FA Cup campaign ends at the 1st hurdle

The Hamlet exited the 24/25 FA Cup campaign at the same stage as last season following defeat to Leatherhead in a 1st Qaulifying round replay in Surrey on Tuesday night. 

Dulwich headed to Surrey without the likes of Ross Marshall as he continues to recover from the injury he suffered on Saturday afternoon as well as Jerome Binnom-Williams who failed a late fitness test.

Jordan Wynter made his first appearance on the bench with Max Hudson also getting his first start of the campaign 

The visitors would be penned back in the opening minutes of the 1st half. Dillon Barnes was called into action after just 4 minutes as the Hamlet failed to deal with a corner and he managed to get down well to deny the hosts an opener inside 5 minutes. 

Dulwich would have a great chance in the 22nd minute as Krasniqi did well to pick out Lorenzo on the overlap but his low cross was scrambled away. 

Just minutes later Hand would almost fire Dulwich ahead. AJ made a driving run down the right hand side and picked out Hand in the box but his shot was cleared off the line! 

This sparked a period of extended pressure from the boys in red & white. Max Hudson on his competitive debut almost put us ahead after 26 minutes a driven run similar to that of Jerome Binnom-Williams gave him space in the box but his shot was blocked and cleared away. 

Just past the half hour mark it was a man in the terrace who took the limelight after a wayward cross from Lorenzo was saved well by Chairman Ben in the terracing behind the goal. 

It took Dulwich just 5 minutes to get firing in the 2nd half as George Porter saw his shot tipped just wide of the post by the Leatherhead keeper.

The following corner gave Michael Chambers the best chance of the game as he headed the ball into the ground where it looked like it would find the back of the net only for the visitors to clear it off the line again. 

As we approached the final 20 minutes Dulwich had another golden chance as AJ delivered the ball into Mills but he couldn't direct his header goalward.

Leatherhead would then be sparked into life just a couple of minutes later, a great team move was followed up with a strike that ended up going way over the bar. 

With 15 to go Chambers would have the chance of the game that would put the Hamlet within touching distance of the next round. A cross fell to him at the back post but his half-volley went inches wide of the back post. 

Mills would have another chance just 5 minutes later this time Krasniqi had a shot that was deflected into the path of Mills who fired his shot over. 

5 minutes later though and Leatherhead would be awarded a penalty after a dubious handball call giving them the chance to fire themselves into the 2nd Qualifiying round and that is exactly what they did sending Dillon Barnes the wrong way. 

That would be that as Dulwich exited the FA Cup at the 1st hurdle for the 2nd season running. 

They return to Champion Hill on Saturday 21st September to take on Horsham. Tickets for that game can be purchased here.