Chatham Town 3 - 2 Dulwich Hamlet

Those of you who followed my twitter updates (http://twitter.com/ChathamTownBlog)on last night's game will already have an idea of the course of last night's game. Chatham won 3-2 in a game where both sides were in truth below their best, Dulwich Hamlet understandably so following the tragic death of a former youth team player, Rio McFarlane, who at 18 years of age became the latest victim of London's gun crime plague on Monday.

Hamlet had asked the league for a postponement. Many of their first team are contemporaries of McFarlane, and the first team management had nurtured him through the youth set up for which they are also responsible. News coverage of the murder is still scant, McFarlane's identity only released to the press today, and its thought he had no links to any gangs. Police dealing with a fatal accident involving a motorcyclist heard shots in Pearse Street, and found McFarlane fatally injured. Chatham Town reportedly offered a minutes silence, which was gracefully turned down by Hamlet who it is thought will choose to honour their fallen comrade at their next home game at Champion Hill. The football really fades in comparison to the 15th senseless killing of yet another teenager on the capital's streets, but all credit to Dulwich who put on a decent show and took a deserved lead in the 12th minute, when a great ball from midfield found the pacy Sol Pinnock, who whipped a low cross into the box, which James Tedder failed to get down to, and Carlton Murray-Price fired home.

Hamlet then controlled the game until around the half hour mark, pressuring well in midfield and chasing every ball with gusto. Chatham did settle eventually, and threatened an equaliser as Nick Hegley came into the game more and more. The leveller came with almost the last kick of the half, and many Chats supporters were surprised to see it stand, the first hint that Aaron Firth's tap in had counted being his almost hysterical celebration of his debut goal. But stand the goal did, a real sucker punch for a visibly shaken Hamlet as they came off, their young keeper James Dunn remaining just the right side of calm with the referee.

Into the second half, and Chatham started the brightest, and on 50 mins, Brad Potter did what Brad Potter does best, and that is drift anonymously into the box with a perfectly timed run to connect with a pin point cross, on this occasion making the best of a pin point Nick Hegley free kick to head home from just inside the six yard box and a muddle of players of both sides.

Chatham held their lead, and threatened to add further, but were pegged back by Dulwich in the 68th minute when the Chatham defence fell apart like some sort of Red Sea, for Hamlet's Tom Lancaster to make a surging run before belting the ball from all of 20 yards into Tedder's bottom right. The stalemate wasn't to last for long though. After an immediate Dulwich attack from the restart which saw Tedder save superbly at his post, Hegley won a corner for Chatham on the counter attack which Matt Solly curled for the again unmarked Potter, an identical header only at the other post for 3-2.

Chatham rallied for more goals, a refreshing site, and Jason Barton could have made it four, only to stumble into the ball from Joe Fuller's pull back. Hamlet then pinned Chatham into their own half for much of the remainder, and despite several substitutions, could not muster an equaliser, that to be frank, had it happened, would not have been robbery.

After a few anxious minutes of added time, the whistle blew on a game that saw three rather hollow points for Chatham.



Would like to see: Callum O'Shea return. We only seem to attack on the left wing. He can play the right. But that would mean dropping Brad Potter, and at the moment he scores approximately 33% of our goals.

Man of the Match: Joe Fuller. Combined superbly with both Hegley and new strike partner Aaron Firth all night.

You wouldn't believe it: The geniuses at the Ryman League, who refused to postpone this match as McFarlane wasn't registered as a player at Hamlet. The fact that he was very much a talented player with a big future (he scored in his debut for Cambridge United's reserves the day he died) , and understandably a well liked former player of the club and friend of many players, officials and the club management, seemingly ignored. And this in the same week that the same league allowed Croydon Athletic to postpones its immediate games in the Ryman Premier league because they can't fulfill their fixtures, because the allegedly criminal owner (the international cricket fixer who fell for that fake sheik) funnily enough no longer has any money to, by his own admission, launder through the club. Harlow Town's benefactor disappeared for some reason last season, and they, like many of the financially stricken clubs throughout the non league game, kept the season alive by fielding a mixture of youth and unpaid players for the season. Croydon have a youth set up that predates Mr Cricket -BetUnfair's involvement with the club, and those players should be used. Its almost as if the league are embarrassed by the ease with which Croydon Athletic bought the Ryman 1 South title last season with players of too high a calibre to be funded by average crowds of 200 bored Palace fans. Its almost as if they're embarrassed by the fact that they never questioned the money. Some including myself, did. Here's a post from 2009.

http://chathamtownfc.blogspot.com/2009/08/money-will-out.html