Dulwich Hamlet 3 Ashford Town 3
from Your Milton Keynes
Correspondent
What a luxury it was to be able to
enjoy the end-of-season games in the sunshine, without the worry about falling
through the relegation trap-door ! As at
Burgess Hill last week, where Ashford’s 0-2 victory finally secured safety, it
was a warm, sunny day in South London today,
for our third-last game of the season, and our final away trip. I can’t
remember the last time that we could relax like this. Actually, I can – it was almost
exactly three years ago, when our final away game of that campaign was against
the village of Histon Dover
Our current end-of-season is all about
the battle for the championship, and for promotion to Ryman League Division
One, since our final four games are against teams that are very much
challenging at the top: Fleet
Town
The main item of team news for Ashford
was that John Cumberbatch had decided to rest young Joe Hitchings, which gave
Steve Rowles the opportunity for his first start at this level, alongside Gary
Clarke in central midfield. Steve Sodje was back in action up front, alongside
Jason Stuart, and the rest of the side was pretty much as expected: Jake
Whincup in goal, Tommy Adlington and Simon Glover the full-backs, Graham Porter
and Asa Hall in central defence, as they had been at Fleet, and with Kenny
Jarrett-Elliott starting the game on the left of midfield, and Nick Wright on
the right. The subs bench was interesting, with the welcome return of
top-scorer George Fenwick, after having spent some time with his Dad in Trinidad . Marc Cumberbatch was also available again,
having missed Tuesday’s game because of a professional assignment. A
high-quality bench was completed by Ian Ross, Ryan Andrews and Joe Hitchings.
It was not difficult to see why Dulwich
had been challenging at the top of the table for most of the season – whilst I
had been impressed by the pace, strength and fitness of the Fleet players on
Tuesday, I was immediately taken by today’s opponents’ neat and thoughtful
passing game. Most of the threat came down the Dulwich right, and it was
obvious that Simon Glover and Kenny Three Names would have their hands full
this afternoon, with both of them basically playing at left-back.
The chief tormentor was No.10 Damien
Scannell – who was well-named by his parents, as he made life hell for our
defenders for much of the first half. The first omen came in the fourth minute,
when Scannell, who had pace and great footwork, and the ability to go past
players in an instant, went on a good run through midfield, and was drifting
out towards the left corner flag when upended by Simon Glover. This earnt
Gloves a good talking-to from Referee Constantine Hatzidakis, who constantly
appeared to give the home side the benefit of decisions over free-kicks and
bookings throughout the game. The chipped cross that came over from the
free-kick was headed clear by Graham Porter, who was a tower of strength in the
centre of defence again today, having found his form and fitness late on in the
season.
In the sixth minute, there was more
good play from the home side, playing in pink shirts with navy blue sleeves,
and navy blue shorts and sockies. Leigh Bremner cut in from the right, and put
Jamie Coyle through with a lovely reverse pass with his left foot – but Coyle’s
cross, pulled back from the by-line, went all the way through the Ashford area
with nobody able to apply the vital touch.
In the tenth minute, Kenny Beaney took
a free-kick, on the right, launching the ball into the Ashford penalty area;
after a brief goal-mouth scramble, No.9 Leigh Bremner shot wide. Bremner had
another opportunity, in the 14th minute, when he intercepted a short
back-pass by Graham Porter to Jake Whincup. Whilst Bremner managed to take the
ball past Jake, and get to the by-line, he could then do no more than pull the
ball back to Ports, who was waiting in the centre – all of which really served
to emphasise how much Dulwich have missed Chris Dickson.
With the football being played to the
backdrop of contented chatter from the men, women and children in the main
stand, Ashford struggled to get any foot-hold in the game for the first fifteen
minutes or so – not being helped by a succession of marginal free-kick and
throw-in decisions going against them, with Simon Glover even being pulled up
for a foul throw when we did finally get hold of the ball. We finally had our
first attempt at goal in the 16th minute. This came about as a
result of a free-kick that we did get, which was taken by Nick Wright. Nick
laid the ball forward to Jason Stuart, who was on the six-yard line, with his
back to goal and tightly marked. Jason laid the ball back to Nick, whose
attempt at placing a curling shot just inside the far post was well saved by
our old friend Simon Overland, diving to his left.
