Dulwich Hamlet 1 Cray Wanderers 0

Ryman Isthmian League Division One South

Saturday 16^th December 2006

Echoes of a London long lost as the Crays came a-calling in South London, not to collect unpaid debts but perhaps to inflict a bit of "damage" on the Hamlet's promotion credentials whilst restoring their own ambitions of ascendancy, severely hampered by the distracting glint of silverware in recent weeks.

This was not to a game for the faint hearted, callow youth pitched against ripened experience, canny minds if slowing limbs doing battle with pace interwoven with naïveté. At death but a single goal to separate the combatants, a sixth of the season in sixteen appearances from Jamie Coyle, a return some strikers might regard as acceptable but a centre-half? Such is Wayne's World the turf accountants might be sorely tested to set a book for the first goalscorer. ‘Twas a pity then that an afternoon that saw the three hour mark passed since last the Dulwich net rippled in league action, that saw the men in Pink and Blue extend their lead at the head of the pack to five points, should end on a sour note as a second yellow card saw an animated Chris Dickson sent from the field, a victim as much of his own naïveté as of the guile of the evergreen Al-James Hannigan.

From the stalemate at Sittingbourne, Dulwich made two changes. Arriving on loan from Dagenham and Redbridge, custodian Simon Overland took over between the sticks, the fifth keeper to guard the goal for Hamlet this season. Also making a welcome return to Champion Hill was striker Omari Coleman, signed by tenants Fisher Athletic a week previously and replacing Shawn Beveney as Dickson's strike partner, Beveney moving out to the wing in the stead of Phil Williams. Second-oldest club in the word, the Wands' starting eleven bristled with experience, some whose CV might have included those pioneering days such was their longevity in the game.

Within the first minute Beveney had buried the ball in the side netting, the tall Guyanese escaping down the right wing before Dickson hooked a David Moore cross from the opposite flank over the crossbar in the third minute. Neat interchanges on the edge of the area come the quarter hour saw Dickson nip in to drive a low shot goalwards, deflected in keeper Steve Northwood's body and grabbed at the second attempt.

Fast and furious was the football but the chances remained fleeting. Beveney won a corner. Kenny Beaney delivered it into the heart of the danger area for Lewis Tozer to meet with a header but too close to Northwood. 32 minutes and a caution for Dickson as he and Hannigan clashed at throw-in, the defender's gamesmanship conning the referee into waving a yellow card in the face of a frustrated Dickson whilst the canny veteran went unpunished. Not long after Overland was called into serious action for the first time as Ross Lover sliced a hole in the centre of the Hamlet defence before slipping a pass into the path of Leigh Bremner. Bremner looked set to open the scoring but he reckoned without Overland who spread his leviathan frame before the incoming striker and batter away his shot. Lover's pace again proved troublesome in the 39^th minute as Tozer sent him sprawling 25 yards out. The position may have been dangerous, the free kick anything but as it was hammered in to the wall and launched to safety. Catching Hamlet cold as they pushed up for a corner, Cray went on the counterattack, the ubiquitous Lover getting the better of Jake Daniel but forced wide as Overland spread himself before him. A pull back to Lewis Wood but a let-off for Dulwich as the shot was drilled across the face of goal.

Those wasted opportunities came back to haunt Cray as Dulwich at last took control of the half. Not the tallest of the custodial clan Northwood stretched all of his frame to punch a deep Beaney free kick off the head of Tozer. A brace of corners soon followed. The first brought a spectacular overhead kick from Beveney, Northwood scrambling the ball past his post, the second brought the breakthrough.

Delivered deep by Beaney, the ball was met powerfully, precisely by the head of Coyle and Hamlet were ahead. Seconds later the referee's whistle brought first half proceedings to a close.

Second half saw Cray in determined mood, anxious to get back on level terms. Lewis Wood's free kick, mere feet outside the area, was blocked by a mass of Pink and Blue.

An underhit clearance from Justyn Richards gave Lewis Wood another chance but it seemed the gods had abandoned him as from 12 yards out he struck the outside of the upright.

Both sets of woodwork were to suffer as Coleman came within a whisker of marking his return with a goal, Dickson playing provider, a fearsome shot on the turn cannoned back off the underside of the crossbar and out. Stampeding down the right, Beveney suffered similarly when he capped the run with a sweet low drive only to see it crash against the far upright. Lewis Wood missed again, dragging a shot wide when well placed, matched by Beveney who blazed a shot across the face of goal after yet another sprint down the flank.

Like a pint of ale in a chain hostelry, the refereeing at this standard of football remains a game of chance. Oft times, one will be presented with something that surprises one with its quality. Too often one sups on a brew that leaves a sour taste in the mouth. Such was the felling when with five minutes left on the clock, Mr Daly summoned Dickson to him having spotted a minor contretemps and despite the advocacy of his skipper, Dickson was dismissed from the field ostensibly for the use of foul and abusive language. A sly smile drifted across the face of Hannigan, a man whose tongue would make a Tourette's sufferer baulk.

One might have expected the ten men of Dulwich to lock the door and secure the points but none of it. Beveney lashed an angled shot across the face of goal then on came Phil Williams in the final minute in place of Moore. Twice in the blink of an eye, the replacement found himself on the wrong end of heavy challenges from Lover, both punished by free kicks, neither by cautions. Perhaps priorities in the modern game have moved on?

But thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges. Cray battled to the death but no longer is the Hamlet a soft touch, the silken weaves of their attack now laced with a steel forged in South London. Add nous and composure, the dream may take on solid form come May?

Teams:

DHFC: Simon Overland; Lewis Tozer; Gavin Dayes; Justyn Roberts; Jamie Coyle (Capt); Jake Daniel; David Moore (Phil Williams 89); Kenny Beaney; Omari Coleman; Chris Dickson; Shawn Beveney

Substitutes not used: Cedric Meeko; Sol Pinnock; Jason Turley; Nicolas Plumain

CWFC: Steve Northwood; David Hall; Colin Luckett (Barry Gardner 84); Al-James Hannigan; Matt Lee; Dean Morris; Ross Lover; Jamie Kempster (Junior Baker 72); Jamie Wood; Leigh Bremner; Lewis Wood

Substitutes not used: Adam Young; Danny Whelan; Tony Russell

Attendance: 286

Officials:

Referee: Mr Stephen Daly (Woolwich)

Assistant Referees: Mr Arif Khalfe (Waterloo) & Mr Tony Kemsley (Woolwich)

Goalscoring:

1-0 DHFC Jamie Coyle 45^th minute