Liam Hickey will have another of his columns in the programme tonight

We always like to repeat them on here, in case you forgot to buy one at the match

Before you catch up with his excellent column this evening, in case you missed his words of wisdom at our last home match against Needham Market, here's what he wrote:

Good afternoon everybody and welcome back to Champion Hill for today’s game against Needham Market, a club we have so far failed to beat in any of our previous encounters. Let’s hope we can rectify that today. I would like to extend a warm welcome to everybody connected with Needham Market FC who are always great hosts when we visit them.

Today also marks Non League Day and we are delighted to be at home on the designated day for only the second time. Last time we had a near sell out against Hampton & Richmond Borough and the upwards trend of our crowds has not looked back since that day. There is an old saying that “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” and so we are repeating our hugely successful “Pay What You Like” promotion.

For today’s game, we are delighted to be working with Mind, who are at the forefront of support for those with mental health issues, and The Copleston Centre, our official charity partner. As I am sure many of you know, mental health issues are no respecter of race, religion or background and the continued pressures of the world we live in mean that, in my opinion, none of us are ever very far away from encountering mental health issues. There are some well documented and high profile cases across many sports that clearly show that this can affect any one of us.

May I welcome everybody associated with our charities to Champion Hill this afternoon and hope they have a fun filled afternoon in great company. Whilst you can choose to pay nothing, or very little, to get in I hope that the fact this money is not going to directly profit the football club or its owners increases your generosity.

Non League Day itself has dedicated the day to its support of Prostate Cancer and so the club’s share of the 50/50 raffle will be donated to Prostate Cancer UK. Therefore, whatever money you give today will not profit Dulwich Hamlet FC or its owners.

In addition, the initiatives that we run at the club could not take place without the continued support of the Bostik League Board of Directors. Therefore, I would like to thank them all for their continued support of the club and its aims.

Once again, I am delighted that our good friends at UNISON are supporting us today as they have sponsored the match in memory of Rodney Bickerstaffe who was their General Secretary. He sadly passed away this Tuesday and I would like to send my condolences to all those who knew him.

Turning to football matters, since our unlucky defeat against Slough Town in the Emirates FA Cup, we seem to have strung some good results together and Preston Edwards has kept three consecutive clean sheets in our run of victories. Since my last programme notes, we have been treated to a superb performance against Leatherhead who, despite the scoreline, played a major part in a very good game of football. It was certainly more entertaining than the usual games where the opposition show little inclination to attack.
Much as last season, we are going to have to get used to sides turning up at Champion Hill and just defending rather than looking to display any ambition.

Off the field, we are very lucky to have such a great community team across both the Football Committee & the Supporters’ Trust and I am amazed at the number of new initiatives they continue to bring forward for consideration. Without them, we just would not be the same club. I would also like to thank our management company who agreed to the initiative today.

I would like to thank all our great sponsors and advertisers so I hope many of you will support those who support the club whenever you can.

Finally, we shall shortly be launching a third kit which we are using to support a charity that belongs to one of our players. The Ibrahim Kargbo Foundation is supporting those who are suffering in his homeland of Sierra Leone following the mudslides. The shirts will be available to purchase and all profits from them will be donated to the foundation as it looks to support those who have been orphaned as a result of the tragedy. The kit is in the colours of Sierra Leone and we hope to wear it in one of our upcoming cup games.

Enjoy the game
Liam Hickey
Chairperson
Dulwich Hamlet Football Committee