To Elland back!

There’s an assumption that the make up of the Dulwich Hamlet Supporters’ Team is made up of the loyal ‘hard core, home & away every week’ boys & girls behind the goal.
Well yes, some are, but not all, by a long chalk. Some of “The Rabblers” sit in the seats, while others rarely go to away games. Others have a big Football League side as their ‘first love’, with The Hamlet their second side. It really is an eclectic mix that plays for us!

One such fan whose main team is a professional one is Ferenc Morath, who despite being a Leeds United fan, has been frequenting the Champion Hill terraces since the early nineteen seventies!

We had a chat to him about all things football the other day….and it turned into the longest interview I’ve conducted so far, probably made easier that I was interviewing my brother! But don’t be put off by the length of it, it really is an entertaining read!



RABBLER: You’re one of the breed of Hamlet fans for whom Dulwich come second. Your first love is Leeds United, then us. Why Leeds, and how Dulwich?
FERENC: The Leeds thing came about because when I was a young kid I used to go round to visit my godmother, who lived in Charlotte Street, off of Tottenham Court Road, and she used to let me stay up late to watch “Match of the Day”. Everyone at school supported the likes of Arsenal or Manchester United, even in those days. So I just wanted to be a bit different. I was watching “Match of the Day”, in 1970, and Sutton United were playing Leeds United in the FA Cup. I didn’t know that Sutton were a non-league side, I was just impressed with Leeds, who looked really good to me. So I chose them as my team. It really was a fluke that I became a Leeds fan. As for Dulwich…well we grew up behind the ground on Leconfield House. We could see the players training on the old back pitch clearly from our balcony! We couldn’t have lived much closer to the ground, I suppose I was just lucky we were so close.

RABBLER: It’s your fault that your younger brother Mishi is a Dulwich fan? Any regrets about this? Surely you owe an apology for everyone else?
FERENC: No, none at all! I’m grateful he supports Dulwich, in fact if he’d bee a Millwall fan I’m sure he’d being doing time inside by now. You could say it turned out to be a lucky escape for him. Much as I would like to apologise it has actually been to everyones’ benefit. Down the years he has provided much entertainment for lots of people at Champion Hill.

RABBLER: So when did you first start playing for “The Rabblers”?
FERENC: (After a long pause for thought) You know I’m not quite sure. It must have been in the very early days, on & off. God, I just can’t remember. But it was a long time ago! Possibly even in the first game, but I’m not sure. I know I did play on the old Champion Hill pitch, so it could have been the first one.

RABBLER: You suffered a serious injury a few years ago against a local Bermondsey side, in a match player at the old Fisher Athletic ground on Salter Road. What exactly happened?
FERENC: I remember it well. Four of us went up for a ball in the box, and all four of us fell on top of each other, while doing it. Unfortunately I was at the bottom of the pile as we came to earth with a thump, and the combined weight of all four was on my wrist, which was completely smashed. I didn’t realise how serious it was first of all, and thought it was just a sprain. In fact I was asked if I wanted to go back on towards the end of the second half, but only said no because a couple of lads had turned up very late, & I thought it better to give them a run out, as it was at a proper ground. It started swelling up in the bar & Matt Hammond took one look at it & suggested that I go to hospital to get it looked at. So I cycled towards the Minor Injuries Clinic at Guys’ on my pushbike, with only one grip on the handlebars! I didn’t go straight there though, I stopped off at a pub to watch England play Wales in a World Cup qualifier on the telly. I got x-rayed at Guys, and they sent me straight over to St. Thomas’ where I was pumped full of morphine and operated on! The only thing I was worried about was if I would be allowed to fly with a cast on my arm. As I was due to go out to Azerbaijan to see England a couple of days later! Luckily I got a note from the doctors there giving me permission to go.

RABBLER: As I recall it your wrist was totally shattered. The bones were in so many pieces that the doctors said they hadn’t seen such an injury where they had all shattered in someone so young. It was something that they usually only saw in the very old.
FERENC: Nonsense. I don’t recall anything of the sort! Move on. Next question!

