darko 89th minute

Goalscoring:
1-0 DHFC: Sebastian Schoburgh 4th minute
1-1 T&MFC: Paul Vines 57th minute
2-1 DHFC Charlie Taylor 70th minute
3-1 DHFC Benson Paka 79th minute
4-1 DHFC Henry Darko 89th minute