In the press last week

Here's what the local & non-league papers were talking about regarding The Hamlet

We featured the match report from the Macclesfield Town match last week, as featured in the ‘Non League Paper’ on the Sunday after the game, prior to the postponed replay. In case you missed it CLICK HERE.

On Tuesday the midweek copy of the ‘South London Press’ led it’s non league column with that draw:

Hamlet recover to earn replay

Ashley Carew secured Dulwich Hamlet a replay at Macclesfield as their FA Trophy quarter-final at Champion Hill ended 2-2.
The Vanarama National side looked to be cruising into the last four as Luke Summerfield’s double strike in the opening 18 minutes put them 2-0 in front. But Dulwich hit back to set up a return at Arena Stadium on Tuesday night.
Former Crystal Palace defender Quade Taylor crucially cut the deficit before half-time as he netted his first goal for the club, converting from a corner.
Ex-Eagles keeper Scott Flinders saved from Carew in the second half, while Matt Drage headed just wide.
It was another Carew special for the equaliser. His half-volley from 25 yards flew past Flinders.
And Carew almost grabbed a winner which would have sent the majority of the 2,834 crowd into raptures, but Flinders was just about able to tip over the bar.

On Thursday the ‘Southwark News’ also headlined with the FA Trophy:

Hamlet Carew still in cup hunt

Dulwich Hamlet’s Buildbase FA Trophy quarter-final against Macclesfield Town has been re-arranged for Tuesday March 7 after their replay fell victim to snow this week.
Last Saturday, Gavin Rose’s men sensationally fought back from 2-0 down to force a replay against a side that are in ninth place in the National League.
The home side fell behind in the ninth minute when Luke Summerfield struck a free-kick past Preston Edwards.
It got worse for Hamlet just nine minutes later when Edwards’ clearance landed at Summerfield’s feet, and he curled home.
But rather than deflate the hosts it only seemed to harden their determination, and they pulled one back before the break when Quade Taylor fired home following a corner.
Hamlet poured forward after the break, and Matt Drage went close to levelling when his header went just wide.
However, just three minutes from time, their pressure eventually paid off when after Ibra Sekajja picked up a loose clearance the ball eventually landed at Ashley Carew’s feet, and he curled home a magnificent equaliser from outside the box.
If Hamlet cause a replay upset they will face Tranmere Rovers in the last four.
You may also recall that last week the ‘Southwark News’ had a piece on our charity game last Wednesday, against Centrepoint, which we repeated on our official website HERE.

We wrote a letter in response to the piece, which they printed last Thursday:

Thanks for the write up, shame about the errors!

Dear editor,
Whilst it was great to see an article on the Dulwich Hamlet charity match against a side from Centrepoint, on page 3 of Southwark News on23rd February 2017, which we at Champion Hill are grateful for, there were some glaring errors in it, which I hope you don’t mind me correcting. Firstly, the match came about after one of our Football Committee members, George Parnavelas, approached them, and not the other way round. The game follows on from our Anti-Homophobia Awareness game against the Gay World Champions Stonewall FC in 2015 & FC Assyria, in a Refugee Awareness match last season. For ourselves highlighting social issues that affect everyone, through our medium of a higher-profile non-league club is just as important as raising funds on the night. These games have become part of a now-established annual event for us, where we try to reach out & go ‘one step further’, rather than just paying ‘lip service’ to causes.It is also about making our guests, whether playing or not, enjoy a night that they will remember for a long time to come. That is why we offer these matches at half our usual admission, so everyone can afford to go, and we also make a point of not putting out our strongest side, as that would clearly be such a mis-match on the pitch, and that’s not what we set out to do. It is never our intention to play at full strength in these sort of games.Finally, you mentioned our ‘first 15’…perhaps your reporter could have a word with your sports desk, as there are fifteen players in a rugby union match, and a mere eleven in a football team, and unlike a rugby side…under our forward-looking manager Gavin Rose, we do try to keep our ball on the floor!
Yours sincerely,
Mishi Morath(Dulwich Hamlet Football Committee, community liaison)

To complete last week's look at the local news, it's Friday's weekend edition of the 'South London Press', which concentrated on our tough run-in between now and the end of April:

HAMLET FIXTURE PILE-UP
But boss Rose is not fazed about backlog- 'You have to get on with it'
Gavin Rose is not worried about Dulwich Hamlet’s fixture backlog – even though their FA Trophy replay against Macclesfield Town has been shunted into next week.
The club’s progression to the last eight of the competition has seen them fall behind most of the other sides chasing Ryman League Premier Division promotion.
Hamlet boss Rose had boarded the coach on Tuesday when he was told that the tie at Moss Rose was off due to heavy snowfall.
The winner of the fixture will face Tranmere Rovers in the trophy semi-final – which is a two legged affair. Dulwich would be at home first on March 11 before the decisive return seven days later.
Hamlet already look set to play three matches in five days, with the league campaign having to finish on April 22.
“It’s been mooted that we play Tuesday, Thursday and then Saturday once – which isn’t ideal in terms of rest period,” said Rose. “If it happens once I think it isn’t too much of a concern. But you wouldn’t want to do that twice in two weeks. Bognor Regis had a similar situation last season. They got to the FA Trophy semi-final and had a lot of fixture pile-ups. They were told that had to finish on the same deadline as everyone else. I don’t believe the league will give an extension – you just have to get on with it.”
Winning at Macclesfield would add another couple of matches to a testing finish – with Dulwich needing a spurt to get into the top-six positions.
But Rose said: “I wouldn’t want to look too far ahead and be disrespecting Macclesfield. Beating them is a big enough task. Whoever we played next is a bonus. You can only think about Tranmere if we do our job. It’s going to be difficult next Tuesday but I just don’t know if we’ve got anything to lose. We’re two leagues below them. Macclesfield are a huge club and we’ve done so well to even get a draw to go up there.”
Luke Summerfield had put the Silkmen 2-0 up inside the opening 20 minutes but Quade Taylor crucially cut the deficit soon after with Ashley Carew equalising with three minutes of normal time to go.
“The two goals they scored were innocuous,” said Rose. “We gave away a silly free-kick for the first goal and on another day Preston [Edwards] does a lot better, by his standards. The second is another mistake and again Preston would probably say he can deal with it better. There is at least one that we wouldn’t ordinarily concede and it puts us up against it. In fairness we fought back, grew in confidence and started playing football to our level. We acquitted ourselves really well.”
Dulwich are ninth in the league standings but have at least four games in hand on five of the six clubs above them.
Their cup commitments have knocked them off schedule. Ibra Sekajja, Gavin Tomlin and Carew scored last Tuesday to earn them a Ryman Cup quarter-final win over AFC Hornchurch, prevailing 3-2.
“The other results could have gone a lot worse,” said Rose. “People had the opportunity to really run away and put a lot of pressure on us. If we win our games in hand it should put us in the play-off positions and we can take it from there. We’re in a rich vein of form. We look like winning matches now. There is that confidence there compared to the start of the season, when our form wasn’t the best. We weren’t really sure what would happen next! We’ve got every opportunity of getting into those play-off spots.”
Nyren Clunis (knee) is closing in on a return while Michael Chambers, who rolled his ankle just over a week ago, could be in contention to return this weekend.