Dulwich H

[djwilf]

Not sure I've seen predictions on here before .....so thought I'd get in with my own for tomorrow as seems so long since our last league game at home.

 

I'm going for 3-1 win and crowd of 741.

[The Crowing Cockerel]

Playing a Dulwich side who seem to be on an upward trajectory.

2-2

Crowd 808.

[seemgee]

Forster, Parcell, Payne, Thomas, Okotcha, Richmond, Youngs, Adjei-Hersey, Knight, Wyllie, Beckles-Richards

Taaffe, Onyeagwara, Donnellan, Hippolyte, Conolley

 

[seemgee]

1 down after 35 mins

[seemgee]

2 down 55 mins

[seemgee]

1-2 Youngs pen 70 mins

[seemgee]

2-2 Hippolyte 83 mins

[seemgee]

3-2 Richmond 90 mins

[seemgee]

FT 3-2 win

att 636

[symptomless]

I'm only going to leave positives here:

Resilience to fight back from 2 down 👍

The new striker looks lively and skillful, a good addition to the squad.

3 more points.

 

[The Crowing Cockerel]

At 0-2 I was ready to come on here and bemoan the disastrous long balls played over and over up towards our forwards which were easily dealt with by the Dulwich centre-halves. I was ready to criticise Micky P for his weak back pass which led to the first, and our general profligacy in front of goal. Fortunately, Dulwich still seem to be beset by the frailties which have evidently dogged them so far this season. Despite conceding the 2nd goal shortly after the red card, the sending off was the turning point. Though we made hard work of it, we deserved at least 3 goals today and the points. About time we showed this kind of resilience. Thought Olly Knight had his best game in a while and deserved the MoM.

[djwilf]

What a bizarre afternoon.

 

Very flat first half, where Dulwich looked dangerous on the break and we had possession but not enough end product.

Thought their RB could have received a a 2nd yellow before half time when Ollie was clattered but the referee waved it away, I think due to a possible advantage to us.     More about him to come.

When they did go down to 10 men they looked the much more dangerous,  and their forward finished well into the corner.

Ollie did look to have his cross blocked by an arm straight after half time and again it was waved away, which upset all the Town fans behind the goal and many others too.

The penalty awarded to us may well have been a turning point however the pressure was building on their defence and I don't think they would have held out anyway.

Once Sam slotted it away, we had the momentum and our new signing finished nicely into the corner to make the scores all level.

Not sure how many fans would have had Richmond down as the matchwinner but it was a lovely finish past their keeper when he controlled well from I think Mickey winning a 50 50 on the edge of the box and it also made a difference pushing Mickey into midfield to give us more control in the last 1/4 of the game.

The referee assessor was sat a few seats away .....I'm not sure he had much paper left by the time he would have finished his report.   Yellow for Gavin at half time.   Their manager had a red at the final whistle,  I'm assuming for foul and abusive language.    Whether or not the red decided the game, we still had to come back from 2 down and it was lovely to see our response.   It certainly wasn't his best day at the office and strangely enough I thought he started quite well. 

 

Ollie was the deserved man of the match, he was a thorn in their side all afternoon and it was good to keep up the pressure on those around us at the top of the table.   Roll on the busy period over the next fortnight!!

[andyetfc]

Two turning points for me.

1. The sending off.

2. Somebody realising that it was pointless to hoof the ball to their giants at the back. Results came when we played the ball on the ground.

Well done for coming back from 0-2 down.👍

[Benjrider10]

Good summary djwilf.

I was standing by the tunnel when the two teams came out and it was striking how tall a lot of the Dulwich players were. All of their back 4 plus the front 2 looked well over 6 foot. You could guess at kick off the style of football they were going to play - and so it proved. Direct, physical and somewhat one-dimensional (a bit like us last year).

First half we had most of the possession but didn’t create enough clear cut chances. Wyllie and Beckles-Richards made some good runs and fed off Ollie Knight in particular, but we just couldn’t thread that killer final pass through. There was a Dulwich back header that looked like it was going in for an OG but hit the post, and then they took the lead from a penalty after Parcell’s back pass sold Forster short, his clearance was blocked and their striker ended up on the floor after a goalmouth scramble. I was a fair way away but it looked like a penalty to me. Against the run of play, but that’s football.

And the came the incident you already described right at the end of the first half. I had a clear view of it. It was a definite yellow card foul by the Dulwich right back (who had already been booked only a couple of minutes before), but as the ball had already set Beckles-Richards free and he was directly through on goal with only the keeper to beat, I thought the ref’s decision to play the advantage was sensible. RBR should have equalised, he got round the keeper but a defender got back to clear his semi-scuffed shot. At this point, the ref should have stopped play and given the right back a second yellow (therefore red). His decision not to do incensed the ETFC players (Parcell in particular), the bench (Gavin MacPherson was booked) and the fans. A sour end to the first half which fanned a real sense of injustice.

Second half we started where we left off I.e. playing the better football but not really creating anything clear cut. Then the Dulwich right back made another clumsy (and totally needless) tackle near the half way line which did earn him a second yellow and the game changed - unfortunately, for the worse, as Dulwich actually started to play some football and went 2 up with a well taken goal.

We huffed and puffed without really threatening, and then came the pivotal moment. Until then, it felt like nearly all of the 50/50 decisions were going Dulwich’s way, but I have to say that the penalty we were awarded was harsh. Difficult to be sure in real time (and thank god we don’t have the shambolic VAR at our level) but it looked to me like ball to hand rather than hand to ball, after a shot was blasted in. If I was a Dulwich supporter, I’d be fuming. Anyway, Youngs did extremely well to stay calm, ignore the provocation and madness going on around him, and score a really good penalty. There was a lot riding on it and he made it look easy.

From then on (about 15 minutes to go) the momentum shifted completely. Ollie Knight put in cross after cross and I felt the equaliser was a matter of time. Hippolyte came on for RBR (I think) and slotted in nicely up front, showing good control and positional awareness, and was in the right place at the right time when the ball broke to him in the area to slot home our second.

And then we nicked the winner in injury time, Richmond’s superb first touch and crisp shot flying into the corner!! A goal well worthy of match winner! 

A really good game in front of a healthy attendance (Dulwich supporters were there in numbers). That late winner sets us up nicely for the festive programme and I can’t wait for Boxing Day. Would be nice to get 3 points away at Cheshunt where I suspect we will be in for a similar game.