Club's top scorer departs after three years at Champion Hill

First Team striker and record goalscorer Sophie Manzi has departed the club after three seasons playing in pink and blue.

Sophie made the decision ahead of the side's defeat to AFC Acorns on Sunday, and leaves with a phenomenal record of 42 goals in 61 appearances for the club.

Our number 9 signed for the Hamlet in the summer of 2020 and made an instant impact, scoring a hat trick on her competitive debut in a 6-1 demolition of Margate in the FA Cup, and backed this up by netting another one a week later in her first league game against Aylesford.

Fan favourite Sophie would be our top scorer in that shortened season, scoring 10 times during a Covid-interrupted year. She signed on again for the 2020-21 campaign, and once again topped the scoring charts with 19 strikes in all competitions as the Hamlet finished fifth in the London & South East Regional Women's Premier Division.

This season has seen Sophie again lead the way in front of goal, with 13 to her name, which included a hat trick in the FA Cup win at Tunbridge Wells Foresters on our historic run to the Second Round of the competition. More recently, Sophie became the first Hamlet player to score in three successive league games since we were renamed in 2019, and the first to score in four games in a row in all competitions.

She also reached the milestone of fifty games for the side back in January in our 2-0 loss to Actonians in the Capital Senior Cup, with her final goal in pink and blue coming from the penalty spot in our 2-2 draw with Saltdean United in February.

At the time of leaving, Sophie has scored more than double the amount of goals for the club than anyone else, with Saskia Philp the next player on the all-time goalscoring charts with 19.

Only four players (Rosie Stone, Brit Saylor, Lucy Monkman, Saskia Philp) have appeared more times for the club, below is a list of the records she currently holds for the club:

• Most goals - 42
• Most league goals - 24
• Most FA Cup goals - 9
• Most League Cup goals - 4
• Most penalties scored - 8
• Most hat-tricks - 6
• Most goals in a game - 4 (jointly-shared)
• Consecutive games scored in - 4 (jointly-shared)
• Consecutive league games scored in - 3 (jointly-shared)

Thank you for all your contributions to the side over the last three years Sophie, you have been an incredible player for the club, and everyone at Dulwich Hamlet wishes you the very best in your future career, you'll always be welcome back at Champion Hill.