We have nothing to lose. We’re two leagues below, we’ll just go out there and give a good account of ourselves, like we normally do, says Dulwich Hamlet's Junior Kadi

DULWICH HAMLET assistant manager Junior Kadi says his side are massive underdogs against Macclesfield Town on Tuesday night.

 

The Ryman Premier League outfit travel to Cheshire to contest a Buildbase FA Trophy Quarter-Final Replay.

The Vanarama National League side were 2-0 up inside the opening 18 minutes through Luke Summerfield’s brace, but Hamlet fought back to earn a replay, courtesy of goals from Quade Taylor and Ashley Carew’s late leveller when the two sides met at Champion Hill on 25 February.

“I thought we played a little bit naïve in the first 20-25 minutes against Macclesfield, a full-time outfit, ex-Football League club and they capitalised on that and they were 2-0 up,” reflected Kadi.

“I thought after they scored their second goal, the boys acquitted themselves really well, played to instruction and played with a bit more belief.”

Macclesfield Town sit in ninth-place in the Vanarama National League and go into Tuesday night’s replay on the back of a 3-0 away defeat to second-placed Forest Green Rovers, who are three points behind Lincoln City, who have a game in hand.

Kadi said: “Oh, it’s going to be a tough, tough game. They’ll be on their own ground in front of their supporters’. They’re a massive, massive club.  We have nothing to lose. We’re two leagues below, we’ll just go out there and give a good account of ourselves, like we normally do.”

If Dulwich Hamlet come away with the victory, then a two-legged semi-final against Tranmere Rovers await them.

Macclesfield or Dulwich Hamlet will have home advantage on Saturday, 11 March, before the second-leg takes place at Prenton Park seven days later.

If Dulwich Hamlet make it through, Saturday’s tie at Champion Hill against Tranmere Rovers will be made all-ticket, with the segregated visitors’ receiving 450 tickets and housed at the Greendale end of the ground.

“Wow! I mean it’s an unbelievable tie – but we can’t look forward to that,” said Kadi.

“We’ve got a game against Macclesfield, we’re massive underdogs, so we’ll go up there. It’s been a great cup run, so we’ll try to keep it going.”

Domestically, Dulwich Hamlet are now in the top eight in the Ryman Premier League with 54 points in the bank and are six points adrift of fifth-placed side Wingate & Finchley, but Gavin Rose’s Hamlet do have four games in hand.

Yesterday, they came away from Worthing with a 1-0 victory, courtesy of  Afolabi Oladipo Akinyemi’s 46^th minute goal.

“Worthing have had a torrid few results to be fair to them,” said Kadi.

“They set-up very, very well-organised, kind of sat off us and showed us respect and we struggled to break them down to be honest with you in the first half.

“In the second half we got a goal very early so it kind of sort of calmed the nerves a little bit and really in truth for the next 20 minutes of that game we should have probably scored a couple more, which would have been good, but you know yourself when the game’s 1-0 going into the last third of the game, they’re still in the game and if there was a mistake or an equaliser or a bit of magic from them, it was tough in the end, we were hanging on.

“We’ve got a lot of fixtures but we’re in a decent bit of form at the moment, we’re doing alright, so we’re taking each game as it comes really.”

Visit Dulwich Hamlet’s website:  www.pitchero.com/clubs/dulwichhamlet

Macclesfield Town  v  Dulwich Hamlet
The Buildbase FA Trophy Quarter-Final Replay
Tuesday 7^th March 2017
Kick Off 7:45pm
At Moss Rose Stadium, London Road, Macclesfield, Cheshire SK11 7SP