The Chairman chats....

Here is Football Club Committee Chairman Liam Hickey's most recent column from last weeks programme, in case you missed it:

Good evening everybody and welcome to everybody connected with Hendon FC. It is always a pleasure to have them as our guests and I hope they enjoy their short stay with us.
Our sponsors tonight
I would also like to welcome our match sponsors Malt & Pepper who are here tonight to promote their new business in Camberwell. Malt & Pepper is London’s first beer led food concept. Beer is at the core of everything they do; whether it’s an ingredient, a marinade or a pairing that elevates the dish. They have teamed up with local breweries to take spent grain, an often wasted by product, and turn it into brownies, breads and bases.
They are popping up at The Bear, Camberwell through until the end of December 2017. Visit their website www.maltandpepper.london Our visitors tonight
Hendon have had a very good start to the season and, having moved to a permanent home last season, it is clear to see that they are a club on the up again. They have a very experienced manager in Gary McCann whose time in goal for The Hamlet is still fondly remembered; those present at Cheltenham Town will never forget his match winning performance.
I would also like to welcome John Anderson from Poole Town FC. He has travelled here this evening to earn more about the Dulwich Hamlet way of doing things. I hope that he enjoys his short stay with us and leaves with some food for thought on how he can grow the gates at his own club. We are often asked about what we do but John is one of the very few to act and come to see for himself.
Our fans
Over the last few weeks there have been more comments about the “strange” nature of our crowd, as if football isn’t for everybody. It may be difficult for other clubs to understand why people other than middle aged men want to watch non-League football but I am delighted that is the case here at Champion Hill. Mothers, children, babies, dogs are all welcome as we strive to be an inclusive community football club.
I also smile when I see people write that our crowd just seem to be here to have a social event and meet up with friends. Frankly, what’s wrong with that. I have loads of people that I have come to know over the years of supporting Dulwich and they, like me, didn’t turn up week in and week out because of the quality of the football over the years. It was a chance to meet friends and spend an afternoon in good company. In fact, it was the football that often spoiled a good day.
Still, it’s their loss that they cannot appeal to all parts of their community.
The Team
The season is now in full swing and it’s been difficult for Gavin with some very influential players having picked up medium to long term injuries. Any side in the league would miss players of the calibre of Nathan Green, Anthony Acheampong and Gavin Tomlin. Therefore, it’s been a real pleasure to see us find ways to win games using the less experienced members of the squad. Particular mention must go to Muhammadu Faal and Nana Boakye-Yiadom who have made match winning contributions already.
Nana’s hat trick in the last 11 minutes against Hastings United was certainly timely and secured the prize money in the Emirates FA Cup game and also earned us a visit to Slough Town this coming Saturday.
Talking of the Emirates FA Cup game, I was pleasantly surprised to be proved wrong in terms of the crowd for our game against Hastings United. To get a crowd of over 1000 for the game shows that the interest in, and support for, this football club is still growing
However, back to the injuries. These mean that your contributions to the 12th man fund are needed more than ever as we need to bring in replacements for the players to ensure that we keep moving forwards. The fund is already paying for Quade Taylor but we also need to find the money to keep other players here, at least in the short term. I hope that you will dig deep and help to maintain the squad we have put together because it is down to us, the fans, to fund any new players whilst our experienced trio are out.
Community Team
I continue to be impressed with all the great ideas that our community team come up with. Without wanting to steal their thunder, we have some fantastic stuff planned for Non-League Day on 7th October where we will be holding several events to showcase the work done to help those with mental health issues.
There are also a number of other initiatives coming up covering everything from NHS workers to the LGBT community which will just help to reinforce what a great club this has become and how brilliant our volunteer community team are.
Dulwich Hamlet TV
I hope that you are all still enjoying the output from Dulwich Hamlet TV which is the envy of many other clubs. If you have not yet subscribed then why not? It’s free and as professional a product as anybody can turn out.
However, whilst I am extremely grateful for the support of its initial sponsors, Solar Shed, Dulwich Hamlet Supporters’ Trust, UNISON, Jape Sports & Kappa, it really needs a major sponsor to take it forward to the next level. With almost 1000 subscribers already and the club’s high social media profile then this must be a great opportunity for a business with vision.
Kind Studio & Move Digital
Having said that, we do have some great new people always coming on board to help us. Recently, we have received some fantastic help from Kind Studio who have created a whole new suite of graphics for the club that we are beginning to use across our social media and Dulwich Hamlet TV. The work that they have done would have cost the club many thousands of pounds if paid for so I would like to thank them for their support.
At the same time, we are receiving support from Move Digital with our new website which is due to be launched within the next few weeks. They are helping us ensure that when you search for anything we do that we are the number one choice in search engines. Again, this work would cost more money than the club could afford if paid for. Thanks to Move Digital we will be able to achieve this at no cost.
The support of Kind Studio and Move Digital has been more valuable than any purely monetary sponsorship.
Look out for the launch of our new website in the next few weeks. I hope you will all like it.
And Finally, …Thank you to all our supporters who travel in numbers and are always supportive of the team. Get behind the team tonight and I hope loads of you can make it to Slough Town on Saturday to help the boys into the next round of the Emirates FA Cup. It’s about time we had a run in it.

Liam Hickey
Chair of the Football Committee