Damien Scannell continued to be a
threat, and latched onto a through-ball, in the 18th minute,
collecting the ball near the by-line, but Asa Hall got back to cut out his
attempted cross. Then, in the 21st minute, Scannell attempted a shot
from some 20 yards out, but pulled it wide of goal. In the 26th
minute, Daniel Morris played a great through-ball for Leigh Bremner to run
onto, and he again had a good opportunity to create something from the by-line,
but his chip, which seemed to be neither a cross nor a shot, went just over the
bar. Two minutes later, Damien Scannell collected the ball in an advanced
position, in the inside-right channel; he cut inside Gloves, making room for a
left-foot shot, but his goal attempt went sailing over.
So it was all Dulwich Hamlet for the
first half-hour or so, and, whilst the players enjoyed a general drinks
interval whilst treatment was administered to the stricken Kenny Beaney, after
he had gone down in the 29th minute, the healthy crowd of 280 seemed
to be fairly happy with the way things were going.
It was at about this time that Ashford,
in all yellow, started to get into the match, and there was a half-chance in
the 30th minute. A “Route One” clearance from defence – do those of
you with grey hair remember “Quizball”? – found Jason Stuart, inside the
Dulwich half, but with few options. He made an ambitious attempt to lob the
6’6” Simon Overland
So plenty of pressure for the Ashford
defence to withstand, but they did well to hold firm, in the face of quality
opposition, with Asa Hall and Graham Porter looking pretty solid at the back.
Simon Glover did his best to cope with the threat of Scannell, but, for the
first time this season, he really looked a bit tired and jaded – which is
probably not surprising, given that he’d clocked up 4,070 minutes on the pitch,
(some 68 hours), prior to today’s game. Being Gloves, though, he still showed
some good footwork, and took the opposition on at every opportunity, but
invariably tried to take on one man too many this afternoon. His quick feet
did, however, earn Ashford a free-kick, in an advanced position, in the 33rd
minute, when he was brought down by Jamie Coyle near the left touchline.
Unfortunately, Nick Wright’s resulting cross failed to find an Ashford head in
the penalty area.
Wright had another chance to create
something, in the 37th minute; Jake Whincup threw the ball out to
him, and he galloped fully two-thirds of the length of the pitch, along the
right touchline, before sending in a good cross, from near the corner-flag, but
the ball would not settle for Jason Stuart to finish.
In the 40th minute, Simon
Glover appeared to be attempting a long-range volley, with his left foot, from
a Dulwich clearance, but the ball went square to Nick Wright, on the right, so
I suppose I should give Gloves the benefit of the doubt, and say that it was a
well-disguised pass. The result was that Nick put in a deep cross, aiming for
Ken Jarrett-Elliott, just beyond the far post, but a defender got there before
Kenny, nodding the ball behind for a corner. The busy Nick Wright then came
across to the left side to take the corner, and appeared to be attempting to
score direct from the corner with an in-swinging cross, but the combination of
Simon Overland and a defender on the line managed to bundle the ball away.
An entertaining first half ended with
two goals in three minutes – one for each side – and they were a product of the
two best players of the pitch in the opening period: Nick Wright and Damien
Scannell. First, in the 44th minute, Nick Wright showed great
strength to catch Gavin Dayes in possession, having done something similar just
seconds before, and, with just one defender in front of him, unleashed a great
shot, which Simon Overland did well to save, diving to his right. Not for the
first time this afternoon, however, Simon failed to gather the ball in making
the save, and this time he didn’t get away with it, as Steve Sodje got to the
loose ball and smashed it into the roof of the net.
Ashford’s lead was to last for no more
than two minutes, though, as Dulwich equalised, with 46 minutes on my watch –
and this was a goal of real quality from Damien Scannell. He picked the ball
up, wide on the right, cut inside Simon Glover, and hammered a low, left-foot
shot firmly into the net, just inside the near post. So the players trooped in
at half-time with the scores level, at 1-1.
Dulwich Hamlet made a substitution at
half time, with Theo Fairweather-Johnson – now there’s a name ! – replacing
Jason Turley. Theo actually almost made an immediate impact, within seconds of
the restart, when he ran onto a short through-ball, with the Ashford defence
expecting, or at least hoping, that the lino would flag for off-side. The flag
stayed down, but TF-J, on his birthday, was foiled when Jake came out to make
an excellent save, gathering the ball with his right arm.
