TUESDAY EVENING MATCH PREVIEW – HARROW BOROUGH (AWAY) KO 7.45 PM

After suffering their darkest day this season at home to Harrow, Dulwich head to Earlsmead with the whiff of vengeance in their nostrils.

Incredible to think that it was less than two months ago that Harrow Borough arrived at Champion Hill on a balmy that produced a barmy result. The Pink’n’Blues had just lamped Folkestone Invicta 6-1 the previous Saturday whilst at the very same time Boro were being shredded to pieces by a clinical Dulwich Hamlet Old Boys XI, the team formerly known as Merstham. “When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions!”, the battalions clad in red, the sorrows Pink and Blue. The formbook screamed goals and so it came to pass but not from the expected source. Almost disinterested Dulwich disintegrated as Harrow belied their prior impotence in form of goal going two goals to the good through David Taylor and Lewis Driver by the quarter hour. The Hamlet did rally briefly as Nyren Clunis found the net four minutes before the break only for Harrow Borough to complete a 4-1 roasting as substitute striker Ibrahim Meite, already under the radar of the pro clubs, took advantage of slapstick Dulwich defending to add a brace of goals to bring the curtain down on the Hamlet Horror Show.

Fast forward to today and Dulwich have put that nightmare firmly to bed with the playoff places tantalisingly within reach with just one defeat in their last eight games in all competitions. By contrast Harrow Borough have slipped to penultimate spot in the Ryman League Premier Division, just four points clear of basement boys Grays Athletic. Delve closer and their precarious position might seem deceptive for their pathway has recently been cluttered with cup, 8 of last 12 games in the pursuit of silverware, just four in the quest for league points.

In the Emirates FA Cup, they achieved the Holy Grail of many Non-League clubs, reaching the competition proper and drawing a Football League side at that stage. After narrowly squeaking past Dulwich’s Saturday FA Trophy opponents Winchester City when Meite grabbed a last gasp winner, Harrow’s FA Cup adventure saw them beat National League South crisis club Margate 3-1 down on the Kent coast before pulling out their plum – a trip to Northampton Town. Unfortunately, could not last Harrow leaving Sixfields unhappy souls as they were hit for six by the Cobblers.

Borough’s Buildbase FA Trophy ambitions also necessitated a trip to the Kent seaside and a replay. This time Herne Bay, mid-table in Ryman South, provided the opposition. In a first encounter that swung both ways over the course of 90 minutes, both sides holding the whip hand it was to the veteran striker Marc Charles-Smith that Harrow were indebted as his 92nd minute leveller spared the blushes. The return game at Earlsmead proved less stressful after Charles-Smith gave his side a 14th minute lead. Though Herne Bay had a goal disallowed shortly after the break, Boro’ resisted the pressure from the visitors scoring twice in 6 minutes through Lewis Driver and Harry Newman to seal their passage. The draw could not have posed a tougher test, a long trek to the other side of Ipswich and the Bloomfields home of Needham Market, beaten just once at home in the league at that point. Yet put a silver trophy in front of them and Boro’ are like the hounds upon the hare. Despite Reece Dobson cancelling out Andrew Lomas late first half opener, Harrow retained their composure coming through a stern examination as Shaun Preddie exposed defensive dozing to fire home the winner after a short corner. It had been 11 long years since Harrow had reached this stage of the FA Trophy and their reward? Another Kentish day out, though the delights of a jaunt to loads-a-money Ebbsfleet may still be some years away with the first sod of the proposed £2 billion London Paramount Entertainment Resort yet to be cut.

The “minor” cups also proved prolific with Boro’ stinging Staines at the Wheatsheaf in the Alan Turvey Trophy by the odd goal in seven, a game with more switchbacks than the Battersea Big Dipper, that man Meite on target once more. In the first of the County Cup games, this for the Middlesex Senior Cup, the prolific livewire striker scored the opener in a 2-0 win over Hayes and Yeading before completing his second hat trick of the season as Uxbridge were roundly toasted 5-0, Meite’s enviable scoring record now stands at 17 goals in his 26 appearances for the Boro’ this term, all the more remarkable given that nine of those have been from the bench.

With all those cups getting in the way, Harrow fans could be forgiven for forgetting that there was still the Ryman League campaign to consider. If the chase for silverware had provided much joy, league form remained mixed to say the least. From the highs of that Dulwich delight, it was firing blanks at home to Billericay as the teams shared a scoreless draw. Three goals in a madcap four-minute spell, Lewis Driver getting his hands on a pair, proved the killer for Folkestone Invicta as they crumbled 4-1 at Earlsmead. Four long weeks after that Folkestone flattening Harrow, the toast and caviar of the FA Cup replaced by the bread and scrape of the league, were back in Ryman action, entertaining Kingstonian last Saturday. It was not a happy return as one Ryan Moss, late of this parish, bagged a 24 minute second half hat trick, his replacement Tom Derry putting the tin hat on a 4-0 thrashing with a late penalty as home goalie Tom Williams was dismissed. The result left Harrow deep in the drop zone but games a-plenty in hand of their relegation rivals.

This evening’s game takes place at Earlsmead, Carlyon Avenue, South Harrow, HA2 8SS – kicking off at 7.45pm. Directions can be found by visiting the Harrow Borough official website here,

Match Day Admission Prices

• Adults £10
• Concession £5 (over 65, students or pro club season ticket holder)
• Junior £2