Wingate and Finchley 3 Dulwich Hamlet 2

Wingate and Finchley 3 Dulwich Hamlet 2
Saturday 9th August 2008
Pre-Season Challenge Match

With the season a week away this match was expected to see the framework of Craig Edwards’ opening XI but fate has conspired against the Hamlet manager with his striking options disrupting as Meshach Nugent was tempted away to bolster the attack of Premier Division Maidstone United. In his stead the Hamlet supremo has captured the signature of the prolific hitman Walid Matata, source of the Kent Weald but returning at last to his South London roots. Fate though still a poisoned arrow in her quiver for the newly arrived Matata was denied his first outing in Pink and Blue as he succumbed to injury, a fate that also befell other contenders for the Hamlet vanguard with both Laurent Hamici and Scott Simpson crocked. Also stuck on the sidelines were Stanley Muguo, Tyran James, Kyle Graham and Kevin Fox, though the omens for all the crocks are good as that first home game with Eastbourne Town looms ever closer.
Given the filthy weather conditions that battered exposed and inaptly named Summers Lane, drenching those supporters brave, nay foolhardy, enough to venture from the safety of the Harry Abrahams Stadium magnificent Art Deco stand, set a goodly distance back from the pitch side. For the players there was little if any respite from the lashing squalls but if the winds were cold the temperature of the match was high. Some players seemed determined to desert the rainswept sward as quickly as possible, tackles as close to those that now demand instant dismissal as to try the patience of referee Mr Mackey if not to the end of his tether at least to its penultimate fibres.
Wingate suffered an early blow an injury to their skipper Craig Ellis, the centre-half having hobbled to the dugouts as Dulwich took the lead with a fine goal, flowing up the left wing with the ball at his feet Billy Chattaway penetrated deep into the Blues’ flank. From the wing he whipped in a low ball towards the penalty spot, home keeper Callum Horton skidding out to gather naught but thin air as Tom Bolarinha stole in front of the prostrate custodian, nicking the ball away and, perhaps surprised as finding the goal gaping unguarded before him, tarrying a moment before neatly tucking the ball in the empty net.
Ellis was replaced by the rampaging Ahmet Rifat, who marked his arrival and the odd Hamlet limb with some crunching challenges which might have curtailed his cameo but for the clemency of the Man in Black, though even he must have tired of offering the gargantuan replacement repeated “final” warming.
Wingate’s Chris Chase flicked a marvellous diving header across the face of goal as Wingate looked for an equaliser but this ground is strange conundrum worthy of Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World for despite its pronounced slope sides attacking up it seem to prosper better than those whom it should favour. Seem was the case as the half sauntered on. A cracking header from Carlton Murray-Price, flinging himself full-length, flew a fraction too high. Then as the first 45 minutes drew its dying breathes Darryl Plummer somehow contrived to divert a ball the wrong side of the upright from mere feet out, out of vision of the horror-stricken wingman the assistant had briefly raised his flag as if to indicate offside but this provided little consolation to Plummer.
The blustering showers had not relented for the second half but at least the rag-tag battalions of the Hamlet had shelter as Dulwich attacked down the slope and into the teeth of the tempest. For the lee of the wind those supporters could only stare though the curtain of rain as defensive disaster after disaster gifted the hosts an equaliser within eight minutes of the restart. Hamlet has the chances to make a telling clearance, not once, not twice but thrice but spurned them all leaving Joe O’Brien to bundle the ball home after a colleague’s posterior had played the decisive pass.
The usual raft of substitutions followed, the peripatetic Sol Patterson-Bohner and Byron Thomas first to arrive, more would follow. Jamie Lunan made a cracking save with his feet to deny Chase the go-ahead goal for the Blues but was left standing when Chase met a right wing cross with a bullet header that had the Hamlet custodian beaten only to smack back off the crossbar.
Just as if it seemed a damp squib of a contest might peter out in an honourable, somehow the sodden gunpowder was lit and the fireworks went off in a cascade of goals throughout the final five minutes. Dulwich contributed to their own downfall as the defence went AWOL with a corner being bombed in and Rifat bundled a facile goal home. Less charitable referees might have already sent the big Wingate replacement to the sidelines as his crusade against anything Pink and Blue had continued unhindered by little more than an angry admonishment. Still if there were complaints about that goal from all angles, none but a churl could bemoan Wingate’s third barely seconds after the game had restarted, Daniel Clarke bringing down a long ball down the throat of the Hamlet defence, turning and unleashing a furious drop kick that gave Lunan not a ghost of a chance. At least a grain of consolation arrived with two minutes left, Ryan Bernard lashing the ball high into the roof of the net as Wingate showed they too could defend skipper poorly from corners.
Perhaps though this result had blown away some cobwebs from the Hamlet defence, bedrock of that late, fruitless charge last for this was the first competitive game of the pre-season campaign when the strongest rearguard had lined up together, Steve May, Bernard, Marc Cumberbatch and Chattaway.

Teams:
W&F: Callum Horton; Mark Weatherstone; Anthony Limbrick; Craig Ellis (Capt); Bobby Aisen; Michael Sacks; Steve Velandia; Tim Lees; Wayne Grant; Chris Chase; Joe O’Brien
Substitutes: Kieran Street; Ola Williams; Daniel Stanton; Ahmet Rifat; Jerome Boyce; Daniel Clarke; Dean Williams; Netanel Elraz (GK)

DHFC: Jamie Lunan; Steve May; Billy Chattaway; Fas Koroma; Ryan Bernard (Capt); Marc Cumberbatch; Tom Bolarinha; Junior Kaffo; Carlton Murray-Price; Alex Fiddes; Darryl Plummer
Substitutes used: Sol Patterson-Bohner; Mauri Rivera; Rob Wilkinson; Justin Fevrier; Simon St Aimie; Byron Thomas
Substitute not used: Dan Baldwinson (GK)

Officials:
Referee: Mr Michael Mackey
Assistant Referees: Mr Steve Renter & Mr Matthew Young