RABBLER: When you first started watching “Match of the Day” in the late sixties the age of thirty was seen as the age when players began to hang up their boots and were past their prime. Nowadays, with the advance of sport nutrition and science it’s the mid to late thirties. Yet you’re now 47. How much longer do you intend to keep on playing?
FERENC: My ambition is to beat Mark Hutton’s record of being the oldest ever goalscorer. (Rabbler: Mark was 56 when he scored a goal in the PSG Belgium Supporters’ tournament, in Namur, Belgium, in May 2006) Even when I’m that age I’ll still be fitter than half of the younger members of “The Rabblers” are now.

RABBLER: So who is your role model then? Stanley Matthews or Mark Hutton?
FERENC: Oh Mark Hutton! He’s my hero. Ernest Mandel is my international hero. And Hutty is my footballing one!

RABBLER: You’re going on the tour to Namur at the end of the month. How much are you looking forward to it?
FERENC: Oh hugely! I think it’s going to be a fabulous trip. I just hope that Nicolas (Lucas, our contact with Namur, also of PSG Belgium) doesn’t cheat again and pad the opposition out with half decent Belgian semi-pro players, like the ringers he brought over to Champion Hill when his Paris Saint Germain fans won the our ‘Pa’ Wilson Cup competition last summer. I would have thought that Nicolas should have learnt about fair play, justice and a sense of honour, having been over to England so often. But he is contaminated by his dealing with France, hopefully this time he will simply be an honourable Wallonian from Belgium.

RABBLER: You have been on a few of the previous tours. What are your abiding memories of them?
FERENC: I have to say I agree with Mick (O’Shaughnessy) with what he said in his interview here last month. All of us strolling through that really posh shopping area in Rimini in our full kit takes some beating! That was after we’d played our last match of the group, and the last bus couldn’t get us all the way home. I do recall that last clash. We were playing a French team and thought that because we were English we would have been out on the piss all day, & that they would slaughter us. In fact we all battled superbly for a 2-2 draw, which meant they finished bottom & not us! The icing on the cake for me was that I kicked their flash git all over the park! As mentioned in your previous interviews, by everyone who saw it, there was also Myles Quinns horrendously hilarious fashion shopping spree in Rimini. Who can forget his two sizes too small Union Jack top! And Dave Blythe failing in his hunt up and down the seafront looking for a local drug dealer to get some gear..at the age of 58!
The trip to Paris, when we played the Belgian PSG mob was superb. Possibly one of our best ever performances. It was marvellous to play at their actual training ground. Though we didn’t have a clue where it was, and went thought it was in Versailles! We did get to the right station, but it was miles away, and our tickets wouldn’t work at the barriers. It was hilarious trying to see Mishi & Matt squeeze through the barriers! It was a bizarre, but still magical day. After the game we stood quaffing beers by the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere, as they produced crate after crate of beer from the back of their cars! And later they said they would take us somewhere to eat. I expected a nice little French bistro, but we ended up in McDonalds! When we went to the ‘big’ game in the Parc Des Prince in the evening I was lucky enough to get one of the tickets actually in the ‘Boulogne End’ with the Belgian PSG fans, with some of “The Rabblers” to our right in the next block. And who can forget the Algerian bar we took over near our hotel, in a rather rundown, ethnic suburb on the edge of Paris, not far from the Red Star ground? A bunch of white geezers bowl in, but as soon as they realised we weren’t French they made us really welcome, with some of the locals getting so drunk they actually started fighting each other. It was almost as if they’d laid on the cabaret just for us!

