Before our next home game...

We thought we had better tell you what we were talking about community wise in our programme from last week...so here goes:

Another Saturday, another home game. Which makes it a bit harder to decide what to churn out for today’s column. So I thought I would start out by touching on a big game to be played off the pitch. Namely the impending planning application from our owners Hadley, to develop housing on our current site & replace our current stadium with a much more purpose built and sustainable one on the site of the all-weather pitch next door; where The Hamlet actually played home games at the Champion Hill prior to the previous one, from 1912 until 1931.

As mentioned in both this programme last week and on the official Club website, there are lots of questions to be asked, and many problems with the current site. From a community perspective Dulwich Hamlet can only grow more with a new development, and reach out even further than the already great strides we have made in the last couple of seasons. It is quite clear to all who have looked into things that the Football Club simply is not sustainable where we are...and as is well known and acknowledged we would not even be in existence if it were not for the intervention of the Hadley Group after they purchased Champion Hill Stadium.

They are listening to the fans regarding to the new proposals, and-without giving away any confidences-the Dulwich Hamlet Supporters Trust have thus far done sterling work on negotiating with the ground owners & their architects to try and get as good plans as possible for all of our fans. Long may this continue. The owners are planning much more consultation on this over the next few weeks...keep an eye out for further news. Everything will be well publicised.

Changing subject, there’s an old adage that ‘all publicity is good publicity’ & to a very large extent this is true. Yet, once again a major article has appeared in the national press, this time in last Sunday’s ‘Observer’ newspaper’s glossy magazine. On the plus side it will hopefully have brought some ‘Champion Hill virgins’ to the match today, but on the downside the same piece, alongside some others that have been published in the press & on-line over the last twelve months or so, paint a somewhat unrepresentative picture of what a matchday experience is like at a typical Hamlet home match. I guess it is something we will just have to live with, as those of you reading this are already ‘converted’ and know what it’s like at Hamlet games. As for the people who read the distorted view peddled by lazy journalists to suit their own selfish agenda & think that is really what one of our games are like...there is nothing we can do to change their viewpoint. But it’s interesting what you tend to ‘read between the lines’...it seems we’re not a proper football crowd! What on earth does that mean? I don’t think any of our players moan about the passionate support they get at home & away...and perhaps they just not happy with us daring to quadruple our crowds over six seasons & not complying to the ‘non-league stereotype’ of small crowds of a few hundred, generally comprising of middle-aged men!

To be honest, the one I feel most sorry for in the whole Observer piece is Duncan Hart, the chair of our Supporters Trust. He was quoted as saying: “That would involve more money, more travel to away games, no more beer on the terrace [due to regulations]. It starts cutting out the reason you’re coming here.” Which is something he said, but part of much wider comments which put it into contest. Indeed, if we were to win the title, or get promoted, and thus crack on up to National League South, I am sure Duncan will find it just as amazing as the rest of us. It’s quite sad to see him, not quite ‘mis-quoted’ more as ‘not represented properly’...so as I mentioned earlier..don’t believe everything you you read in the press...but feel free to stick to this programme & our official website for all the information! ;-)

Thank you all again for your loyal support...in our next column we hope to bring you news of some potential great work the Football Club Committee are doing with the Supporters Trust Board...until then, enjoy the match, and see you at Kingstonian on Monday.