Crawley Town Youth 1 Dulwich Hamlet Youth 3

Crawley Town Youth 1 Dulwich Hamlet Youth 3
FA Youth Cup – Third Qualifying Round
Friday 29th October 2004

For the third year running since being reformed Dulwich Hamlet Youth Team will be competing in the FA Youth Cup competition proper after overcoming stiff opposition and a serious injury to keeper Tope David in registering a 3-1 victory at Crawley Town last Friday night. The Hamlet got off to a flying start when Crawley’s keeper lost a corner and in the ensuing mêlée, skipper Asher Hudson was on hand to smack the ball home from 6 yards. With the two sides evenly matched, chances were rare with Mutiu Lamidi striking wide after some good approach play and Jason Mabbs putting a freekick over the bar after Ohran Stewart had been brought down on the edge of the penalty area. A controversial penalty gave Crawley a route back into the match when a freekick appeared to strike Mabbs in the face only for the referee to whistle for a spot kick, one that Liam Buchan converted well to give David no chance. However celebrations were cut short as Dulwich took just three minutes to regain their lead. A freekick looked to have been overhit but Cedric Meeko refused to give up, collecting the ball before finding Stewart whose low ball into the box was met by Hudson stretching to stab the ball home via the underside of the crossbar.
Hudson came mighty close to completing his hat trick on 69 minutes only for Crawley’s Stuart Robinson to pull off a stunning point save but a minute later it was 3-1 as Stewart showed a clean pair of heels to the defence before beating Robinson with an angled low drive. However the latter part of the game was made nerve-racking as David was injured in making a save and with no reserve keeper on the bench the onerous task of donning the gloves fell on the shoulders of Hudson. Against all the odds Dulwich held for an anxious quarter hour or so to ensure a first round tie away to Wycombe Wanderers on Wednesday 10th November, kick-off 7-45 p.m.

Team: Tope David (Lamin Ojo); Tariq Ahmed; Craig Braham-Barrett; Cedric Meeko; Asher Hudson; Michael Makas; Jason Mabbs; Ohran Stewart; Mutiu Lamidi (Tyran James); Chris Kiganda (Kobi Degraft-Johnson); Ryan Martin
Subs not used: Brett Lambert-Wright; Dominic Weston