Community Corner

In case you missed the programme last night, here is Football Committee Member Mishi Morath's latest column:

Community Corner
It’s great to welcome a club like Wingate & Finchley this evening, true proof that you can still be club at the heart of your local community, even if you don’t get the crowds to match. Their ground is in use way beyond the ‘traditional’ three o’clock on a Saturday afternoon and the Tuesday midweek evening kick-off. They have a small all-weather surface adjacent to the main pitch, and a large number of sides beyond their First Team. I, for one, think it shows how important it is to reach out, even if the returns are not huge through the clicking of turnstiles. There is still much to be said in being a well-respected & important part of your area, even if the locals don’t necessarily respond in kind through the gates.

Talking of flooding through the gates-almost literally in the rain on Saturday- my, oh my: what an amazing attendance! The vast majority of current Hamlet fans may not bat an eyelid at the crowds we get, but as an ‘old-timer’ I still cannot believe we had almost one thousand seven hundred squeeze through the doors on Saturday. Without a doubt in such inclement weather only a decade ago we would have been lucky to get one tenth of that! As I have said many a time in this column, I cannot get used to such huge numbers. And that is what makes us strong in such adversity of the current situation that we are in….as our Football Committee Chairman Liam Hickey continually alludes to in his column, time are hard, times are worrying…but there is hope around the corner, if the people out there that care about our great Club are allowed to if Meadow Residential take their profit and move on.

I, like many of you, dream of that mythical mega-millions Euro Lottery win, but in all honesty they are simply that, just dreams. I am, hand on heart, too scared to even think of what turn my life might take, if the worst comes to the worst. But I do take comfort in the fact that while cogs are turning behind the scenes to ensure the future of The Hamlet for the next one hundred and twenty five years, I can do my little bit by contributing to the “12th Man” scheme. As one of those who enthusiastically shakes the buckets at the final whistle of our home matches, more than once on my own, it is heart-warming to see the continued flow of coins and notes into them. Even more so when little children, primary school age, put a coin or two into the pot to help.

It’s a cliché to say that ‘together we are strong’, but we really are strong together, as long as the donations keep on coming in. It is YOUR MONEY that is making up the shortfall from the loss of income from Meadow Residential that is keeping our squad together. And if can all carry on doing that we shall make the end of the season in a play-off spot at least.
Without a doubt part of the growth in our attendances has been down to the community outreach we do, but it is also due to the tremendous job being done by Gavin Rose and his players. Bumbling along in Division One South in front of a couple of hundred people, we simply would not have the groundswell of support from outside our Club, and would have been an easy target to be trampled on and crushed into oblivion.

As I mentioned a few lines ago: ‘TOGETHER WE ARE STRONG’ Please continue to fill up those buckets and we will make it to the end of the season while the Chairman and his team exert their pressure off the pitch to keep our great Club going. Then when we, hopefully, get through this dark patch we can look back with satisfaction and inwardly smile to ourselves, be that you or me, that we ‘did our bit’ as we endeavour to make OUR CLUB stronger, moving up to the next rung of the pyramid.

Before I sign off, apologies for my lack of input into the official Club website recently, that is if any of you have actually noticed! I have no real excuses…part from energy, time and enthusiasm, as some other things occupy my mind. Hopefully I will get back to my normal ‘productivity’ rate as you read this.

We look forward to seeing you all back on Saturday 3rd February, when we focus on promoting equality in the game, through highlighting the anti-homophobia message, when we take on Metropolitan Police in another Bostik League Premier Division match, at the start of the 2018 Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans History Month. The Supporters’ Trust are playing their part, by launching a one-off special Dulwich Hamlet Rainbow scarf….save one for me please!

Mishi Morath (Football Committee community lead)