A bad day at the office for Dulwich Hamlet as they slumped to a disappointing defeat in the top of the table clash at Crawley Down Gatwick.

A bad day at the office for Dulwich Hamlet as they slumped to a disappointing defeat in the top of the table clash with this season’s surprise early pacesetters, Crawley Down Gatwick. With skipper Lewis Gonsalves absent, Dulwich might have seemed vulnerable at the back but the early signs were promising as the hoe flanks were opened up time and time again. However the final penetration was missing, too many high balls floated in above the heads of the inrushing forwards.

On 29 minutes the hosts showed Dulwich how it should be done with a crisp goal, Luke Blewden’s neat chipped cross in from the right expertly dispatched by the head of Gabriel Odunaike, who had slipped the leash of his markers with discomfiting ease. Finding the net Odunaike became the first player to breach the Dulwich defence after just shy of five hours of football.

Soon after Dean Carpenter blazed a free kick from the edge of the area fractionally over the crossbar but when a Dulwich attack broke down immediately after, the Hamlet were caught cold on the back foot, Odunaike scooting past an off-key Kalvin Morath-Gibbs before slipping a teasing ball across the face of goal. Waiting in the middle was Jamie Cade and the experienced forward needed no second invitation to slam the ball home.

The second half arrival of Frankie Sawyer served to give the Hamlet a second spurt of life after they challenge seemed to be petering out and on 55 minutes, they pulled a goal back. Receiving a flicked pass from Sawyer, Nyren Clunks was upended in the area by a lackadaisical challenge, the referee in no doubt as he pointed to the spot. Stepping up to the mark was Carl Wilson-Denis, the latest to take on the mantle of spot kick dispatcher but the penalty blight continued as Tony di Bernardo flumped down to block a timid kick. Much to Wilson-Denis’ relief the ball ran loose and he latched on to it to slam past the prostrate ‘keeper.

Moments later Josh Turner just missed the target with a powerful header from a free kick as the Dulwich revival gained momentum only for slapdash defending to allow the hosts to regain their two-goal cushion just before the hour mark. Odunaike refused to give up on a lost cause as he chased the ball to the by-line, pulling a low cross back to Ross Morley who had all the time in the world to tuck the ball away though Phil Wilson did manage to get a hand to his effort.

Had they brought the kitchen sink Dulwich might have thrown that at their opponents but it was one of those days when the team had the albatross around their neck. Sawyer then Clunks both slammed shots into di Bernardo’s body from the edge of the area in quick succession. Wilson-Denis, stumbling back, sliced a pull back from Sawyer over the crossbar. Sawyer then tested di Bernardo with a fierce strike out of nothing, the home custodian equal to it as he dived to claim at his near post.

The curse continued as somehow Peter Adeniyi ghosted in unheeded at the back of the box only to scoop the ball high into the Sussex hinterlands from a few yards out with only di Bernardo to beat before Sawyer went close in the dying moments, meeting Luke Hickey’s deep cross out of the sun with a firm header but wide of the mark.