Our weekly newspaper round-up

Here's what the printed media have been saying about The Hamlet over the last week

Last Sunday, in exapnded now 56-page for the same £1.50 price, ‘Non League Paper', our match against East Thurrock United was chosen for a new special feature they have been running for the last few weeks, namely the ‘NLP’sNATCH OF THE DAY’

In a soundbite at the top of the report, their reporter Nick Lough gave his VERDICT:

“Dulwich will admit they were lucky to get a point as East Thurrock could have run away with it in the second half. But their persistence paid off late on.”

There were also stand-alone quotes from both managers:

“I saw they were dropping deeper, so I knew we could get something. The first goal put some panic in them.”
Gavin Rose, Dulwich Hamlet manager

“I’m massively disappointed. There’s a lot of fans over there putting pressure on the officials to give a decision.”
John Coventry, East Thurrock United manager

Here is the main report:

DULWICH IN GREAT ESCAPE
Rose’s men score twice at the death but Rocks are left fuming at fans’ impact

Dulwich Hamlet struck twice with 90 minutes up to earn a remarkable point against East Thurrock United- and Rocks boss John Coventry insisted the home side'’ fans influenced the officials.
The visitors looked as though they were easing into a comfortable victory until Dulwich’s late show.
First, Nyren Clunis pulled a goal back on 90 minutes as he darted into the box from the left before curling a low shot off the inside of the post.
Three minutes later, and with just seconds left on the clock, Dulwich were awarded a penalty after Rocks left-back Sam Knott was sent off for a deliberate handball, with Ashley Carew smashing home from the spot to earn his side a crucial point.
East Thurrock boss Coventry was frustrated that his side let their lead slip late on, but believes none of the officials were aware of Knott’s handball until hearing cries from the home crowd.
!I’m massively disappointed with the outcome,” he said. I’m gutted today as I thought we were the better side by far. I’ve got no arguments if the boy has handballed, and if that’s the case then it’s a penalty and a sending-off. My problem was the referee definitely didn’t give it-because he said he didn’t give it-and I saw the lineman gave a corner, but there’s a lot of fans over there putting pressure on them to give a decision.”
Relieved Dulwich boss Gavin Rose admitted his team weren’t really at the races for most of the match.
“We weren’t brilliant today,” he said. “I felt we stuck at it but at times in the second half I thought they could run away with it and scored a few goals. In the final 15 to 20 minutes I saw they were dropping deeper, so I knew if we had a go at them we could get something from the game. The first goal put some panic into them. In January we battered them and still had to settle for a draw, so that’s football.”
Mitchell Nelson registered Hamlet’s first notable chance on the half-hour mark as he rose to meet Carew’s corner, but thumped his header narrowly over the crossbar.
Despite rarely troubling the Dulwich backline, East Thurrock were gifted the opening goal in the 34th minutye after a slack back-pass from Nelson allowed Sam Hughes to nip in on goal and roll home his 36th of the season. With the deadlock broken against the run of play, Dulwich pushed for an equaliser up until half-time, but to no avail.
It was one-way traffic during the opening five minutes of the second period as East Thurrock’s Tom Wraight snuck into the penalty area before lashing a shot goalwards, but Preston Edwards produced a fine save with his feet to deny the ex-Witham Town man.
Dulwich boss Rose brought on Dean McDonald and Damian Scannell just before the hour mark, and it was the latter who had the hosts’ first shot on target. The former Dagenham midfielder managed to toe-poke Albert Jarrett’s cross towards goal, but Lukas Lidakevicius came out to smother the effort.
East Thurrock went two goals in front on 65 minutes as Wraight’s looping cross flew all the way over the rabble in the penalty area before landing in the top right-hand corner of the net.
Dulwich thought they had halved the deficit in the 73rd minute when Scannell bundled home from McDonald’s saved shot, but the linesman ruled it out for offside. However, there was still time for a sting in the tail.

STAR MAN: Joe Ellul (East Thurrock)
ATT: 1,607
ENTERTAINMENT: **** (out of a possible five stars)
REFEREE: Stuart Butler 8/10
MATCH STATS:
SHOTS ON TARGET: Dulwich Hamlet- 4 East Thurrock United- 6
SHOTS OFF TARGET: DH- 4 ETU- 3
CORNERS: DH- 7 ETU- 5
OFFSIDE: DH- 2 ETU- 3
FOULS CONCEDED: DH- 4 ETU- 4
YELLOW CARDS: DH- 1 ETU- 0
RED CARDS: DH- 0 ETU- 0
Dulwich Hamlet: (4-3-3) Edwards 7; Sankofa 6; Drage 6 (Dixon 72, 5); Nelson 5; Hibbert 7; Carew 6; Waldren 5; Clunis 6; Murrell-Williams 6 (Scanell 58, 7); Jarrett 7; Moss 5 (McDonald 58, 6). Subs not used: James, Sow.
East Thurrock United: (4-4-2) Lidakevicius 6; Sammons 6; Hayles 7; Ellul 8; Knott 5; Smith 6; Marlow 7; Wood 7; Wraight 7; Higgins 6; Walker 6 (Ruel 77,5). Subs not used: Morgan, Newby, Peddie, Robson.