RABBLER: Aside from tours, and your wrsit injury, what supporters’ games can you recall? Do any stick out?
FERENC: A big, big personal one was when I scored a hat-trick when we won 4-3 at the Crystal Palace all-weather pitch against a team from the Sydenham Squash & Tennis Club, who were organised by Hamlet fan Dave Blythe. Whatever happened to him?
RABBLER: We’re not sure, he moved away from the area, & the last we heard he was in the Brighton area, but that was at least a year ago now…Was that the same all-weather pitch at the Palace that Phil Baker forgot to book a week or so ago, for out ‘non-game’ against his Lokomotiv Ladywell team?
FERENC: That’s the one. He really is a twat for mucking that up. Probably found it too difficult to get the money out of his wallet to book the pitch in advance, the tight git. I don’t know how Hutty’s put up with him as his mate, over the years. But other memories? There was one of our old five-a-side competitions that Mishi organised for a few years in the nineties. This one was on the all-weather pitches on Greendales, behind the ground. “The Rabblers” team I was in were playing London Manchester United in one of our games. We drew 1-1, and I scored the equaliser, which meant we had a penalty shoot out, so it must have been in the knock-out stages. When I hit the back of the net I did a Lee Chapman celebration. (Rabbler: That’s the ‘innocent’ one, with outstretched arms. You know..the one that’s like an aeroplane!) They had one poseur in their team with a Cantona shirt and who was playing with his collar turned up. He was waiting for the glory of scoring their last penalty. I took our last one and scored, which meant we went through, and he went to take their last one, not realising he’d cocked up the score, & it didn’t have to be taken as they were out anyway! He threw a quality strop, as he was denied his ‘moment!’ Sulk, sulk, sulk! Life really doesn’t get much sweeter than that! I have to say, I have really enjoyed all of this seasons games, even though the results haven’t gone our way. It’s a pleasure to be able to have a run out with such a great bunch of lads that are “The Rabblers”.
There was another game that springs to mind, I can’t quite recall the opposition, but I think it was the smug ones, AFC Wimbledon. It was about 5-1, or something like that, and they were gutted, desperately trying to hide it, and say ‘fair play, well done!’
And I know we’ve mentioned tours, but that game in Paris, when we drew with the PSG Belgians. A magnificent result at one of their spiritual homes, their training ground, against a much younger & fitter side, and with probably the dodgiest referee we’ve ever had the misfortune to have in the middle of any of the matches I’ve played in!

RABBLER: So what’s the difference between watching the Hamlet & Leeds United then?
FERENC: Erm, (another long pause, as if I’m mad!) that’s erm, aah, I’d have to go for the crowd atmosphere. Though both are as nutty as each other but in a quite different way. Both clubs have equally eccentric fans.

RABBLER: Accepting the difference in standards, which Dulwich player would you most like to have seen play for Leeds, and vice versa?
FERENC: The Leeds played I’d most like to have worn the Pink ‘n’ Blue is Vinnie Jones. The man had everything. Whatever level he played he put his heart & soul into his game. Totally. I put him above any individual player from any Leeds team. From Champion Hill to Elland road…probably Peter Crouch, but I never saw him play for us, and he was only a loan player. So I’d have to go with ‘Blobby’ himself, Peter Garland. If he’d kept himself fit he’d have been an absolutely brilliant player. He would, and should, have been superb at the top level. He was the best player I’ve seen who never made use of his talent.

RABBLER: FA Cup Third Round Proper 2009- “Number 36” ….. “Leeds United”; “Will play….” “Number sixteen”… “Ooh…it’s the last non-leaguers Dulwich Hamlet!” Your reaction?
FERENC: Um….I’d actually be really disappointed. I’d want the first game to be Champion Hill, Dulwich to earn an honourable draw, and then get well beaten in the replay at Elland Road, and go out of the Cup with glory, but for Leeds not to be too embarrassed. The only problem with this would be I’d be asked to get hundreds of tickets for the match at Champion Hill! But, in reality, it would just be nice for Dulwich to get to the First Round Proper and play a Football League team before I die.

RABBLER: So sort of similar to the Fourth Round of 1975, when Milton Keynes Dons, then in the southern League under their previous name of Wimbledon, drew at Elland Road, before bowing out in a replay at Selhurst Park, but in reverse. I believe you was at that match at Crystal Palace. Wasn’t that your first ever appearance on television?
FERENC: (laughs out loud) I believe it might have been! I ran onto the pitch at the final whistle and patted Billy Bremner on the back! I was 14 at the time. I’ve never actually seen a clip of it, but I was the talk of the school the next day!

