By Simeon Wright
Gavin Rose insists that Dulwich Hamlet’s aim this season is still promotion to the National League, and pinpoints that as the minimum ambition for his entire Champion Hill reign.
The long-serving manager has not yet signed an extension to his current contract, which was last renewed in the summer of 2019 and is due to expire at the end of the season.
The Hamlet have spent the best part this season inside the top seven of the National League South, but a run of seven games without victory has seen them drop to tenth with five matches remaining.
Next up is a trip to fourth-place Ebbsfleet United on Good Friday, and Rose told the News that things must improve quickly to keep the promotion bid alive.
Rose said: “We haven’t won in seven which is a long, long time for us to go without a win, we’ve not gone that long without a win all season which is quite damning at this time. But the aim against Ebbsfleet is to try and win, and then address the next things from there.
“It would be silly to think about the next games after Ebbsfleet, we just have to try to stop the rot and win this game against a tough team. They’re obviously vying to be as high as possible for their play-off position so we know they’re a very good team. We were fortunate enough to have beaten them at home, so we know we’re capable.”
“I think [the players still believe]. Mathematically we can still get in the play-offs. The odds are against us now with teams having games in hand and more points, but nobody has been overly consistent in the league. We’ve had a really bad run and don’t want to be in a position where we’re relying on others losing, but it’s a reality because it’s happened all season.
“It’s up to us to do our job and then ask questions of others after.”
A minimum position of thirteenth would secure the highest league finish in the club’s history after Rose led Dulwich Hamlet to fourteenth in their first-ever season in English football’s sixth tier – 2018-19 – though he admits that that accomplishment would not ease the disappointment of missing out on the play-offs.
“Those sort of stats are okay but to be honest aren’t what you set out the season for,” Rose said.
“You don’t aim just to get the best finish in Dulwich’s history, you try to achieve something which is meaningful in terms of either the play-offs or promotion.
“It’s a fact that maybe in years to come you’ll think, ‘that was good’, but right now it isn’t my goal.”
Rose’s first thirteen seasons at Dulwich have been both successful and eventful, including lifting the Isthmian South title in 2013, and a memorable penalty shoot-out win over Hendon to win promotion to the National League South, which the team remarkably rallied to achieve at the same time as it was exiled from Champion Hill in 2018.
The Hamlet boss is still as excited as ever about the direction the club is going in, as well as what he could achieve in his own managerial career, whether that be with Dulwich or eventually “elsewhere”.
Rose added: “As a manager it’s been slightly frustrating over the last four years since we got promoted because I’ve always felt that even though we try our best to put a team out there that would compete at a level, I’ve always thought that we’re pushing because if we were to achieve promotion we could be up against it with the amount of finance needed, and with our club being slightly unstable with the future.
“But that seems to be changing now. It seems to be sort of heading in the direction that there is going to be a brighter future; where there is going to be a new stadium, and that gives obviously a lot of optimism for myself and my coaching team, to really think that if we do achieve then we can keep achieving rather than causing a bigger problem for ourselves.
“I’m realistic and understand that in football and in life things go on. I’m ambitious and being at the club so long…I think probably I stayed at the club in the last four years when there wasn’t that brighter future for it. We got promoted but were in a really bad position financially and in terms of our future. That would’ve been the wrong time to bail out.
“I stuck on because I’m a supporter as well as the manager of the club, and I think another manager coming in at that period would’ve struggled and wouldn’t have realised what was really going on behind the scenes and what was available.
“Myself and the management team have done all of that to be given the opportunity to work in a stadium where we can keep building, keep growing and see where that takes us.
“At the same time, the club may also have ambitions to move on at some point, and that wouldn’t be wrong of the club to have that ambition because it is a progressive club. And if that ever comes then as a supporter of the club I’d always back it, and I’d always do what’s right by the club rather than what’s right for me.
“One day I’m sure I’ll manage elsewhere, but hopefully I can leave the club at least in the Conference, and I’d like to take them there.”