Metropolitan Police 0 Dulwich Hamlet 2

Metropolitan Police 0 Dulwich Hamlet 2
Ryman Isthmian League Division One South
Saturday 26th April 2008

Imber Court and a glorious end of season idyll amongst the manicured lawns and playing fields of the peelers. Imber Court, a strange haunt for beyond the blazered factotums of the Metropolitan Police, is there such a species as a dedicated Copper fan? It seems there is, a cantankerous pair reminiscent of the Muppets’ Stadler and Waldorf, standards Olympian-high and pinprick critical of their boys, whose thin blue line seemed paper thin against a Dulwich Hamlet who slashed and stabbed at its soft underbelly and might have rained down an embarrassing scoreline upon their humbled host ‘ere the day was spent. Little recompense was that for the Dulwich Hamlet supremo, Craig Edwards, who witnessed his charges rampaging all over the Met’s tenderly nurtured sward, their collars barely felt by a subdued long arm of the law, for though the Hamlet had finished the season at an almighty canter, their lolloping hosts had already long passed the finishing post and were already milling around at the start of play-off punch-up. Having dispatched Tooting with equal abandon a week earlier, the frustration at missing the invite to the post-season shindig was doubly painful for manager, player and fan alike.
The men in Pink and Blue were at full strength, bristling for action, the Met deliberately shorn of key players but still boasting enviable experience including the venerable on Daly who was signing off with his final regular season Isthmian League game before Father Time finally pinned him down, if not to pipe and slippers, at last to less rumbustious life. Not that the old reprobate was showing many signs of the gears seizing up! If only Messrs Stadler and Waldorf could find something as complimentary to say of some of Captain Indomitable’s colleagues, blessed with chances to stake their claim for inclusion in the starting line-up for the play-offs ahead but blessed instead with the burden of comedy. Barely a minute had elapsed and ‘keeper Mo Maan recklessly walloped a clearance off his own defender straight into the path of the marauding Meshach Nugent. Perhaps surprised at the gift, Nugent spurned the chance as he hooked the ball wide of the tottering Maan’s left-hand post.
Four minutes gone and hefty punt down the middle had the electric Charlie Taylor leaving defenders in his dust, clipping the ball over an advancing custodian but with a modicum too much of uplift, the ball clearing Maan but to his relief also Maan’s crossbar. A crunching Steve Sutherland tackle denied Nugent once more when he tore open another hole in a paper bag defence before Taylor slipped past a despairing Maan only for another of the old guard, Dave Newman, to nod the young striker’s effort off the line. The quicksilver Taylor was soon released tight right, rattling a low cross behind Nugent but met with the wallop of a steam hammer from Daryl Plummer, only for the ferocious drive to miss the target.
Assault on Precinct 13 sprung to mind as the boys in blue found themselves pushed back and trapped almost entirely in their penalty area. Maan found that extra inch to punch the ball from the head of Nugent as he went hunting for a Sebastian Schoburgh cross. 19 minutes on the clock and Dulwich finally had reward for all that effort or did they? As Taylor neatly tucked away Plummer’s delivery, fans celebrations were quickly curtailed by the flag of the assistant referee. Then the siege was lifted, albeit briefly as Dulwich, overcommitted in attack, were caught cold but Craig Carley, goalscorer supreme at Walton Casuals, found the hassling of Steve May too much as his shot went wide of the mark.
Maybe the skipper was frustrated at his forwards poor productivity, the chance to goal ratio still zero, but come the breakthrough it came from an unexpected source but a welcome one for Ryan Bernard had been instrumental in Dulwich’s late season revival, his constantly cajoling and encouragement lifting his compadres to heights most knew their could unachieved but had too often failed to touch. But to Bernard’s goal, a rasping screamer of a low drive as the ball was cleared to him after a bout of head tennis in the home goalmouth. A bullet of a low drive hit with such force from fully 30 yards out the ball was a blur to all even Maan, standing as if petrifying, as it rattled into the back of the net via the base of the upright.
Five minutes later and it was 2-0 as Meshach Nugent juggled a cross from Sebastian Schoburgh out on the wing, slamming a fierce volley home at the second attempt. By now Carley’s mid-half attempt had become but a fading memory, a rare oasis in a desert of Met Police opportunities. As if to rub that in Benson Paka powered on to a pass that had the home defence being eyed up by Madame Tussaud for a permanent exhibit, Maan their saviour as he bravely blocked the Hamlet man’s effort with an outstretched foot.
If the first half had sizzled the second merely simmered as the two clubs coyly toyed with each other, while the fans soaked up the late spring sunshine. Maan denied Taylor the chance to add to his burgeoning tally of goals when he reacted quickly to close down the angle and batter behind the prolific striker's 15 yard strike on the hour mark.
With a quarter hour left Andy Ottley missed the target from close as he got his head to a deep, deep to the back stick. The Police rallied late on though Jamie Lunan was rarely tested until the dying moments when one-time hero of the Hamlet, Jon Daly, almost marked his final game before succumbing to the demands of age and retiring from football with a goal, only for the agile Lunan to brilliantly batter away his late header.
However in the latter stage most excitement for the crowd came from guessing whom might fall foul of the man in black as Mr Laver spent the final ten minutes of the regular season, trying to push his quota of cautions up. Steve Potterill’s potty mouth earned him the first of these, a petulant Carley followed up for questioning the validity of an offside flag. Dave Newman’s attempt to try some old fashioned coppering as he tried to arrest the progress of Schoburgh failed to break the stone face of Mr Laver and it was a third caution for the Peelers. An over-exuberant late challenge from substitute Henry Darko earned Dulwich a yellow of their own but then whistle echoed playground bell. Schools out for summer!

Teams:
MPFC: Mo Maan; Steve Potterill; Michael Cobden; Steve Sutherland (Martyn Lee 26); Dave Newman; Scott Corbett (Andy Ottley 70); Leon Johnson; Steve Flinn; Craig Carley; Jon Daly (Capt); Steve Sargent (Gary Ansell HT)
Substitutes not used: Chris Meikle; Will Packham (GK)

DHFC: Jamie Lunan; Steve May; Billy Chattaway; Benson Paka; Ryan Bernard (Capt); Ricky Dobson; Sebastian Schoburgh; Stanley Muguo (Alex Martin 66); Meshach Nugent (Henry Darko 70); Charlie Taylor; Daryl Plummer (Kraig Rochester 77)
Substitutes not used: Sheikh Ceesay (GK)

Attendance: 148

Officials:
Referee: Mr A Laver
Assistant Referees: Mr M Ford & Mr C Hicks

Goalscoring:
1-0 DHFC Ryan Bernard 26th minute
2-0 DHFC Meshach Nugent 31st minute