In the second minute of the second
half, Steve Sodje collected the first of several fairly harsh yellow cards for Ashford Town
Ashford regained the lead in the 49th
minute, and the goal was once again set up by Nick Wright, who lobbed a good
through-ball, over the Dulwich defence, for Jason Stuart to run onto. Jason,
who is about half Simon Overland’s height, got to the ball first as the ‘keeper
advanced, and flicked it over Simon’s head. The ball was on course for the net,
but there was still a question as to whether the covering defenders would get back
in time to clear it, but Jason followed through with his run, and made sure by
heading the bouncing ball into the net, from about two feet. This was Jason’s
third goal for the Club, in the equivalent of about four games, at the time of
writing, so he is maintaining a fine strike-rate.
With prospects of making it to the
play-offs hanging by a thread, Dulwich tried to hit back, and had a free-kick,
deep inside the Ashford half, on the left, after Steve Sodje was penalised for
a foul, in the 51st minute. Dulwich skipper Jamie Coyle got up well
to meet the resulting cross at the far post, and directed a good header
downwards, and on target, but Jake Whincup was right behind it.
I had just scribbled a note on my pad
to mention how well Graham Porter and Asa Hall were continuing to play, at the
back, when they were involved in an uncharacteristic Keystone Kops moment, in
the 54th minute. Both missed their tackle, in quick succession,
meaning that Jake Whincup had to race out of his area. Jake managed just a
partial block, and the ball broke to Leigh Bremner; with an empty goal gaping,
Bremner really should have stuck the ball in it, in spite of being outside the
penalty area, but he instead chose to cross the ball to a team-mate bearing
down on the far post, and Tommy Adlington managed to block the eventual shot.
“Couldn’t score in a brothel”, said a disgruntled Hamlet supporter. Tommy’s
block had resulted in a corner, and, as the cross came over, big centre-back
Justyn Roberts rose well and directed a header on target, but Ports’ head
deflected the ball safely over the bar, but at the expense of another corner.
This time, Steve Sodje was there to head clear.
Sodje’s clearance immediately set up a
counter-attack, and Nick Wright, who’s nothing if not direct, picked the ball
up inside the Ashford half, and attempted to go all the way with it. He made it
as far as the edge of the Dulwich penalty area, before Damien Scannell, doing
well to chase back, got his body in front of Nick, before going down in a heap,
and, although I don’t think that Nick made any sort of contact at all with his
man, it was inevitable that the ref would blow up for a free-kick.
Unfortunately, Scannell stayed down,
and he was obviously in a lot of trouble, because, having been helped to within
two yards of the touchline, a stretcher was called for. He was carried off, and
the home side’s last remaining hope of collecting those crucial three points
appeared to go off with him – with the greatest respect to Shawn Beveney, who
was sent on immediately, as substitute. I’m pleased to report, however, that
Scannell was seen walking around, in his civvies, shortly after the game,
albeit with a bit of a limp, so the injury doesn’t appear to have been too
serious.
Beveney got into the action on the hour
mark, latching onto the loose ball, just inside the Ashford penalty area, after
Asa Hall’s spectacular “air-kick”, but Asa did well to recover, and his tackle
put the ball behind for a corner. The resulting cross was high and hanging, and
Justyn Roberts rose above the crowd, but his header went over the bar. Two
minutes later, Daniel Morris tried a speculative long-range effort, but the
ball was always going wide of the goal.
John Cumberbatch then made a change,
sending on his son Marc, in place of Steve Rowles, who had had a good game. (I
note that there’s a Cumberbatch playing for the Dulwich Youth team – I wonder
if he’s any relation, given that John used to play for Dulwich Hamlet ? I also see that both Gordon Jago and Alan
Pardew are former Dulwich players, so the club obviously has a track record for
producing great managers !). The substitution appeared to bring about a change
in formation; Asa Hall certainly moved up into midfield, with Marc joining
Graham Porter at the back, but we mostly played with three at the back, so
maybe John’s strategy was to close the game out with five in midfield.