RABBLER: Weekends away with “The Rabble” must seem like old hat to you. You’ve been all over the world with Leeds United & England. What are some of the weirder experiences you can recall with club & country?
FERENC: Oh dear, I’ll have to think about that, that’s a hard one to throw at me. Most recently I’d say getting attacked by 300 Spartak Moscow fans down on their underground, when there were only twenty of us! That was on the way to the recent England game there! That was quite hairy, and if anyone’s interested theres’ even clips of it on YouTube out there somewhere!
Then there was Leeds game in the UEFA Cup, back in 1992, on my birthday actually, at Metalurgs, in the Ukraine. There were two types of local beer on sale at the game. One was about 6%, & the other 8%, both only sold in half litre bottles. If you’re not familiar with beer it makes pints of Stella Artois seem like cups of tea! I think the crowd was a bout 6,000. But most of them were steaming drunk, both the Leeds lot & the locals, and not just tipsy, but rolling drunk!
Probably the strangest thing I’ve seen on the way to a match was a passenger that was on our local train, on the way to an England Under 21s match in Bulgaria. As we got off at the local station a huge brown bear got out of a goods wagon at the far end and just started ambling down towards us. We all grabbed our cameras, before moving away a bit sharpish!
And I recall another Under 21 clash in Poland, the god awful town of Katowice, which Mishi was at actually, and there were about 200 England fans there. Mostly ‘lads’, shall we say. It was a terrible match, not helped that Emile Heskey was having a ‘mare. It was so bad that most England fans were actually contemplating leaving at half-time! But at the interval two mobs of Poles arrived, and lots of police, but they didn’t attack us, they spent the rest of the match trying to fight each other! The next day there was a mad moment before the proper international. We were drinking in a small basement bar when a Pole, from Kracow came in a ‘gave it large’. There were no more than fifteen of us. We told him to leave, then a few more of them were outside. We thought we were about to be attacked, so we stood together and had to defend ourselves, thinking there was only a small group of them about to ambush us. But, oops, there was at least 200 of them! But we managed to back them off, then the police moved in. Luckily the woman who ran the bar had been a student in England, so she was alright, and told the police that we had been provoked, & were defending ourselves. Though after they had gone she got rather emotional, I think she was rather shocked at how innocent drinkers in her bar had been targeted.
One England game in Moldova was a bit strange. After the game they turned the lights out. Not just the floodlights, but everything. The street lights, the house lights, the lot! They must have been having power shortages in the country at the time. As a consequence it really was pitch black, & you couldn’t see in front of your face, unless you had a cigarette lighter. Hundreds upon hundreds of people were milling around, not having a clue where their cars and coaches were. It was mayhem. I’m not sure how we got out of there, but I was surprised we weren’t still milling around as dawn broke! To cap a bad trip, our plane was ‘cancelled’ as the England team commandeered the supporters’ one, as theirs had developed faults. So we were stuck in a Moldovan airport for six hours! The bars quickly sold out, but somehow, from god knows where. They managed to rustle up a load of Russian champagne at a pound a bottle! Everyone was wolfing it down, and were well on the way by the time we got on the plane home!
An example, from donkeys years ago, about how lapse security was. It was the 1988 European Championships, in Germany. We were playing Holland, in Dusseldorf, and there were untold England fans without tickets. The turnstiles was just a row of police and stewards, who took a brief look at your match day ticket & that was it! What they never did was rip off the stubs as they were supposed to! So we were just collecting them up from people who didn’t want to keep them as souvenirs, and going back out to redistribute them. How there was not a crush, like Hillsborough, in the England section I will never know.
I’m going on a bit now, & I’m sure there’s lots more I could recall, but I’ll finish up with my trip to Azerbaijan with England. There was no hint of trouble, so we went into their end, as it was easier, it just happened to be the nearest entrance. We weren’t looking for trouble, and were having a good laugh with the locals, which is how it should be. Stood by us was a group of Azerbaijani boxers. And at half time they suggested we have a boxing match! Not a ‘tear up’, as in hooliganism. But a genuine ‘one on one’ series of bouts under traditional Marquis of Queensbury type rules! We, naturally, declined. Luckily they were k about it! The day before we’d tried to get to the England Under 21 match. Unfortunately not only were we running late, but our taxi driver ‘lost something in the communication’ & took us to the wrong ground! So we quickly piled through an open gate, and there were loads of people performing something on the pitch, which we presumed was the half-time entertainment, as we were that late. Wrong! It turns out we’d been dumped at the wrong place, & there was no game there at all, but we’d dashed slap bang into the middle of a celebrity Muslim wedding ceremony for two local pop singers & television stars, and brought the proceedings to a halt! There were about five or six thousand people present & they all started booing, as we had caused a grave offence, as a couple of us were committing the ‘cardinal sin’ of wearing shorts! We left pretty sharpish, & I in hindsight, were lucky not to get arrested or even lynched! We had inadvertently become the second item on the main news bulletins that night!

