Saturday, 21 February 2009

The Ladyboys have the balls to beat us again!

"The Rabblers" 6
Ladywell FC 11
22nd November 2008
Friendly match at Belair Park

With a strong wind blowing across the pitch, it would seem this would have a bearing on the result of this match.
In the end it wasn't the blowy conditions but the inability of the Dulwich defence to clear their lines and cope with the low sun!
All seemed well at the outset as Dulwich had the better of the early exchanges and it was no surprise when after 5 minuntes some short interchange around the Dulwich midfield the ball arrived at the feet of DAVE YUILL 25 yards out, he moved forward unchallenged easing into the box from the right and from about 16 yards hit a sweet shot with the outside of his right foot and the ball nestled in the bottom corner past the despairing dive of the Ladywell keeper. On 8 minutes it was 2-0 to Dulwich & again the midfield interchange was slick and ball was slotted through the centre of the Ladywell defence for DAVE HEDGES to run onto and ease the ball past the advancing Ladywell keeper into an unguarded net. At this point Dulwich were looking quite comfortable but the the pendulum swung! On 13 minutes the Dulwich defence was caught flat footed and one of their forwards advanced into the box and shot under Matt Hammond, Steve Rickerby chasing back could only help the goalbound effort into the back of the net for an O.G.
Dulwich had a chance to restore the two goal advantage but the Ladywell keeper made a brave save at the feet of Dave Hedges.

It seemed after this that Dulwich hit the self destruct button and totally fell apart. Five more unanswered goals followed as Dulwich looked totally disjointed and half time came with the score Dulwich 2 Ladywell 6.

The second half started and carried on in the same vein as the last 25 minutes of the first, and within eight minutes of the restart Dulwich found themselves 8-2 down and staring down the barrel of an extremely heavy defeat. The troops attempterd to rally and debutant ETHAN MEADE was growing in confidence by the minute. From a corner forced by Ethan the ball found its way back into the six yard box where the ball fell to the feet of Ferenc who managed to find the only defender on the line who blocked his shot, the rebound fell kindly for Dulwich and the ball arrived back at the feet of FERENC MORATH who this time made no mistake rifling the ball home from 4 yards, reducing the deficit to 8-3. Dulwich then produced a ten minute spell of poor play conceding three more goals and with around 20 minutes still to go the score was now 11-3 to Ladywell. Strangely at this point where you would expect Dulwich to totally fall apart they didn't, we picked ourselves up, brushed ourselves down and had their best spell of the game. Forcing a couple of quick corners in succession which from the second a near post flick on arrived at the foot of the late run of SHAUN DOOLEY who blasted a volley into the
roof of the net from 5 yds, now 11-4 to Ladywell. The Dulwich attacks were coming thick and fast, Ethan now having a field day against the tiring Ladywell defence. It was from one of these mazy runs that led to ETHAN MEADE entering the Ladywell box and slotting the ball past the Ladywell keeper. 11-5 to Ladywell with about 10 mins to go. Soon after Dulwich were back on the attack and a good run down the left from Ethan found him in space and he delivered an excellent cross from which young Jamie Gannon,also making his debut, escaped his marker and he met the cross first time, the ball going agonisingly inches past the post with the keeper rooted to his line. With Dulwich's superior fitness now showing it was no surprise when good work in midfield put ETHAN MEADE in behind the Ladywell defence and he comfortably slotted past the advancing keeper. 11-6 to Ladywell, after this though there were no further goals. With Dulwich definately in the ascendency and another half an hour we may have witnessed the
greatest ever comeback, but alas, we will never know!!!


The "Rabblers" team was:

Matt Hammond
Ian Gannon & his son Jamie Gannon (debut for the youn 'un!)
Ferenc Morath
Jake Salmon (debut, one of the 'posh lot' from the FA Trophy games!)
Paul Verrico
Dave Penney
Steve Rickerby
Dawn Taylor
John Pendergast
Chris Garrett
Chris Tabrett
David Yuill
Ethan Meade (debut)
Dave Hedges (debut, another of the 'posh lot')
Shaun Dooley

Grateful thanks to Shaun Dooley for this report.

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