In the 64th minute, Graham
Porter became the next Ashford
Town
Three minutes later, Dulwich won yet
another corner, after Marc Cumberbatch had intercepted a cross, heading the
ball behind, to safety. Before this was taken, Manager Wayne Burnett replaced
Lewis Tozer with Mazin Ahmad. The corner came to nothing, but instead resulted
in an Ashford break. Following a good tackle to win the ball, Steve Sodje
switched play to Nick Wright, who was in loads of space, on the left. Nick
transferred the ball onto his right foot, and, with Asa Hall being the midfield
runner into the box, failed to find his Birmingham City
In spite of this missed opportunity,
Ashford looked comfortable with their lead, and a third goal for the visitors
looked more likely than a Dulwich equaliser. There was, however, a further
booking to come, and this one was fairly predictable. In the 71st
minute, Tommy Adlington got up well, to make a headed clearance from inside his
own penalty area, but was clearly clattered in mid-air by Theo Three Names. Given
the precedent for bookings that Referee Hatzidakis had previously set, this was
clearly a yellow card offence, but inconsistent Constantine
In the 74th minute, Gary
Clarke played a rare (for him) through-ball for Steve Sodje. Having a sight of
goal, Sodj hit it first time, and brought a good save out of Simon Overland;
again, though, Simon didn’t take the ball cleanly, but gathered it in, at the second
attempt, before anyone could follow up.
In the 77th minute, as
Ashford enjoyed a little spell of sustained pressure, George Fenwick, who had
replaced Jason Stuart in the 71st minute, chipped the ball into to
Dulwich penalty area. The ball was cleared, but only as far as Nick Wright, who
was just outside the penalty area. Nick took a touch, to make room for a
right-foot shot, and smashed the ball into the net. It was a goal that capped a
fine performance by Nick, and, since he had set up Ashford’s other two goals,
confirmed that he would be named as Man of the Match.
“Jake Whincup 1, Simon Overland 3”, I
thought.
It appeared that the third Ashford
goal, with just 13 minutes remaining, was the final nail in the coffin of
Dulwich’s faltering season, especially now that they lacked the inspiration of
the departed Chris Dickson and the injured Damien Scannell, and their efforts
on goal became increasingly speculative. One of these was from Daniel Morris,
in the 79th minute, who collected the ball, from a defensive
clearance, on the left. Faced by Tommy Adlington, he cut inside, onto his right
foot, but his ambitious shot from distance was always going high and wide.
In the 81st minute, Ashford
had a chance to further extend their lead, with a corner on the right. This was
taken by Kenny Jarrett-Elliott, whose in-swinging cross was met by Graham
Porter, at the near post, but Ports showed little awareness of where the goal
was, and headed well wide. Two minutes later, Marc Cumberbatch became another
victim of a harsh judgment by the ref, when he was booked for a shoulder-charge
in the back of an opponent, in a fairly dangerless position. Nevertheless, the
resulting free-kick was launched deep, beyond the far post, and found Daniel
Morris there, as the last man – but he sliced his shot well wide. In the 86th
minute, substitute Fairweather-Johnson was guilty of a similar miss, after a
side-footed through-ball presented him with a great situation, near the
by-line. He really should have crossed the ball, but instead sliced a shot well
wide of the near post. A minute later, he was booked for a late tackle on Steve
Sodje, and the loud, ironic cheers from the Ashford travelling faithful behind
Simon Overland’s goal said everything, so there is nothing for me to add.
With 88 minutes on the clock, Simon
Glover played a neat one-two with Kenny Jarrett-Elliott, on the left wing, then
dribbled past two players, and into the Dulwich penalty area. It appeared that
Gloves was about to cap an excellent performance on the day by the team, and an
outstanding season for himself, with a brilliant goal, but, alas, he then fired
the ball into the side-netting.
Instead of being a glorious finale to a
comfortable victory, Gloves’ miss actually started a chain of events that led
to the throwing away of two points, which could have resulted in all three
points slipping away. First, the ball was launched back into the Ashford half,
from the resulting goal-kick, and the home side soon found Daniel Morris, in
the penalty area – Morris drilled the ball into the far corner of the net,
giving Jake no chance.
I must say that there appeared, from
then on, to be an element of panic in the Ashford defence – and this was the
first time that I had seen it this season. It was probably ominous that, having
been solid and reliable with his kicking and handling throughout the match,
Jake Whincup decided to shank the ball into touch, for the first time, in the
90th minute. Asa Hall then got himself caught in possession, a
minute into injury time, just in front of the Ashford defensive line. The ball
was spread out to Shawn Beveney, on the right side of the penalty area, and he
smashed the ball into the net, for yet another well-taken goal.