RABBLER: And simply some of the most enjoyable trips on your travels?
FERENC: Oh definitely the Leeds run to the semi finals of the Champions League in the 2000/01 season. We didn’t even think we get out of the qualifying group! Around that time I saw Leeds play at the Bernabeu, the San Siro, the Mestalla at Valencia, Deportivo La Coruna, Anderlecht & the Olympic Stadium in Munich! A far cry from the Johnson Paints Trophy, which we played in this season! I’ve also seen Leeds paly at Cheltenham Town this season, where I Dulwich play in the trophy a few years ago. That Hamlet trip was one of my best ever Dulwich trips. I’ve been to places like Hereford, and even Yeovil Town-in the Isthmian League no less- with Dulwich. And now Leeds are playing them on a level playing field in league matches! One trip to Yeovil was one of my proudest moments with Dulwich ,when we stood up to the racist abuse dished out by the locals. As we did against Welling, in the London Cup final at Bromley.

RABBLER: Wasn’t that when you aquired a nickname ‘One Punch Fel’? What was all that about?
FERENC: I’ve no idea. You must be mistaken. Is this some sort of re-writing of history?

RABBLER: Leeds have no love for Manchester United. And closer to home some of their Yorkshire rivals like Sheffield United. Are these the one you hate, and who do you despise in your Hamlet hat?
FERENC: Definitely Man. U!!! Scousers too. Generally. Not specifically Everton or Liverpool. Though I do also have a hint of respect for Man. United; as I do for other rivals like Chelsea and Pompey. They are solid, loyal fan. You’re wrong about the other /Yorkshire teams. They’re nothing really, a bit insignificant. Bottom line is they’re just jealous, with a bit chip on their shoulder, about Leeds.
As for Dulwich-there’s absolutely no question! Tooting, & erm, Tooting! Far and away, absolutely streets ahead of anyone else I hate! Others? AFC Wimbledon, for their complete & utter arrogance. And Gloucester City, for THAT game in the Trophy, even though I wasn’t there. I’d like to play Gloucester agin one day. I do regret missing that one.

RABBLER: We’ve mentioned some big Leeds European games. What Hamlet matches stick out for you over the years?
FERENC: I’ve got to go with the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup, back in ’98, when we beat Newport (Isle of Wight), followed by the anticipation of the draw, & it actually being made live on telly, in the bar afterwards. The first day at the new stadium of course, which also happened to be my birthday. And for awaydays, the first time we played at Tootings new ground and beat them in the Trophy. A never to be forgotten afternoon! One that sticks in the mind, for the wrong reason, is losing to Ilford in a quarter final replay of the Amateur Cup, back in 1974, its last season. We really were better than them, and they went on to reach Wembley. Still the most disappointing Dulwich game I’ve ever been at. And the Southport game, in that First Round of the Cup. It was an amazing day even though we lost. The huge crowd and all the media interest, with the cameras there as well. Oddly enough one of the best games was the Wealdstone promotion play-off which we lost on penalties. Credit to the Wealdstone fans. It was the best atmosphere, from both sets of fans, I’ve seen at the ground. I really respected the Wealdstone fans for celebrating without taking the mick. It takes a big hearted and good set of fans to do that. Very few clubs are capable of doing that. I will always respect Wealdstone for that, always. In a sense they’re the polar opposite of AFC Wimbledon & are a shining example of how a big club should act when it goes down a few divisions. I’ve also got respect for Aldershot town. Their fans were respectful when they started off in the Isthmian, and to be honest there’s a few Dulwich fans who should learn some respect as well when we go to a small club, & when we play at home to littler clubs, who are playing at the highest level they’ve been at & are proud of that, but have a much smaller fan base than us. They are doing the best with the resources they have got.

