Dulwich Hamlet 2 Camberley Town 1

Dulwich Hamlet 2 Camberley Town 1
Surrey Senior Cup – Second Round
Tuesday 16th December 2008

The faithful few of Champion Hill catch their breath in frozen bursts; the icy fingers of Jack Frost’s bony hands scratch open flesh and inject their chill contagion into thinning blood of thinning crowd. Upon the field of play, the Krooners have come to town. It must be Cup time for December is so littered with these, County Cups and League Cup and so it is, this time the Surrey Senior Cup, a competition of which Dulwich Hamlet are still proud holders of the record victories, despite the long embargo of the 70’s, 80’s and beyond. However the suburbanites of Sutton are creeping even closer to the Hamlet tally and the baton of maintaining that proud history of victory must pass to a new generation.
While Saturday’s torrents had given the Dulwich lads a weekend of early Christmas shopping, the Camberley Krooners pitch had passed muster in spite of the downpours and with a tumultuous 3-3 draw with Molesey behind them, one might have expected them to come into the game a little gingerly, with the weekend exertions still tweaking muscles, grinding joints. But with a strong record in league action, beaten just once, the feisty Krooners proved troublesome opposition all night, fighting back from a Laurent Hamici goal to draw level, until, with ten minutes left and the spectre of extra time, even penalties, looming, Shayne Mangodza pounced on a 'keeper's spillage to tuck away the winning goal. Victory sends Dulwich Kingsmeadow to take on AFC Wimbledon in the next round come early January 2009.
Camberley started the brighter and but for a fine Mangodza tackle might have scored as early as the second minute, Robert Lance craftily flicking a low drive in the penalty area back into the path of John Swift, the Camberley man stonewalled in the act of shooting by the big centre-half's crunching tackle.
Dulwich served notice of attacking intent in the fifth minute as Hamici seized upon a deflected Theo Fairweather-Johnson flicked cross, nipping in ahead of keeper Liam Stone seeing his low shot, drilling in from a acute angle end up in the back of the net. Sorry to say, the route to goal had been through a gap in the net, the game delayed as speedy repairs were implemented upon the offending breach.
Once the game had restarted it was hell-for-leather football. Form a corner Cedric Ngakam flicked a header on to Hamici, a clipped volley finding the ‘keeper hands. A swift breakout almost had Dulwich caught cold, Lance spearing the centre of defence, the goal looking before him until Fairweather-Johnson’s selfless saving tackle on the edge of the area.
On song, The Krooners were within a whisker of a not-undeserved lead as Ian Messenger, wide on the right, struck an angled ball across the face of goal, fractionally wide of the far upright.
Despite scales of chance weighing heavily in the Camberley balance it was Dulwich who took the lead on 35 minutes with a stunning finish from Laurent Hamici, the striker ending a frustrating drought of scoring as he latched on to a flicked pass from a low right wing cross to hammer the ball through 'keeper Liam Stone.
Sol Pinnock was denied five minutes from the break as a cleared corner dropped to his toes, a curled effort smartly tipped over the crossbar courtesy of a springy leap from Stone. The ‘keeper nearly blocked his copybook from the resultant corner as he fumbled the ball in the cauldron of the six yard box but was reprieved when the ball finally ping-ponged into his open hands.
A smart Sheikh Ceesay block from Adam Cornell kept Hamlet ahead going into the break and the second half early manoeuvres saw Dulwich blitzing the Camberley goal. The ball was swept out to Fairweather-Johnson, the tricky winger skipping inside, his shot smacking off a defender into the path of Hamici. His effort too was blocked, running to Ngakam but as if to reinforce ill-fortune the big Frenchman’s drive struck Stone, a defender’s boots finally rubbing out the danger. With Hamici curling a cracker wide of the far upright it seemed as if the Hamlet would make their higher status tell, particularly as Krooner after Krooner seemed to be feeling the effects of their high-octane opening.
However Camberley hit a high note 19 minutes in. A contentious free kick had Hamlet singing a song of protest, but to no avail, and the quick delivery found Dulwich's defence napping and Joe Johnson had the Hamlet rearguard snookered as he was the grateful recipient of a neat delivery, slicing a hole through the middle and firing a fine finish past Ceesay.
22 minutes a deep corner to the back stick saw a looped header from Hamici drop wide of the back stick. Soon after a weak clearance was snaffled up by Scott Simpson, a defence-splitting threaded pass finding Fairweather-Johnson but his scooped shot zipping wide of the far post. Pinnock similarly stuck one wide moments later.
Back and forth the game flowed, neither side able to finish off their chances with a killer touch until 10 minutes from time. Forced into a change as they defended a corner, Lance hobbling away to be replaced by Chris Roderick, Camberley cleared the ball only as far as Scott Simpson, playing at left back. A ferocious shot whistled through on goal, Stone down to block but the drive proved too tasty for the young custodian and snaffling up the loose ball was Mangodza to prod the ball home and spare all concerned an extra half hour in bone-chilling conditions.
The spark in Camberley hearts was still not snuffed out. If fans prayed for the warmth of the snug and the embrace of ale, players still hunted victory. Camberley’s quarry evaded then and at the last Hamlet might have had a fourth. The scent of goal in his nostrils, like the puma upon the pampas, Simpson sped through the tiring Krooner lines, a sweet strike to polish off the charge. Curmudgeonly defence blocked his effort, the ball running to Pinnock, a low curling drive bringing out the best of Stone as he turned the ball away low at the post.

DHFC: Sheikh Ceesay; Ryan Adams; Scott Simpson; Benson Paka (Daryl Plummer 77); Shayne Mangodza; Marc Cumberbatch; Theo Fairweather-Johnson; Cedric Ngakam; Laurent Hamici; Junior Kaffo; Sol Pinnock
Substitutes not used: Famoud Sonko; Stanley Muguo; Tirrel Grant; Jamie Lunan (GK)

CTFC: Liam Stone; Dale Webb; Darren Barnard (Darren Redwood 81); John Swift; Julian Sills; Ian Messenger; Craig Parker (Jack Keenan 59); Jefferson Gowland; Robert Lance (Chris Roderick 80); Adam Cornell; Joe Johnson
Substitutes not used: Paul Barry; Nathan Sayers

Goalscoring:
1-0 DHFC Laurent Hamici 35th minute
1-1 CTFC: Joe Johnson 64
2-1 DHFC: Shayne Mangodza 80

Officials:
Referee: Mr Eamonn Smith (Mayford)
Assistant: Mr Shaun Farrer (Redhill) & Mr Paul Burton (Redhill)
Fourth Official: Mr Martin Cook

Attendance: TBC