Dulwich Hamlet 2-1 Tonbridge Angels - It's not the end of our season. We've just got to make sure now we get into the play-offs, says Tonbridge Angels coach Justin Luchford

Dulwich Hamlet 2 – 1 Tonbridge Angels
Location	Champion Hill Stadium, Dog Kennel Hill, Edgar Kail Way, East Dulwich, London SE22 8BD
Kickoff	28/03/2016 15:00

DULWICH HAMLET  2-1  TONBRIDGE ANGELS
Ryman Premier League
Easter Monday 28^th March 2016
Stephen McCartney reports from Champion Hill Stadium

TONBRIDGE ANGELS’ coach Justin Luchford says the league title is a closed door but insists his side have got lots to play for as they aim to secure a home play-off semi-final.

The Angels lost only their third league game on their travels as Dulwich Hamlet maintained their play-off push in the Ryman Premier League promotion race.

Striker Afolabi Oladipo Akinyemi, 18, who is on loan from League Two side Stevenage, scored twice within the first 10 minutes on his home debut to put Dulwich Hamlet in the driving seat.

Tonbridge Angels pulled a goal back with 20 minutes to go through central midfielder Luke Allen’s third goal for the club but the comeback kings couldn’t grab a point.

“Disappointed, obviously the lads are gutted in there,” said Luchford, 39, after the game.

“We felt before the game if we got a win today we’re still in with a shout for the title but I think that’s closed the door on it if you’re honest so there’s a lot of disappointed heads in there because we’ve worked really hard.

“There’s nothing to be down about. We’ve just got to pick ourselves up and train on Thursday and go again. It’s not the end of our season, we’ve got lots to play for.”

Luchford added: “We didn’t start well. The first 10 minutes has killed us.  Apart from those 10 minutes we’ve got ourselves back in the game. Fair play to us, we kept going, we kept going.

“The wind has picked up again for the last 20 minutes and we couldn’t quite get enough crosses in to the box but we’re disappointed.

“The gaffer (Steve McKimm) has been saying it all season, we were fifth-from-bottom this time last year, we’re third in the table. Bite your hand off, right? So we’ve just got to make sure now we get into the play-offs.”

Dulwich Hamlet boss Gavin Rose knew his side had to claim a vital three points, especially with the sides below them closing the gap.

He said: “Very good result against a very good team, strong team.  I felt we got our tactics right at the start.  I thought that we could hurt them in behind, which proved the case with our two goals.

“We had to weather the storm a few times but I thought we limited them to not clear cut opportunities to things around the box, which was good.

“I thought we defended really well, worked really, really well as well.”

Tonbridge Angels lost both of their central defenders through injury with Jerrome Sobers going off with a groin/hamstring strain, while Sonny Miles was stretchered off due to his troublesome shoulder injury.

Luchford said: “I think Sobers is more hamstring, I think, than groin. He should be ok.  I think he just needs a rest this week. I’d like to think he’ll be alright for Saturday.

“Sonny is at the hospital at the moment, we’ll find out. We always knew he’d need an operation at the end of the season, whether they can pop it back in and can play in the last few games, we’ll see.”

Luchford says Laurence Ball will step in and believes Sobers will be fit for the trip to Hendon on Saturday.

He said: “We’ll see what happens. Bally has bene there or there abouts all season. Every time he’s played he’s done well so if Bally has to come in alongside Jerrome then Bally comes in alongside Jerrome.  We’ve got three centre halves for that reason. I don’t think necessarily it’s going to make much difference to us, just somebody else comes in and does a job.”

Tonbridge Angels supporters battled through travel chaos caused by  Storm Kate overnight and Dulwich Hamlet opened the scoring with only two minutes and 32 seconds on the clock.

Tonbridge Angels were enjoying possession inside the Dulwich Hamlet half before right-back Mitchell Nelson released Jordan Hibbert down the left.  He played the ball inside to Roman Micheal-Percil who cut the ball back across goal for Akinyemi to score from four-yards out.

It was a great start for the teenager’s home debut, in front of 1,434 fans at Champion Hill.

Rose was full of plaudits for his two-goal hero, saying, “He was excellent” he worked hard, he showed a lot of enthusiasm, he showed a lot of talent on the ball as well and obviously an eye for goal.  His two finishes fell to him on the spot but he read the game really well and kept up the play and put himself in the right position.”

Rose added: “Roman done really well down the left-hand side and cut it back inside. I thought he was excellent as well for us today.”