With just one point to defend now, John
Cumberbatch made another substitution, replacing Kenny Jarrett-Elliott with Ian
Ross, in the 92nd minute. In part, this was to provide some
stability in the midst of the pandemonium, and to allow the Ashford defence
some time to regain some composure – but I think there might also have been an
agenda for Rossi to make his 248th appearance in Ashford colours,
with two more games remaining in the season.
If John Cumber had intended to
introduce an element of calm and control, then the substitution did not have
that effect, with our defence looking very ragged as Dulwich again broke
forward in numbers, with 93 minutes on my watch. It looked like a horrible
little piece of history was about to repeat itself, when the ball was again
spread wide to Shawn Beveney, on the right, in an almost identical position
from where he had slammed in the equaliser. Again, he let rip with a
well-struck shot, but this time Jake Whincup pulled off the save of the match,
diving to turn the ball behind for a corner. As the game entered the fourth
minute of injury time, Mazin Ahmad put in a dangerous cross, which was headed
behind, to safety, by Marc Cumberbatch. There was then a desperate goalmouth
scramble from the ensuing corner, with the Ashford defence nicking the ball
behind for another one – (I lost count of the number of corners that Dulwich
had in the match). This time it was Tommy Adlington who made the clearance, as
the resulting cross came over.
Into the 95th minute, and
Dulwich attacked, in the shape of Mazin Ahmad, down the left. He managed to
progress into the Ashford penalty area, before Tommy Ad’s tackle put the ball
out for another corner. George Fenwick made the clearance this time. In all,
the agony lasted until the 96th minute, before the ref blew three
blasts on his whistle, which actually sounded like a symphony orchestra to
Ashford players and fans alike.
In spite of the home side’s late rally,
Ashford certainly felt that it was two points lost, rather than a point gained
– and rightly so, as we were in full control with two minutes of normal time
remaining. In fact, it was not uncharacteristic of the entire season, as this
was our 13th draw in the league, and many of these might have been
converted into victories. As it was, because of results elsewhere, the point
raised us to 18th (i.e. fifth-bottom) in the division, which is the
highest we’ve been for some time – but it would have been so much better if
we’d turned just a few of those draws into wins, as we should have done.
On balance, I actually came away feeling
quite pleased with the lads. We’ve endured a long, difficult season during
which the result has constantly been more important than the performance.
Today, however, I feel very strongly that the performance was more important
than the result, particularly now that we are safe from relegation. It would
have been nice for the team to have gained the kudos it deserved, with a 1-3
victory against one of the best sides in the division, but it’s nevertheless
pleasing that, regardless of where we actually finish in the league, and
regardless of what happens in the close season and in seasons to come, we
finally have a team that is playing play-off standard football.
It will therefore be interesting to see
how our boys fare in the remaining two games in the season, as Ashford Town are
now very much cast in the role of “kingmakers”. Maidstone United and Tooting
& Mitcham are level at the top with 76 points – Tooting have one more game,
which is at The Homelands next Saturday, whilst Maidstone
come to The Homelands on Tuesday, and then finish off with Walton Casuals on
Saturday. The huge irony is that, If Ashford can somehow win both of those
games, Maidstone lose to The Casuals, and Dover Athletic win their remaining
(fairly straightforward) games, away to Corinthian-Casuals, and then at home to
Horsham YMCA, then Dover are champions. Do you think they’d say “Thank you” ?
The other play-off positions seem to be
settled now, with Fleet Town and Hastings United appearing to be nailed on to
finish in the top five – Dulwich are now mathematically unable to qualify for
the play-offs, whilst Dartford need Dover to lose their final two games.
A couple of foot-notes. Firstly, it
appears that there’s every chance of there being two Ashford Towns in our
division next year – that would surely be the first time that two teams with
the same name have ever competed in the same division, anywhere in the world.
Ashford Town (suffix “Middx”) are currently in 19th position in the
Ryman Premier Division, and the team with the poorest points per game total, of
the three teams occupying 19th place in the Ryman Premier, the
Southern Premier and the Northern Premier divisions, will be relegated. At
present, those three teams are Wealdstone, Ashton United and Ashford Town
The other foot-note is that, having
identified Asa Hall’s car, at Fleet on Tuesday, as being the black BMW with the
registration plate “V7 ASA”, I noticed Joffy Thorogood – a welcome visitor to
Dulwich today – getting into a silver BMW with the registration “T7 JOF”. These
young lads ! When I was their age, even
my Dad only had a bike !
Man of the Match
(to go towards
the Milton Keynes Bowl)
Nick Wright
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