DULWICH CUP DREAMS TORPEDOED BY BOATMEN

13.09.09

So the long road to Wembley Way has hit a dead end beyond the city walls of Southampton, Dulwich defeated in a pulsating game they surely felt could have been theirs on the balance of opportunity thanks to a single strike from the boot of Barry Mason seventeen minutes from time. The disappointment felt by all, players, management, supporters alike was palpable, but the dream has died and now the Hamlet must turn their eyes from the caviar and toast of a trophy trail, returning once more to the bread and scrape of the league.

Heart of oak are our ships, jolly tars are our men, we always are ready; Steady, boys, steady! We'll fight and we'll conquer again and again. Hardastern of the docks where once the hoary hands of shipwrights sent Britain's fighting fleet out to rule the waves in the name of Imperial Britannia lies Netley, a rural outpost of suburban Southampton and beyond the city walls lies the neatly appointed VT Sports Ground, home to the now truncated, in name at least, works team of Vosper Thorneycroft. Once the workforce welded the steel, punched in the rivets and fine-tuned the motors of the crafts that held tight the yoke of English Empire and would later raid the Normandy beaches. Now new crafts are trade of the men and women of VT. As British shipbuilding, sucking on rare gasps of economic oxygen, becomes a lost metier so the men and women of VT turn to new trades. So the Boatmen, after climbing through local and county football, to ascend the giddy heights of the Southern League, mirror the changes at their philanthropic employers, past experience mixed liberally with local blood to produce a heady cocktail.

Perched atop the Zamaretto Southern League Division One South and West, hereafter referred to as Zam1S, the Boatmen came into this afternoon's game with a near perfect record, a penchant for scoring goals aplenty and a mean defence bar one blip. Their starting XI saw but two changes from last outing, league victory over the Wurzel boys of Frome. Regular first choice custodian, Lee Webber was out injured which meant a recall for understudy, Scott O'Rourke, though to call upon a former England Under 18 'keeper as backup is something most clubs might envy. Elsewhere Bryon Mason, scorer thrice in his half dozen outings so far, was missing from the squad.

The Hamlet team that had so comprehensively seen off Whitstable last time out looked almost identical with a brace of exceptions. Alim Sesay came in for Junior Kadi whilst Alex Tiesse replaced Lamin Ojo, still sore after limping out of the Whitstable victory a week previous.

The homesters made the brighter start with puppet master Kevin Gibbens pulling strings in the centre of the park. The one time Saint and now club captain may be more ironclad battleship than inshore raiding craft in his latter years but he displayed a distribution that threatened to unlock the Hamlet. It was his touch on from a long delivery out of defence that sent Warren Hunt scampering away on goal after five minutes but with the ominous presence of Osa Obamwonyi at his shoulder the final shot was tame and proved no more than an irritant for Kieron Thorp.

Dulwich responded and quickly won a corner, the ball whistled invitingly across the area but with nary a Dulwich head within range. Hunt had a chance to atone for his previous spurned opportunity when the hosts forced a corner soon after. The delivery pinged around in the six yard box, Hunt seizing upon it but lashing a wild strike a country mile wide of the far upright.

One the quarter hour Dulwich's up-tempo football should have brought reward. A trim interchanged 'twixt Shawn Beveney and Gerry Gonnella, sent to young midfield maestro darting into the box, full back Kevin Brewster panting in his wake. From eight yards out Gonnella attempted to clip the ball past the advancing O'Rourke but despite beating the diving 'keeper, he sent the ball wide of the back stick.

Thick and fast the chances came. Dulwich surrendered possession in the middle of the park. Hunt steamed off in pursuit of a pass but he could not shake off his shadow, Dean Palmer nodding the ball away from the striker at the last moment. VT tried to turn the screw. Speedy wingman, Marvin McLean, found a chance to spear the Hamlet flanks, darting past Sanchez Ming and sending in a low cross, bound for his forwards until Palmer's timely intervention. The action switched. Gonnella laid in the pass. Tiesse fast like a fox upon the ball and nicking it past a prostrate O'Rourke who had Lee Bright to thanks as the ball was larruped to safety before Tiesse could apply the coup de grâce.

Three minutes later and, by hook or by crook, the VT goal remained unbreached. Ryan James muscularly drove his way to the backline, refusing to concede a lost cause. Perhaps O'Rourke and his defenders expected the ball to run out for a goal kick for they had successfully hoodwinked the officials some minutes earlier for when James hooked to ball back low to the near post, the home rearguard seemed befuddled. A step over, a rebound off a red shirt, perhaps a surreptitious defender's hand to deflect it away but no goal was Beveney' attempt to hook the ball home from an acute angle proved in vain.

If Dulwich could go frustratingly close so could the Boatmen as Gibbens connected with a cleared Mason cross to spin a curling volley over Thorp but against the top of the crossbar.

As half time drew ever nearer, Dulwich redoubled the threat. O'Rourke had to be down smartly to make a clean save as Ming's rightwing cross enabled Tiesse to set up Luke Hickie for a sharp strike, bound for the bottom corner, through a crowd of players. On 42 minutes a rare free kick for Dulwich, perhaps their first of the half in a perilous position for VT, saw Obamwonyi rise highest through a crowd of defenders. The header had the power if not the direction though Tiesse was alert with a back post volley but too high to be a threat.

With the breeze at their backs the Boatmen might have sailed into a rapid-fire lead as Dulwich opened up the city gates for Hunt just 14 seconds in. But the forward was in benign mood dragging his shot wide of Thorp's left-hand post. However the tide turned and young Dulwich seemed to getting the measure of their more battle worn opponents. James attempted an action replay of his Whitstable Wonder, his cross in from the flanks leaving the hands of O'Rourke stinging as the ball bounced from his grasp.

57 minutes and once more Dulwich must have cursed the gods as Ming, haring in from the right wing lashing a cross shot beyond the reach of O'Rourke, the indefatigable James lunging at the ball as it sped across goal but unable to poke in.

Played in as sporting a manner as the modern game is, a rare blemish as Beveney was crudely and unceremoniously hauled back by Mike Spinney, an odious act admonished only with words by the man in black. Though some 25 yards from his target Gonnella might have been Torquemada for VT's sin, curling an exquisite effort over and beyond the wall only for the vigilant O'Rourke to spring and pluck the ball from the air.

The contest's decisive moment came with 73 minutes on the clock. A mixture of madness and magic, sprinkled with a little bit of luck, came to the boil to provide the recipe for the goal. Dulwich needlessly gave the ball away in the heart of the park, the ball threaded out to McLean loitering on the left, almost forgotten by his teammates. A stoked cross from the wingman had the heat taken off it by a defender's boot, setting it up perfected for Mason to meet the ball with a smooth shot stroked from 10 yards out that gave Thorp no chance.

Reinforcements were called for, the old guard replacing the young cubs with Junior Kadi and Nicholas Plumain on for Hickie and Sesay, Kadi taking up residence in the engine room, Plumain slotting in at right back as Ming was given a more attacking remit. Much to the frustration of the bench the injection failed to provide the medicine. VT had drawn confidence from their goal, squeezing the lifeblood from Dulwich's game. Even with ten minutes left on the clock the hosts showed their wily ways, heading into dark corners to fritter away the minutes. There were few chances for either side. With four minutes left, a throw in was working into Tiesse on the edge of the six yard box. Holding off the marker looming over him, Tiesse spun away from him but with the goal before him he scooped his shot over the crossbar. The last chance saloon saw Jamie Cheeseman replace Beveney in the dying embers of normal time but with minimal stoppages time was Dulwich's vanquisher, late pressure failing to provide a breakthrough.