The club's grown and we've grown with the club in our six years in charge, says Gavin Rose

The Hamlet finished in sixth-place in the Ryman Premier League last season, just missing out on the play-offs by a single point.

Rose, 37, guided the London club to the Ryman League Division One South title the previous season and has a reputation for providing entertaining football.

They begin their new campaign with a home game against Harrow Borough on Saturday.

Dave Anderson’s side finished in eighteenth-place last season with 58 points from their 46 league outings.

“We played Harrow Borough three times last year and it was always difficult,” said Rose.

“We know Dave well, he’s a really good guy, so they’ll be set-up really well organised and for us is will be nice to start well.

“You never know what’s going to happen.  I thought our league was very unpredictable last year. When we was in good form we did really well but at times we knew we could lose to anyone as well at the same time.

“We’d like to start with a win. We can’t really tell though. As we know the season isn’t about the first game of the season, it’s what happens at the end.”

Reflecting on his successful six year stint at Champion Hill, Rose said: “We missed out on the last day (last year). With the last five years we’ve always worked up until the play-offs or the last game of the season.  We’ve always been there or there abouts; two play-off losses; we’ve won the last game of the season where we’ve won the league and last year we’ve just missed out on the play-offs.

“When you’re in those margins it can go one way or another and you’ve got to take the rough with the smooth really.

“We’ve had some success on the last days and we’ve had not so but as long as the boys’ are pushing as far as they can then we can’t complain or we can’t argue. We’ll have the same, we’ll take it.”

When asked his aspirations for the season ahead, Rose replied: “We’re ambitious. We always want to win. We know we’re up against some really good teams in our league.

“It doesn’t mean before a ball’s been kicked that we decide we’re not going to be anywhere near it, we’re not going to push for it.  It might not happen but we want to push for that.  We want to do the best that we can.”

Margate are splashing the cash to win the Ryman Premier League title and Jay Saunders’ Maidstone United will also be pushing for glory.

“Very good players have been attracted and rightly so,” Rose said of Margate.

“If they’ve got the money to do it, we’d all do the same thing, but at the end of the day it’s only eleven players that we’ve got to play against and we’ll see if we can be organsied and we can match up and be competitive.

“There’s no reason why we can’t make it hard for them and even beat them so we want to focus on the eleven players that we’ve got out against the eleven players that we’re playing against, not the money they take home because whilst on that pitch it’s nothing to do with money. It’s about what we do on the pitch.”

Rose and his management team are doing an excellent job at Champion Hill.

“This is our sixth season now so we’re enjoying it. We’re enjoying our time. I think the club’s grown and we’ve grown with the club," said Rose.

“We’ve got a good fan-base, we’ve got a vibrant youth academy what we run as well with players’ coming through so yes the progression is good.

“We’re enjoying it and hopefully we can keep stretching ourselves as far as we can.”

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

Dulwich Hamlet  v  Harrow Borough
Ryman Premier League
Saturday 9th August 2014
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Champion Hill Stadium, Edgar Kail Way, Dog Kennel Hill, East Dulwich, London SE22 8BD