K's no longer Kings!


The Rabblers 4,Kingstonian Supporters' 1
Saturday 6th December 2008
IFA League
at Belair Park

REPORT BY MATT HAMMOND

And so onto the morning after the night before, a top of the table clash and a Hamlet Christmas party thrown in for good measure. That's what the 20 or so hardy fellows had to deal with as a preamble to this match. Upon arrival at the ground you couldn't help but notice that there was an immediate problem as for once we outnumbered the opposition in significant numbers. Apparently Kingstonian had suffered a fate well known to Rabbler managers past and present.... late morning texts advising of illness, car trouble or unavoidable overtime. They were down to the bare bones (7 players) when a final call came through announcing that one of their players had a car accident on route to Dulwich, and wouldn't be able to play. At this point the game was in doubt but Andy, the K's manager rallied his troops and stated that they were still up for it. After a quick head count it was decided that we lend them 3 players to enable a game of two 35 minute half's to take place. With respect to our previous encounters, Hamlet went for a 4-3-2 formation which gave us the protection that Matt felt he needed at the back with enough players in the middle of the park to create chances for the forwards. After a cagey start Dulwich slowly began to take control. A couple of good Hamlet moves ended in both wasted chances and good K's defending and or keeping. Finally though the pressure told and Dulwich scored a neat goal, James O'Shaughnessy tucking away his first of the game. Kingstonian managed to battle back with the play seemingly being directed down their right wing, after some neat play the ball fell to one of their players on the edge of the area who hit a shot goal-wards. The ball was to close to the Hamlet keeper who managed to tip the ball over. The next chance that fell K's way dropped to Ian Gannon, a rabbler loanee. In a good build up Ian found himself in the box with only the goalie to best, a quick shot curling into the left hand corner was tipped away by an outstretched hand. Honour had been saved. However Kingstonian equalised after a David James style moment, a long ball was half-heartedly chased down by the K's forward. And in what seemed a routine move of collecting the ball out on the right of his area the Dulwich keeper inexplicably sliced a clearance. As the ball fell kindly to the opposition the home defence rallied. As they attempted to get the tackles in and hold the play up the forward cut back inside and hit a sweet shot that went in off the near post. Afterwards Matt Hammond explained this error as "seeing the ball and then losing it in the sun after which he just panicked." There was a truly bizarre moment in the game when an amalgamation of keeper, defender, post, keeper and finally keeper again kept out no less than 5 efforts on goal in a 30 second blitz. I still cannot work out how we didn't increase our lead as by this point the K's were already further behind with the pink n blue second goal coming via one of the 3 Matt's to turn out for the home side. After a break away he coolly tucked his finish past the on rushing K's custodian. It finally seemed as if the partnership of James and Matt was working. Half time came and after setting new strategies we approached the second half with vigour. Never has advice been taken on board as quickly or effectively as James did with his second goal. He was told to play the ball early, and boy did he. From our centre, it was no more than 6 touches that found Kingstonian 3 down. A series of swift passes found him around 30 yards from goal. In one movement he had knocked the ball up and unleashed a shot that soared over the keeper into the top corner. At this point it seemed inevitable that Dulwich would go on and record a large victory. Again our luck wasn't in while playing in the final 3rd of the field, with Larry, Fel, Matt (number 3) and the forwards having chances saved. Occasionally there was a wrong choice of pass but the overall play was good. The bite in midfield was provided by Al, Larry and Fel who worked hard winning the ball. While at the back possibly due to having an extra player Matt was able to step up to effectively play as an additional midfielder. This left the defence as Paul, Steve & Shaun who all made telling headers and blocks throughout. The goal-scoring was wrapped up by Matt who netted his second and Hamlet's fourth after about 55 minutes. Kingstonian battled on gamely with only some quick defending keeping the score down. A special mention should be made to Ian Wright, Phil Baker and Ian Gannon, the Hamlet players that enabled this game to go ahead with their willingness to turn out for the "oppo." Well done lads. I wouldn't like to name a man of the match as nobody really stood out and as you can tell by my description of the telling moments of the game I was too far away to see what happened, but if pushed I'd give it to Ian Wright, Phil Baker & Ian Gannon. As I mentioned without them we would not have had a game. It would have been easy for them not to play but they got on with and helped make it an enjoyable match Squad: Matt Hammond, Paul Verrico, Steve Rickerby, Shaun Dooley, Ian Wright, Matt Edwards, Matt Pike, Ferenc Morath, Lawrence Marsh, Phil Baker, Ian Gannon, James O'Shaughnessy & Al Margolies.

Thank you to Matt for this report, which will keep Chris T. on his toes! Now two differing reports on the same match in future would be great! No pressure chaps...
but seriously, thanks to both Matt & Chris. This blog is nothing without its contributors.