The latest from Chairman Ben Clasper, from the programme of our Home game against Tonbridge Angels on Monday, April 18th.

If you believe in signs from above then you’ll be pleased to know that it is six years since we last won at Champion Hill on Easter Monday and that was a victory against today’s opponents Tonbridge Angels on our way to securing the final play-off spot in the Isthmian Premier League. Tonbridge ended up in the play-offs with us that year but we were both beaten by East Thurrock and so would both face another season at Step 3. We endured one more play-off defeat the following season before finally tasting success incidentally after another Easter weekend fixture against Tonbridge when they were one of the first visitors to Tooting and Mitcham during our exile.

Tonbridge would go on to join us in the National League the following season also via the play-offs and unbelievably seeing as that was 2019 they were the last team to make the jump to step 2 as the pandemic has resulted in cancelled seasons in the Isthmian since their success that day. So, it’s great to see we’ll see promotion and relegation return this year and welcome some new clubs to play if we are still in the National League South next season.
With only one more home game in the regular season after today we will have lots more updates regarding the new stadium in the final programme so today I want to focus on some other notices and events that you could probably all file under the subject ‘We Need You!’.

After the latest and final round of share issues and distributions we are pleased to announce that the Supporters’ Trust are now published as the only other persons with significant control or interest and so we were pleased to welcome more of their board as guests at the club’s board meeting this week as we start discussions on how to formally realise our goals of setting the club up to be owned and run by fans for generations to come.

You will have heard lots of calls to join the trust either to help with campaigns or match day fan operations but we now have a different call. We need to build up not only the membership of the trust but also encourage people to get involved who have an interest in the running of the club not just the trust and may have the skills or knowledge we need. We have huge numbers of fans who have been supporting the club for many years and others who may be newer but are no less avid. Consider this an open invitation to express that interest. As always the best way is via the trust www.dhst.org.uk.

We also figured that after a long break for the pandemic it is a perfect opportunity to restart the fan forums we used to host where we have an open invitation to come and hear from the club’s board, ask questions or just register comments or feedback. We are currently looking at Wednesday April 27 and it will be an evening event so please keep that free and look out for further notices.

The board have already started the review of the season and planning for the next campaign but the more feedback we have the better, we know it’s been another rollercoaster ride (when isn’t it at DHFC?) so it is important that we find time to come together as that is when we have done our best work as a club.

Another sell-out crowd last weekend was a bit of a surprise and so some of the issues we had to contend with earlier in the season reared their head again. It is crucial to remember that when we went to planning committee for a new stadium one of our key arguments was knowing for certain that any further growth was going to start having a hugely negative impact in some areas of the club and its facilities. That has come to pass and so it is devastating to see that the delays in delivering what we fought for are starting to cause some fans to lose faith and drift away. It was an outcome we said at the time was sadly likely to happen and one the opposition to the stadium depend on to try to put the club back into the box they label ‘they are perfectly fine where they are’ to back their argument. Our facilities impact match day experience which deters some fans from coming which impacts atmosphere which deters some more fans from coming. It is not hard to see how that story ends so we really want to hear from fans on how to write a different ending.