Tooting and Mitcham United 1 Dulwich Hamlet 1

Ryman Isthmian League Division One South

Monday 9^th April 2007

Still unbeaten on their travels to Imperial Fields, the Hamlet still left the home of their earnest rivals somewhat unfulfilled despite a draw that ended a long run of victories for Billy Smith's boys. Whilst the point for Tooting looks set to cement their place in the play-offs, Dulwich manager Wayne Burnett was instead lamenting the two points lost as both Dover Athletic and Fleet Town closed the gap on fourth place Hamlet to a single point. For those two contenders the dubious luxury of a game in hand. For Dulwich the mission is simple, win all three remaining games and put the pressure on their rivals to do likewise.

Laboured though it was victory over Horsham had buoyed the Hamlet ahead of the Easter Monday derby encounter, though Tooting had set the standard with four victories in eight muscle-sapping days. For the Terrors this was a fifth game in ten days, perhaps lassitude would prove a greater enemy than their guests. They certainly looked asleep when Dulwich took the lead after just 3 minutes. A free kick wide out on the left was swung in by Mazin Ahmad and with ‘keeper Dave King dreamily coming to collect, Justyn Roberts drifted in unobserved, eeting the ball a yard in front of King and nodding a simple header into the unguarded net.

King's hands looked safer when he casually gathered a long distance effort from Jamie Coyle but the Tooting number one was almost embarrassed again as Shawn Beveney, playing in an orthodox striking role, robbed Joe Vines of the ball as King dithered but his blushes were spared by Jason Pinnock who had rushed back to cut out the Hamlet man's pull back across the empty net.

On the quarter hour a Tooting free kick promised much but, flinging himself headlong, Joe Vines could not find the target with a diving header. Joe's striking sibling, Paul, tried to get in on the act but was beaten to the ball by the head of Coyle, though the Hamlet skipper came within an ace of doing his opponents job for him, the back header almost deceived Simon Overland between the sticks for the Pink and Blue boys. The fearsome feet of Paul Vines were soon on show though with a cracking strike on the run from all of 25 yards but an unruffled Overland made light work of gathering the effort.

Ten minutes to the break and the pace of Damien Scannell keeps the ball from running for a throw in. An adroit pass found Beveney, neatly spinning off his marker Joe Vines but his attempt to smack the ball inside King's near upright failed to trouble the keeper. Two minutes later and Joe Vines was once again the victim of Beveney muscle as the Dulwich man won the chase for Scannell's through ball. For a moment the goal beckoned as Beveney took the ball round the prostrate King but on a dusty, end of season pitch the ball bobbled below his feet and King was able to stretch out a hand and whip the ball off his toes.

A frenzied final few minutes saw Ronnie Green lash over a threatening cross from the left wing, Overland battling ahead of Paul Vines and Ben Abbey to connect with a vital punch before a Hamlet shout for a penalty died on the wind, Romauld Bouadji's body check on Serge Musungu seem as innocuous by referee Mr Crouch. Injured in the process, Bouadji required attention from the trainer, the third Tooting player to do so in the half after King and Joe Vines. Those delays would prove telling as Paul Vines continued his irresistible scoring run with a poached equaliser four minutes into stoppage time. Hamlet were culpable in not clearing their lines though twice they had the chance and twice they reneged on the opportunity. The ball fell at last to Paul Vines on the edge of the penalty area and spinning on a sixpence to meet the ball he lashed a shot toward the far bottom corner of the net that left Overland standing as it ricocheted in off the base of the upright.

A lesser Hamlet might have buckled but the fighting spirit was much in evidence in a second half that promised much, delivering all but further goals and the ubiquitous red card that this encounter almost demands. 10 minutes in, a corner belted hard to the back of the six yard box is met by a towering header from Coyle, King's defender again roving his saviours as the ball is hacked off the line. From a throw Abbey turned on the ball to attempt a goalward strike only to find a Pink and Blue body blocking his path. A moment later Scannell hit the accelerator pedal, cut in from the right wing and dispatched a torpedo on target that King could only pat away. Beveney latched on to the rebound but defenders, like monochrome wasps, crowded him out.

The Hamlet made a change, Ahmad replaced by Leigh Bremner as the game plan changed from raiding to all out assault. Within a minute of taking the field, Bremner was in the thick of things going down under the challenge of Bouadji as the two were in hot pursuit of long ball down the middle. The man in black was unimpressed, Bremner's disappointment echoed by that of the travelling faithful.

Dulwich daydreaming in the middle of the park saw the ball given away to Green, his electric pace the potential undoing of the Hamlet but Roberts came to the rescue, sweeping across to dispossess the pocket rocket as Overland's goal hove in view.

The last quarter hour saw Dulwich move into overdrive in search of that elusive winner, their opponents stretching aching sinew of aching limbs, catching the minutest breath as they fought manfully to preserve that unbeaten run. It should have been ended with 13 minutes left as the Hamlet missed the most glorious of chances to once again reclaim the lead. A booming clearance from the boot of Overland was the starting gun for a headlong chase won by Scannell, who held off his marker before squaring the ball across to Bremner. All the goal beckoned but from the edge of the six yard box, the horrified Bremner slotting the ball straight into the hands of a mightily relived custodian. The substitute had a chance to make amends within a minute as the Tooting defence almost buckled under the weight of full blown attack. A free kick half-heartedly cleared to Scannell lurking in the D was hammered back in to Beveney, his effort rolling under King but as Bremner went hunting to stab the ball home, it was the unlikely figure of Paul Vines in first to lash the ball to safety from off his own goal line. Moments later the Tooting number 9 was back in familiar territory, meeting Green's right wing cross with a looping header that made Overland stretch to the limit in plucking the ball out of the air.

Never moribund in its closing stages, victory could still have gone to host or Hamlet. Another penalty claim, more in hope than expectation as a Hamlet header struck an upraised Tooting hand. Then a present of the ball made to Pinnock but spurned like Granny's Christmas jumper as Overland got the angles right, diving right to clutch the winger's angled shot.

Teams:

T&MFC: Dave King; Colin Hartburn; Dean Hamlin; Matt York; Adam Broomhead (Capt.) (Jamie Findlay 72); Romauld Bouadji; Jason Pinnock; Joe Vines; Paul Vines; Ben Abbey; Ronnie Green

Substitutes not used: Eben Allen; Aaron Day; Danny Carroll; Sheikh Ceesay (GK)

Cautions: Romauld Bouadji 48 (Delaying Free Kick)

DHFC: Simon Overland; Jason Turley; Gavin Dayes; Justyn Roberts; Jamie Coyle (Capt.); Lewis Tozer (Kenny Beaney 89); Shawn Beveney; Nicolas Plumain; Serge Musungu; Damien Scannell; Mazin Ahmad (Leigh Bremner 66)

Substitutes not used: Phil Williams; Daniel Morris; David Milton

Cautions: Jason Turley 45 (Foul); Gavin Dayes 45+1 (Dissent)

Attendance: 350

Officials:

Referee: Mr Ian Crouch (Eltham)

Assistant Referees: Mr Peter Georgiou (Wandsworth) & Mr Ahcene Yahiaoui (Loughborough Park)

Goalscoring:

0-1 DHFC Justyn Roberts 3^rd minute

1-1 T&MUFC Paul Vines 45^th minute (+4)