A round up from our two local newspapers, the 'South London Press' & the 'Southwark News':

A brief mention in the 'South London Press', in their Tuesday midweek edition, from their Non-League column:

"Dulwich were ousted from the cup after a 3-1 defeat at Romford. They took the lead through a Vernon Francis header and Paul Idem saved a penalty. But the stopper was then beaten by an innocuous punt down the field and conceded another two to knock Hamlet out."

On Thursday, the 'Southwark News' told us:

Hamlet pay the penalty

Hamlet may have discovered a keeper with a penchant for saving spot kicks but stopper Paul Idem could not prevent Dulwich exiting the FA Trophy. The young number one stopped three spot-kicks in a week,the last for the first team against Romford, after displaying similar heroics in a reserve team and youth team fixture in the last seven days. Against romford Hamlet started well and took the lead thanks to a Vernon Francis header but three efforts from Adam Salmon, Nick Reynolds and Reece Hewitt saw the east London side ease into the next round of the Trophy. Hamlet are back in action this Saturday, this time the second qualifying round of the FA Cup, when they travel to Arlesey Town. They return to league action next Tuesday when Dulwich take on Sittingbourne, again away from their Champion Hill base."

Actually three penalty saves in a month, but never mind...

Today, in the weekend edition of the 'South London Press' there was news on Gerry Gonnella:

Dulwich aim to raise cash for Gonnella

" Dulwich Hamlet are hoping that they can help to raise some crucial funds for midfielder Gerry Gonnella's knee operation, writes Richard Cawley.
Gonnella seriously damaged his anterior cruciate ligament in a pre-season friendly for the club - repeating an injury that previously put him out of football for an entire year. He now faces the choice between a £6,000 operation that will get him back inside a year, or a two-stage procedure with a much longer recovery timescale. Hamlet boss Gavin Rose said: "We're going to see if we can do a fundraiser or event to try and support him towards paying for the surgery because he has been a Dulwich boy for a long time. So we want to do something as a club and a squad. People tend to forget that these boys' livlihoods are affected and they put that on the line- no-one gets that financially rewarded at this level. Last year Gerry spent four months not working and you can only imagine what that does to someone."
Meanwhile, Rose is hoping to have last season's top scorer Frankie Sawyer (groin) back in the fold for tomorrow's FA Cup second qualifying round game at Arlesey Town. But Lewis Gonsalves and Dean Carpenter are both doubts after being forced off with knocks in last weekend's 3-1 FA Trophy defeat to Romford. "We could be in a spot of bother in terms of putting a team out," admitted Rose. "But there are younger lads in the development team that are enthusiastic and won't let us down. It is a brilliant learning curve if they are involved-sometimes you have to wait ages to play in an FA Cup tie, but they may get a chance early in their careers. You've got to turn these type of situations into a positive'"

There then followed another small piece:

Keeper Idem's unique hat-trick

Hamlet stopper Paul Idem has bagged himself a unique hat-trick-saving a penalty in three of Dulwich's recent matches. First he kept out a spot-kick for the reserves, before producing another one in the 6-0 drubbing of Met Police in the FA Youth Cup. Idem made it a treble when he produced another save in the Romford tie last Saturday."