A look back to the Dulwich Hamlet Junior Football Club matches from last weekend...

The UNDER SEVENS were disappointed not to have a game, with their opposition, Docklands, only having five players, we have received a report from their first game, the week before, though:

"Having come away from week one of the SELKENT Under 7's division with a 10-1 victory over Beacons FC, courtesy of EIGHT goals from Matthew Fisher Borrow, one from Zack Power and the other from Chuckwuma Nzegbunam then a 4-1 loss to Villacourt Rovers, The Dulwich Hamlet Under 7's came into week two full of excitement and raring to go. The lads Gavin Kennedy, Zack Power, Russell Najjar, Robert Mclaughlin, Matthew Fisher Borrow, Kyraan Bailey and Chuckwuma Nzegbunam began to warm up at 12:45pm, at this point the rain started to pour and we decided to seek shelter. Our opposition Docklands JFC, were still waiting for more players to arrive in time for the 1pm Kick off. With the weather getting progressively worse by the minute, and no sign of any more Docklands players turning up, at 1:20pm Danny O'Rourke, the Dulwich Hamlet Under Sevens manager, decided to call the game off. We look forward to the next game and challenge and hope the weather decides to go in our favour. The lads are full of energy, excitement and enthusiasm and if we have as much fun as we did in the first week I'm sure the lads will have a wonderful season and build a platform to have a life long love of the game."

The next age group, our UNDER EIGHTS,won their second game, an excellent 6-3 victory away to HF Sports Cobras:

"The Hamlet Under Eights second game of the season started as their last finished,they automatically put the HFS Cobras under pressure. As the rain started to pour, the boys in Pink & Blue turned on the style... F.Luxton swings the ball into the box from a free kick where E.Hopwood is there to latch onto his pass, he drives through the defender and emphatically chips the ball over the goalies shoulder, setting the mark they lead 1-0. With an onslaught of shots being saved by the HF Sports goalkeeper, F.Luxton receives the ball just inside the box and smashes the ball home.
Dulwich found themselves under a barrage of pressure from the Cobras until the nimble footed C.Harris battled down the wing drilling his shot home. Hamlet now lead 3-0 but it wasn’t for long as an incisive pass by HFS led to their number 8 placing the ball past the keeper's left. As the match drew closer to the half time whistle, team Captain K.Anderson reaffirmed his side’s dominance when he drilled a pass across the box for R. O’Sullivan to tap in. At the break Hamlet found themselves 4-1 up.
The Cobras kick off but before they can settle in F.Luxton pressures their defense into a mistake he knocks the ball into the box and smashes it home 5-1. Dulwich continue to keep HF Sports on the back foot but can’t capitalise on their dominance. The cobras win a corner, they whip the ball into the box unable to clear their NO. 5 manages to take a shot on goal, the ball deflects off of R.O’Sullivan as he attempts to clear (own goal) 5-2.
Dulwich were in control throughout the game until HFS finally caught them napping as their number 9 took his chance and slotted home. Luck seemed to be changing as the Cobras found themselves with a penalty after a late challenge in the box, yet they couldn’t convert from the spot as K.Ono made the save, with his wits about him he booted the ball towards an on running C.Harris who hit the ball home, finishing the game making it 6-3.
Assistant Manager Lewis Gibbs added, "We showed grit today and scored some splendid goals in the process. We had some shaky moments but each member of our squad played out of their skins. We really couldn’t have hoped for a better start winning our two opening games. The season's long but all we can do is try our best".

The UNDER TENS got their season underway, away to Dulwich Village Orange, going down by the odd goal in five:

"So after a disappointing Sunday last week when our opposition failed to turn up and we were left standing around, we had our first game ever to play together as a team.

This squad has only been together for 8 weeks and no one knew what to expect as they took the pitch for their first ever game. With words of encouragement saying enjoy the game, do not worry about mistakes, try your best – the game started in this local derby.

Our opponents had played in the league last year and so had a little advantage and made the most of it as they plied the pressure on and shot from any where in sight of our goal. Maybe they thought that our little man between the posts was suspect and were trying to take advantage of that – but how wrong they were as they would see !

So the game went on with the Village going 2 – 0 up after about ten minutes, when finally we found our feet and actually passed the ball out of our half and attacked their goal, the initial shot was stopped and a head stuck up to meet the ball and in went our first goal !!! Kyle Dungate had been in the right place and made it count !

This lifted the team and a strange battle from end to end proceeded with no team scoring before half time – although both teams had the chances to score and were either blocked or wide of the target.

A quick brief pep talk and back into the game, starting as it had finished in the last half. But the Village were slightly more dominant and it paid off as they got their third goal. A few heads dropped on the Hamlet side, but were encouraged by a vociferous support from the parents and supporters.

Each side again had chances to score and it was not until a break by the Hamlet late in the second half did not Kyle pop up again and bagged his second. This renewed the team and they worked hard to try and get the third to get a point from the game. There were a few tired people playing now as we had no subs it was down to the seven players on the pitch and they kept on trying which was good to see.

A near miss a minute from time meant that the Hamlet were not going to get anything from this game, but they had announced their start in the league in a very good way and things can only get better as we play more games.

Riza Gjoshi our keeper was marvellous and stopped shot after shot much to the dismay of our opponents. He could not have done much more and the goals they did score were no ones fault.

He was not alone – Ronnie Smart, Alfie Lawrence, Taylan Green, Marcus Collins, Shamal Young and Kyle Dungate all worked hard and if they work as hard every week then we shall improve, especially when we have our full squad available next time out – our missing players were Toby Fox, Ayo Akintokun, Ronnie Searle and our new signing for next week Joshua Clarke.

This may sound strange as we lost, but it was a great start to our season being our first game ever and things can only improve for the best !!!!"

We haven't received any reports from the other age groups, but the other scores were:

In the SELKENT League C West our UNDER TWELVES lost 6-4 at home to Royal Greenwich Park.

A big win, also at home, saw our UNDER THIRTEENS, in the SELKENT C division, win 8-2, against Villacourt Rovers.

But the UNDER FIFTEENS were well beaten by HF Sports Cobras, in the London Cup, losing 11-2.

Many thanks to the managers of the teams that have contributed, hopefully more will do so,in future weeks.