A last gasp defeat!

Dover Athletic Supporters' 6 Dulwich Hamlet Supporters' 5

Saturday 8th September 2007 at Archers Court playing fields, Dover, Kent.

Dover were a step into the unknown for us, never having crossed swords with them before, though we did once enter a five-a-side competition run by their Trust a few years ago, which was played on their training area, just behind the goal, at the end of the ground where their bar is. What sort of 'monsters' were they going to be? For if you were to believe all you read on the unofficial Ryman forums then Dover is not the most hospitable place to come to. But I only judge on what I find, and from start to finish, they seemed a decent bunch. First they met us at the station and gave us lifts, right up to the final whistle when they handed out a tray of sandwiches, oh and some doughnuts mostly consumed in his epitimous gannet style by old man Hutty! Though they claimed to have had five goals disallowed, most were for pot shots at goal well after their own referee had blown for offisde, and one was after the whistle had gone after our keeper had been fouled! Though they said it was 'banter' I personally thought they gave their referee a bit too much abuse, and thought he did a reasonable job. We've certainly had a lot worse!

The only downer was the showers not working, as we were told by some of the locals that there was a problem with the pump, so it was plenty of deodorant and a somewhat sweaty bunch of Rabblers who headed to the Crabble for the big game in the afternoon. A game of two halves, Dover should have been 4 or 5 up at half time, but we turned in a superb second half performance, and matched them in the second half. not as one sided as some of their posters on their forum suggested! After we adjourned to 'The Cricketers' by the ground to watch the England game, and despite us coming back to deny them all three points the natives there were also friendly, and you have to wonder where Dover get such a reputation from? Jealousy perhaps?

But back to our game in the morning...I'll hand over to Andy Tucker to give you his version of events:

" The Supporters' Team were beaten in a frustrating manner in their first iFA match of the season away to Dover. A slow start saw Dover take the lead but Dulwich roared back at them to go 2-1 up at half-time, the second from Chris Garrett reminiscent of his one man march against PSG (Belgium) in Paris in January. Dulwich continued where they left off for the first thrity minutes of the second half with some marvellous play on the break, and with fifteen minutes left found themselves 4-1 up. As we started to tire against the fresher and younger legs of Dover (they had a squad of over twenty lads to choose from!) 'The Rabblers' were pegged back to 4-3, only for some comedy keeping to gift Lawrence Marsh our fifth with eight minutes to go. But tired legs told and it looked to be finishing 5-5 (probably fair on reflection) before 'time added on for the opposition to score' saw the cruel ending with Dvoer scoring the winner with literally the last kick of the match, despite nano-seconds earlier the referee indicating that there was still two minutes left to play. Well done to everyone who played-a stirling effort. Special mention for Shaun Dooley who returned to 'active service' after a break of almost a decade!

Named & shamed for not turning up and not letting anyone know in advance: Phil Doyle."

"The Rabblers": Andy Tucker; Nicolas Lucas; Paul Griffin; Chris Wheeler; Danny King; Mick O'Shaughnessy; Andy Murphy; Shaun Dooley; Lawrence Marsh; Ference Morath; Chris Garrett. Subs used: Dawn Taylor; Mishi Morath.

Goalscorers: Lawrence Marsh (2); Chris Garrett (2) Andy Murphy.

Back row: (left to right) Ferenc Morath; Lawrence Marsh; Mick O'Shaughnessy; Andrew Tucker; Mark Hutton; Nicolas Lucas; Chris Wheeler; Paul Griffin.

Front row: (left to right) Chris Garrett; Dawn Taylor; Shaun Dooley; Danny King; Andy Murphy; Mishi Morath.