RABBLER: Is it true that in the mid-seventies your nickname behind the goal was “Joe 90”? Why was that?
FERENC: (With a bit of a shocked look on his face!) Because I had these black rimmed, terrible thick glasses! But it could have been I was a really talented kid as well. I had completely forgotten that! Looking back to that time though, we had the most virulently racist fans in the mid seventies, so I never really joined in with them. But that was the seventies, and you didn’t really challenge it. I was only young really, too. No excuses, but that’s what it was like then. Times have moved on, like when we stood up to the racist Yeovil fans at their place, despite being badly outnumbered. And that was thanks to Richard Watts, who was the first of us to stand up and shout ‘RACIST SCUM!” and we all joined it. I really admire the lad for that. We weren’t quite sure what to do, But Richard stood up to be counted and took action. They were bigger & older than most of us, and we were outnumbered. If they had charged up at us we would probably have got battered, but Richard was inspirational, and we all backed him up. He deserves to be fully credited in “Rabble” folklore.

RABBLER: So back to those goggles then. Wearing them you would have borne a bit of a passing resemblance to everybody’s favourite idiot Hamlet fan Sketchley?
FERENC: No, absolutely completely untrue! Nothing like Sketchley! Not even close! I’m so not like Sketchley! I’m the exact opposite! I’m hurt and stunned! Shocked that you could even ask the question!

RABBLER: Over the years it can’t have been easy being a Leeds & England fan with both having a terrible reputation for hooliganism. It must have been pretty hairy at times. How have you managed to avoid trouble through the decades of your following them both?
FERENC: A bit of luck by not being in the wrong place at the wrong time, as can unfortunately happen, and just being very, very careful. You develop a sense of trying to anticipate when trouble will occur. I guess I’ve just been lucky & managed to avoid most of it.

RABBLER: How’s your spelling? Is it true that when you were a teenager you spray painted “SUPER LEEDS” on a garage wall on Denmark Hill, but actually messed it up, and spelt “Leeds” with three “EEE’s?”
FERENC: Well I wouldn’t want to be accused of causing any criminal damage, so that would have been absolutely impossible! Are you sure you have the right person? It’s a long time ago, but I can’t recall having done any such things. Perhaps someone had similar writing to me at the time, and you’re getting confused…

RABBLER: Was that the same Denmark Hill on which the sidepanel of your pride & joy Lambretta scooter, which you had in your younger parka wearing Mod days, fell off and you had to hastily run down the road to retrieve it, as the passing cars & buses were hooting at you?
FERENC: Yes, I have some sort of vague recollection of that, at least. Erm, do you have any more proper questions to ask?

RABBLER: If you insist! You appear to enjoy watching Leeds much more this season in the Third Division, to give ‘Division One’ it’s traditional & proper name, rather than being ripped off and forced to sit down & be quiet at Premiership grounds. Do you think this general disillusionment, and the expense of going to see your Arsenals & Chelseas could filter down all the way to Champion Hill and help clubs like Dulwich?
FERENC: Definitely. It actually just needs a bit of vision at Dulwich. There’s a huge market out there. Hopefully someone at the club will grasp this. It’s not just about youngsters, but vast amounts of Eastern Europeans, who are football crazy, would love the atmosphere and grass roots aspect of clubs like Dulwich.

RABBLER: So that’s your hopes for the future, how would you like to finish this interview? Maybe by summing up the past?
FERENC: Looking back supporting Dulwich is one of the best decisions I made in my life. Both watching the First Team & playing in the Supporters’ Team. It’s also been wonderful to see my nephew Raymond wear the famous Pink ‘n’ Blue for the Youth Team & the Reserves. How far he’ll go I don’t know, but just to see him play for the team who our family have supported since we were kids makes me proud. I know Mishi certainly is too! With regard to the fans, well there’s a great bunch of people down here at Champion Hill. The sheer eclectic mix of the supporters’ is amazing & anyone who doesn’t support Dulwich Hamlet is missing out on something in life. Life is supposed to be enjoyed, and people certainly do that. It shouldn’t all be about money, and not all about winning. It’s about having fun, respect for people and living life to the full. I’d like to think that being a Dulwich Hamlet supporter encompasses that all! Thanks for the interview, I’ve really enjoyed it!