Luchford added: “It’s just disappointing. Our ball retention first half just wasn’t good enough and both of their goals came from us in good possession, without any pressure on the ball and they’ve turned that into attack.  We gave away the ball cheaply and they’ve scored two goals from it so from that way it’s disappointing.”

Clinical Dulwich Hamlet stormed into a 2-0 lead with their next attack, with nine minutes and 44 seconds on the clock.

Central midfielder Jack Dixon produced a sublime diagonal pass to find Nyren Clunis down the right wing.  He was given time and space by Jack Parter to whip in a cross of high quality.

Akinyemi got in between Sobers and Miles and his free header was planted towards goal, keeper Anthony Di Bernardo produced a world-class block diving to his right to push the ball onto the post but Akinyemi stabbed home his third goal in two games.

Rose said: “We’ve had Nyren playing sometimes on the left and sometimes on the right this year but we’ve put him back on his usual position on the right and he’s assisted three goals in our last four which shows how dangerous he can be.”

When asked about his side’s two goal lead, Rose replied: “Very pleased. I thought we got our tactics right today and I felt we probably could’ve caught them again on the break today.”

Luchford was disappointed with the way his side conceded again.

He said: “We’ll probably need to look at the video and see what’s happened there because obviously the two centre halves are only really marking one player and he’s got in between them both. It’s a bit worrying when it comes back of the post and we’ve still not there helping Tony out and I can understand his frustration but yes it was just a terrible start first 10 minutes, it’s just killed us.

“At that point of course you’re worried, but you’re not overly worried because there’s still long to go.  You know 2-0 every day of the week is a dangerous scoreline because if you get one invariably you can get another one so we weren’t overly worried at that point.

“It was more a case of just stay in the game, don’t concede a third obviously, stay in the game which we did.”

It should have been three when Kevin James released Clunis down the right, who cut inside and beat two Tonbridge defenders, all that was missing was the finish, blasting his shot high over the bar from inside the box, despite being put off by Sobers, who hurt himself in the process and received two lots of treatment before hobbling off.

Tonbridge Angels took 28 minutes to register their first attempt on target.

James Folkes was brought down as he cut towards the corner of the penalty area.

Allen stroked his right-footed free-kick towards goal from 25-yards, which was saved at the second attempt by Preston Edwards, who is on loan from Vanrama National League South leaders Ebbsfleet United.

Luchford admitted: “We didn’t really make any inroads first half. It was a fairly straight forward save, I think. He’s hit the target. It’s a start.”

Tonbridge Angels’ left-winger Nick Wheeler cut towards the by-line and was denied progress by a combination of Dulwich Hamlet defenders Nelson and Matt Drage, both sliding in at the near post.

Wheeler swung in the resulting corner which was headed wide by Tom Parkinson, who started in the middle of the park before slotting in beside substitute Ball at the heart of defence following Miles’ withdrawal.

Clunis found himself down the left and allowed the ball to run across onto his right-foot before drilling a low shot past the foot of the near post from 20-yards.

Dulwich Hamlet’s highly-rated central defender Ethan Pinnock kept Nathan Elder in his pocket for the vast majority of the game.

Wheeler floated in a free-kick from the left and Elder freed himself away from Pinnock to direct his downward header past the far post from the edge of the penalty area.

Rose said: “Ethan’s just on his way back, this was his third game in a short period and he’s still got a lot of fitness to catch up with so we know that he’ll get better for us and he’s a massive, massive presence really proud of his development.”

Edwards thwarted Tonbridge Angels a goal on the stroke of half-time.

Wheeler progressed down the left channel, before he rolled the ball back to Parter, who whipped in a first time cross into the penalty area.  There was a crowd of players and Parkinson rose to loop his header towards the roof of the net, Edwards’ stretching out his arm to tip the ball over.

Rose said: “Definitely a very vital (save). We did sort of limit them to that sort of opportunity. We know Tonbridge are good in those areas and I think Preston was superb in terms how he kept goal today, especially that opportunity there.”

Luchford added: “We said at half-time the last five minutes of the half I think we put three or four crosses into the box and caused problems and we haven’t done that for 40 minutes so we knew we could get at them. We knew if we put crosses into the box Nathan’s got a chance and Parky’s got a chance.”

Both Rose and Luchford were asked their thoughts at the break.

Rose said: “It was very encouraging to tell them what they’ve been doing and how much effort they’ve put in, which was very good and we just tried to change things a little bit tactically so we didn’t fall too far back.  All the boys in the main did quite well with that.”