Later on, in the same edition of the ‘Non League Paper’, in a column by Nel Jensen, from the Game Of The People website, under the heading MORE VOICES,MORE IDEAS we were also got a namecheck:

“…Take a look at what’s happening at Dulwich Hamlet as an example of a club that has received dramatic fresh impetus from vibrant supporter involvement..”

And The Hamlet mentions didn’t end there. Ian Ridley included small photo of the new homemade scoreboard that our fans have recently been putting up under the newly-sponsored Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward Stand.
The caption with it was: “Always enjoy the inventiveness of supporters and their flags and banners, with Wingate and Finchley’s “More Flags Than Fans” design on a London Underground logo a favourite. Bravo Dulwich Hamlet supporters, who have now come up with a new scoreboard for their club…”

And ,now onto Tuesday, and the midweek copy of the ‘South London Press', which headlined with the East Thurrock game:

Carew keeps his cool to get Dulwich out of jail at the death

Ashley Carew held his nerve from12 yards to snatch a point for Dulwich Hamlet with the last kick of the game and complete a late comeback against East Thurrock United which kept their title hopes alive.
Sam Higgins and Thomas Wraight had scored either side of the break-the second a beauty of a curler from the corner of the penalty area- for the visitors. It looked as if they were headed for the top of the Ryman League Premier Division and a nine-point lead over the Champion Hill side.
Gavin Rose’s men were second best throughout the 90 but a late rally at 2-0 down saw Nyren Clunis fire low into the corner as the game entered stoppage time.
It was to be more than a consolation as the SE22 side sought an unlikely equaliser and forced a succession of corners.
On the final one, Mitchell Nelson met Carew’s centre with his head. The effort was destined for the net but United left-back Sammy Knott diverted it onto the crossbar with his arm.
The referee appeared to not see the infringement but the Dulwich players surrounded him in protest, with a spot-kick awarded after consultation with the assistant.
Knott was sent off for the incident and it took a while for the two sets of players to be separated and for order to be restored.
When the mood had calmed down, Carew’s spot-kick found the top-right corner to complete the smash-and-grab raid with the referee blowing for full-time as soon as the bal lhit the back of the net.
Leaders Hampton & Richmond Borough lost 1-0 to third-placed Tonbridge Angels, meaning Dulwich made up small ground.
Rose’s side host FC Assyria in a friendly tomorrow to raise money for charities aiding the Syrian refugees. Tickets are £5 (£2 concessions) with the match kicking off at 7.45pm.

Next up is the weekly coverage from the ‘Southwark News', which was published on Thursday:

Late goals bag Hamlet vital point

An injury time penalty ensured Hamlet picked up s vital point against promotion rivals East Thurrock United at Champion Hill on Saturday.
The 2-2 draw will have felt like a win to many Pink and Blue supporters because as the game went into the final minute of normal time Dulwich were two goals down and seemingly going away with nothing.
But Nyren Clunis netted just as the clock ticked to ninety minutes to throw the home side a lifeline and in the fourth minute of injury time Hamlet got a penalty.
Initially it appeared the referee had missed the handball that pushed Mitchell Nelson’s header onto the bar, but after consulting with the linesman the spot kick was awarded and Thurrock’s Sammy Knott got his marching orders.
Lengthy protests from the visitors dealyed the taking of the spot kick, but Ashley Carew kept his nerve to ensure that the points were ultimately shared.
East Thurrock could have gone top of the Ryman Premier League with a win, and they will wonder how goals from Sam Higgins and Tom Wraight didn’t result in all three points but they are still very much in the title mix.
Hamlet’s disappointing league form in February. Just one win in five games, means they are outsiders for top spot and the sole automatic promotion place.
Instead they will hope that this month sees their poor recent form pick up to enable them to secure at the bare minimum a shot at promotion through the play-offs.
The first of their last eleven league games of the season comes this Saturday when Hamlet travel to mid-table Wingate and Finchley for a 3pm kick-off.

And, finally, to complete the weekly round-up, there were two pieces in the weekend ‘South London Press’ yesterday. One concentrated on the East Thurrock game:

Ash leveller his biggest ever?

