When we were discussing the types of player we felt we needed to give our summer reset the best chance of success Nyren Clunis was the first name on everyone’s lips. I was thrilled to see him return to Champion Hill and approaching his 500th brings excitement for everyone at the club. 

I’d like to thank Nyren for an incredible contribution and I hope there is an exciting chapter yet to be written. I’d also like to thank our programme editor Phil Passey for putting this very special edition together and hope you join us in celebrating a feat that is becoming increasingly rare at all levels of the game. 

This occasion is the first of five consecutive home Tuesday games as clubs catch up on games missed due to cup fixtures. It’s a tough ask for some clubs to play twice a week continuously but we need to see it as an opportunity to rebuild the sort of momentum the team generated at the start of the season. 

I know it is also challenging for you as fans, it is harder, if not impossible for some of you to attend evening games and school nights are a non-starter for our younger fans. We have raised our concerns with the league about clubs having a frustrating combination of empty weekends and continuous midweek games, they do a good job juggling competing priorities but we’ll pushing for what fans want. I hope as many of you as possible will be able to support the team in the weeks ahead as we look to keep our promotion hopes burning. 

We expressed similar concerns with the new live streaming service for clubs in our league which also comes at the expense of losing traditional kick off times. We are not opposed to streaming or supporting the companies who are looking to give a platform for non-league football but it’s not something we can embrace until it can provide access to fans who cannot be present but preserves the times that fans want to watch football in person. 

Nyren has reached an extraordinary milestone for an extraordinary non-league club and I see our role as protecting what makes the non-league game such a special experience for every community. 

Tuesday night at Champion Hill:

We return to Champion Hill on Tuesday night as Harrow Borough visit SE22. It's the return of our football for a fiver initiative and you can get your tickets here.

This article originally appeared in the Dulwich Hamlet Match Day Programme

You can download PDFs of previous issues here.