Luchford said: “Just said we’ve got to keep the ball; we’ve got to keep the ball better; we’ve got to move the ball quicker; we’ve got to be a bit braver on the ball and we’ve got to look after the ball. We’re giving the ball away too frequently, too easily, too cheaply and that’s what we said at half-time, just be a bit braver on the ball and keep hold of the ball.

“It was pretty much us second half, apart from them on the counter.  I don’t think Preston’s really made any major saves to make but we kept the ball better.”

Dulwich Hamlet created the first chance of the second half.

James swung in a corner from the right and Dixon arrived late and directed his stopping header across goal and past the left-hand post.

Dulwich Hamlet were to be denied a third on the break in the 55^th minute, courtesy of some brave defending from Luke Blewden.

Wheeler whipped in a free-kick into the Dulwich Hamlet box from the right, the ball was headed away by James and Akinyemi collected the ball at his feet and raced 60-yards up field.

He played a sublime diagonal pass along the deck for Clunis, who took a touch and drilled a low angled drive which was parried by Di Bernardo, low to his right.

The ball ran loose to Akinyemi and the home fans expected the net to bulge, but Luke Blewden (who was kept quiet wide on the right) made a brilliant last-ditch block inside his penalty area.

Rose was full of praise for the desire shown by Blewden.

He said: “I think everyone knows that I’ve got a lot of admiration for the lad Blewden, he works so hard, he shows a great attitude and it’s probably no surprise that he was in there doing that for his team, so credit to him.

“I think Dipo probably saw the headlines because normally he would’ve attacked that ball and probably would’ve have given Blewden an opportunity.”

Luchford said: “To be honest that was the story of their game plan, not their game plan but their story of their game really because they broke on us three times, scored two and Blewey’s got back and got that one. It was a great block because at that point if that goes in, it’s all over. Fair play to Blewey, he’s got back and cleared the ball.”

James swept the ball out to Akinyemi down the right who cut inside and from a tight angle his low right-footed drive was saved by Di Bernardo at his near post.

But as Miles was stretched off from behind the goal in front of concerned visiting supporters, Tonbridge Angels pulled a goal back with 24:03 on the second half clock.

Substitute Tommy Whitnell played the ball inside to Allen, who swept the ball out to substitute winger Charlie Webster on the right.  He played in Folkes on the overlap and the right-back reached the by-line and was running out of space. He dinked the ball inside to Webster, who cut the ball back towards the near post for the arriving Allen to sweep his shot into the bottom near corner.

“We got the goal but we couldn’t quite get the second,” said Luchford.

“Good goal, well-worked from Folksey and Charlie Webster who put in a good cross in and Luke’s done what he does best, arrives in the box late and scored.

“To be honest we felt we could get the equaliser at that point because we had plenty of time.”

Rose added: “I thought we didn’t defend that very well all the way. I thought there was tackles that should’ve been won and I thought Jordan Brown went to sleep. He let the guy on the right hand side play the ball through the gap and hurt us.  I think he probably knows that and they finished it well but I thought we could’ve defended it a lot better.”

The impressive Akinyemi was released down the left and he cut inside and played the ball inside to Clunis, whose right-footed drive was parried by Di Bernardo low to his right before the Tonbridge keeper gobbled up the loose ball.

Luchford said: “He made a couple of decent saves down to his right, he did well.  There were a couple of decent shots on target so he’s kept us in the game, not kept us in the game, you know what I mean, just kept us doing what we were doing.”

Dixon then released Clunis down the left and his right-footed dink shot bounced into the hands of the Tonbridge Angels keeper.

But Tonbridge Angels were to be denied the equaliser in the last seven minutes when the post came to Dulwich Hamlet’s rescue.

Parter advanced down the left and Allen and Whitnell linked up well down the left and Wheeler floated over a precise cross towards the far post for Elder to rise to glance his header against the far post from six-yards before Webster shot straight at Edwards from the rebound.

“Fine lines in football, if that goes in, do we get another chance? It wasn’t to be, it wasn’t to be,” admitted Luchford.

“We kept plugging away, we kept working hard and kept trying to get the ball wide. Charlie (Webster) made a difference when he came on. Nick Wheeler was putting balls in to the box. Jack Parter did a lot better second half and we kept probing but we couldn’t quite get it.”

Rose added: “We know that’s an area where they’re going to be really strong from a cross ball and Elder normally does well from that area and he was unlucky with that.”