Dulwich Hamlet midfielder Ashley Carew admitted his last-gasp penalty against East Thurrock United last Saturday could turn out to be his most important goal ever-if it inspires an improvement in results in the run-in.
Gavin Rose’s side were 2-0 down to their title rivals as the game ticked into added-on time at Champion Hill before Nyren Clunis pulled one back.
Dulwich rallied with a flurry of late corners and a handball on the line by a visiting defender from Mitchell Nelson’s header handed Carew the chance to snatch an unlikely point from 12 yards.
He held his nerve to find the top corner with his 11th penalty of the season and keep his team’s Ryman League Premier division title hopes alive with the very last kick of the game.
Hamlet are four games without a win and Carew said: “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous, but I just had to score it. It could be one of the most important goals of my career. We have to kick on from here. It wasn’t the best of games from us. We have to stick together-that’s the way forward.”
Phrases such as “got out of jail” and “smash and grab” were heard from relieved supporters filing out of Champion Hill after the final whistle.
When asked if he agreed with this, boss Rose said: “No, not really. Supporters who have seen us regularly in the last few seasons have seen the same thing happen to us, where we should have been a few goals to the good and still ended up drawing. So I have no qualms about us coming back in the last few minutes to get a draw. There was a lot of pressure on Ash’s shoulders at the end but he showed a lot of bottle and character. We wouldn’t want anyone else in that situation. It could kick-start our season. We played a team who could win the league-a rival-and got back into the game to stop them pulling away from us. At this stage of the season it is more a scrap-it’s all mental. If we can work hard, we’ve got the quality up top to score goals. It could be a good catalyst and springboard for some sort of form. We saw the incident. The header was going in. The only worry we had was if the referee was going to give it because he had missed a few things.”
Dulwich’s promotion chase continues with a trip to Wingate & Finchley tomorrow.

The main non-league feature in the same ‘South London Press’ was about our new goalkeeper:

HEY PRESTO

Preston Edwards is looking forward to battling club “legend” Phil Wilson for the number one spot between now and the end of the season.
Edwards joined Dulwich Hamlet on loan from Ebbsfleet United, via a brief spell at Boreham Wood, nearly a fortnight ago.
He made his debut in the London Senior Cup win over London Bari on February 22 and was also between the posts for last weekend’s late 2-2 draw against East Thurrock United.
Boss Gavin Rose suggested that Wilson needed a mental break because of the number of games he has played this season, and that another goalkeeper would spur him on.
“As far as I’m aware Phil Wilson is a legend at Champion Hill,” Edwards said. “I know how hard it is to displace a player who has done well for the club. It’s up to me to play well, keep the shirt and then there are no excuses for me not to play. Willo is a great lad as well. He was the first one to applaud me off the pitch on Saturday and say well done. It’s great to have that relationship with your fellow goalkeepers and if he plays, I will be exactly the same.”
Edwards’ career goes a little higher than appearances in the National League for Ebbsfleet and Boreham Wood. He made an appearance as a youngster at Millwall in 2007 and has played for England C-the national side at non-league level.
He came to SE22 with the sole intention of playing more matches.
“I only had a handful of games for Boreham Wood at the start of the season,” he said. “I became frustrated being on the bench when I’ve played regularly for the last six years. I got a call from Gavin Rose and jumped at the chance to come here. I didn’t know him beforehand but when you speak to him it feels like you’ve known him for a few years. I’ve played with a few of the boys here before-Osei Sankofa, Jacob Erskine and Ashley Carew were all at Ebbsfleet at some point. It’s good to see some old faces and everyone has been welcoming. I didn’t get much pro experience with Millwall but I’ve played over 300 games for various clubs at a higher level and won this league with Dover when I was 19. So I’ve got plenty of experience and I hope that will help us push on and win the league- if not then hopefully we take a positive mindset into the play-offs and win them. It’s an easy dressing room to settle into. I caught up with the guys I knew and meeting the others was really good. The crowd at Champion Hill is fantastic-it’s really noisy. I like it when they all jangle their keys on corners-although I don’t know what that’s about yet! I’ve really enjoyed it.”
Edwards made some key stops in the second half against East Thurrock on Saturday.
Him keeping the score down was a platform on which Rose’s side staged a late comeback with goals from Nyren Clunis and Ashley Carew-from the penalty spot-in the 90th and 95th minutes respectively, snatching a point from the jaws of defeat.
“We did get out of jail a bit,” Edwards admitted. “In the first half we gave away a silly goal with their only half chance. In the second half they played the conditions better than us-especially with a very strong wind. It penned us in and I had to make a few saves. It is very difficult to push up the pitch against such a strong wind, so to get back and score two goals is really pleasing. I hope it kickstarts a run of form. We’ve got 11 games left to try and win the league. In our position we have to look at maybe winning nine of them, perhaps also getting a draw, to win the league. We have to make sure that the draw against East Thurrock was a good point.”
Edwards became a YouTube sensation in February 2011 when he was sent off against Farnborough-Ebbsfleet went on to lose 3-0- after just 10 seconds.
The clip has been watched more than 11 million times and is thought to be the fastest-ever red card for a goalkeeper.