First Team manager Gavin Rose took time out this morning for an EXCLUSIVE chinwag with the official Dulwich Hamlet website.

Here is what the gaffer had to say, when facing the questions fired at him by the Hamlet Pitchero team:

With supporters reading in the press that we had released two players, you'd think there was a major crisis. Yet we bounced back to beat league leaders folkestone Invicta yesterday...

"Well we weren't trying to bounce back from anything, I don't know of any crisis!I just deal with various things as they arise. If I didn't think the Club & the players I have could sustain a promotion challenge then I wouldn't be here. There's a lot of belief in the squad, which as far as I am concerned, has yet to reach its full potential. There's still a lot of improvement to be made in performances. Once we get that right the points will take care of themselves."

Erhun scored an amazing goal yesterday, and some of the longer standing fans are raving about him as much as Ossie Bayram in the late seventies, and Joe Odegbami in the nineties. Is he destined for Dulwich Hamlet cult status?

"Ha,ha! I can't really answer that, it's early days. But he is a talented player. I knew a lot of what he was about, as I had him at the ASPIRE Academy a few years ago, before he went to play professionally in Turkey. Our level doesn't really favour him though, I don't think that the referees will protect him enough from meaty challenges. Time we tell how he does, as I said, it's early days and we will have to see how he handles the rigours of our season."

We're at Corinthian-Casuals on Tuesday, not always the happiest of hunting grounds for us, though their pitch tends to be one of the better surfaces, which should suit us?

Well on paper it should! But football doesn't always work like that, and in the last few years we haven't got much there. I've got a lot of admiration for their players, who turn out for no money,as well as their management team who work for the love of the game, with pride and passion. I expect it to be a tough workout, as hard as Saturday."

And talking of Corinthian, as in 'spirit', last season we won both the 'Fair Play' & 'Respect' awards for our division. We've had a higher number of cards already this year, so how relevant are these accolades?

"Very relevant. But we don't set out to win them. Our aim is to play fair and to be competitive. I believe we have been competitive on the pitch, and not just a team of 'Fancy Dans'. We don't ask players to foul other players, or anything like that. We play within the rules and are happy when our boys do that."

Finally, to next Saturday. We go to the pre-season bookmakers favourites, Maidstone United. They have a state of the art UEFA top graded all-weather surface & four figure crowds. How do you think this will affect us?

" I don't think it will bother us at all. Your modern day player is used to this type of surface, compared to years ago. In the past it might have been a bit of a problem adjusting, but nowadays young lads grow up with it, whether professional players for training, at school, or even Sunday teams. As for the crowd, I think we will look forward to it, and hope as many Dulwich fans travel as possible & match them for noise!"