Allen played the ball inside for Elder to stroke his first time drive flashing past the left-hand post from 24-yards as Tonbridge Angels pressed for an equaliser.

Luchford added: “I was saying at half-time, we’ve got that (comeback) in us. We’ve got a dressing room there that stands up and be counted and we did that second half and you can’t argue with that.”

Parter’s clearance out of the Angels box defence fell straight to Hibbert, who struck his first time drive past the post from 25-yards.

Dulwich Hamlet created the final chance of the game, as substitute left-winger Rhys Murrell-Willamson gave Folkes a headache with his pace and talent.

This time Nelson put over the cross from the left which was hooked on the turn by his former Margate team-mate Ryan Moss, the substitute striker bringing a comfortable catch from Di Bernardo.

Rose was delighted with the win, especially going into today’s game with one win in their last nine league outings.

He said: We’ve invariably done really well against the teams at the top of the season for some reason. It’s not a massive surprise that we got the points, because of the form that we’re in recently it’s a good win.”

Hampton & Richmond Borough lead the Ryman Premier League table with 85 points from 42 games (out of 46).

The four play-off places are now occupied by East Thurrock (81 points from 42 games), Tonbridge Angels (77 points from 42), Bognor Regis Town (76 points from 37) and Dulwich Hamlet (71 points from 41).

Four other clubs will be looking to snatch a play-off berth during the last month of the season.

They are Kingstonian (68 points from 39), Enfield Town (67 points from 41), Leiston (67 points from 42) and Billericay Town (65 points from 41).

Tonbridge Angels complete their campaign with games against Hendon (away), Billericay Town (home), Merstham (home) and Burgess Hill Town (away).

“It wasn’t our day today but we’ve got plenty to be positive above, we’ve got lots to think about this week,” said Luchford, who knows finishing second or third will give Tonbridge Angels a home play-off semi-final.

“We’ve just got to accumulate as many points as we can now. We’ve got 12 points to play for and we want to get as many points as we can. We want to finish as high as we possibly can and we want to be at home if we can for the play-offs.

“It’s important now if we can get two wins out of those four games I think that will pretty much give us a play-off spot and then not worry about anyone around is but just concentrate getting as high as we can and see if we can get a home draw.

“Of course you always wanted to be at home right because it’s your fans. We can get 1000-1500 people through the gate and if we’ve got a chance of getting a home draw then great.”

Dulwich Hamlet meanwhile host Bognor Regis Town on Saturday, before completing their campaign against Leiston (away), Brentwood Town (away), Lewes (home) and Needham Market (away).

Looking ahead to the clash against Bognor Regis Town on Saturday, Rose said: “We seem to play them at this time of the year, it’s always for big points at stake so nothing changes. I think we’re quite used to that over the years.

“We know they’re a very good team. If they win their points they could probably win the league, so they’ve got a lot to play for but also we have a lot to play for so it will be a really good game.

“After that, tough games with teams that have got something to play for so they’re tough games for us but the work rate that we’ve put in today and if we can match that up, it will always give us a chance.”

When asked about the possibility of facing Tonbridge Angels in the play-offs, the Hamlet boss replied: “I think these will change or will change in terms of where everyone will finish up.  I think Tonbridge will try to win as many games as they can - and we will - so you never now.

“I think other teams will probably have a say in what happens as well. I’m not looking that far forward. I’m just trying to see if we can win the next game and see where that takes us.”

Dulwich Hamlet: Preston Edwards, Mitchell Nelson, Jordan Brown, Jack Dixon, Matt Drage, Ethan Pinnock, Nyren Clunis, Kevin James, Afolabi Oladipo Akinyemi (Rhys Murrell-Williamson 82), Roman Michael-Percil (Ryan Moss 72), Jordan Hibbert.
Subs: Osei Sankofa, Gus Sow, Dereece Thompson

Goals: Afolabi Oladipo Akinyemi 3, 10

Booked: Jack Dixon 45, Jordan Hibbert 10

Tonbridge Angels: Anthony Di Bernardo, James Folkes, Jack Parter, Tom Parkinson, Jerrome Sobers (Laurence Ball 20), Sonny Miles (Charlie Webster 63), Anthony Riviere (Tommy Whitnell 59), Luke Allen, Nathan Elder, Luke Blewden, Nick Wheeler.
Subs: Bradley Woods-Garness, Jack Brivio

Attendance: 1,434
Referee: Mr Aji Ajibola (Dartford)
Assistants: Mr Alexis Stacchini (Orpington) & Mr Gerry Heron (West Wickham)