By Nicko Barber at Champion Hill
After a summer of transformation and upheaval, Dulwich Hamlet started their home campaign in the Isthmian League Premier Division with a classy 4-1 win against Canvey Island.
Hakan Hayrettin’s new-look Hamlet are a “work in progress” according to the manager. However, with a confident and assertive performance in front of an attendance of 1,539, Dulwich look like a team that already possess real spirit and verve – important fundamentals to any team that Hayrettin observed was lacking last season.
The last home match saw relegation from the National League South and a damning review of the squad by Hayrettin. On their return to Champion Hill, only three players remained from last season – Danny Mills, Sanchez Ming and Kreshnic Krasniqi – and all three started in a 4-1-2-1-2 diamond formation.
Much of the first half was spent between the boxes with neither team able to establish control over the game. Hamlet’s new bustling midfielder Alfie Allen stung the hands of Canvey goalkeeper Sam Jackson in the third minute, providing early optimism, while Canvey Island’s Evans Kouassi occasionally punctured the Hamlet defence with loose counter-attack’s that amounted at most to wasted corner-kicks.
Allen continued to bring energy to the Hamlet’s performance, winning the ball high up the pitch and later earning a foul after being pulled back by Lordan Akolbire who received a yellow card. Luke Wanadio – who scored a brace for Dulwich on his debut in the 2-2 draw against Hashtag United last weekend – whipped the free-kick in, nearly providing the first opening of the match as Michael Chambers produced a towering header only for Sam Mvemba to clear off the line in the 22nd minute.
The Hamlet’s sense of threat appeared largely dependent on Mills and Richard Pingling’s link-up play. Mills dominated his aerial duels and Pingling offering speed and energy to latch on to headers won by his team-mate.
Mills and Pingling’s link-up proved to be the catalyst that ignited the match. Mills showed deft control to bring down a long ball from Sanchez Ming before finding Pingling who ran in behind Canvey Island’s passive defensive line. Pingling showed great composure and class to drive with the ball and slot into the bottom-left corner with his left foot in the 30th minute.
There was another blow for the Islanders before half-time when Lordan Akolbire was sent off after picking up a second yellow card.
Dulwich compounded Canvey’s problems with an early goal in the second half as Chambers scored in the 47th minute, tucking away a second ball after a probing corner.
The visitors rallied through their half-time substitute Joe Paxman in the 50th minute, as he ghosted inside right-back Sanchez Ming to receive a pass through the heart of the Hamlet midfield, before controlling and sliding the ball comfortably into the bottom-left corner.
Canvey purred for fifteen minutes after Paxman’s goal. They put pressure on the Hamlet defence with lots of fluid passing between Paxman, Conor Hubble and their No.9 , Bradley Sach, culminating in a number of corners that had Hamlet scrambling the ball to safety.
While Canvey continued to contest, the Hamlet secured victory with two more goals in the space of six minute.
In the 67th minute, Manny Parry tapped in another rebound, before captain Jerome Binnom-Williams scored a stunning goal.
Binnom-Williams had been a marauding force from left-back all game and continued in that vein in the 73rd minute, driving towards the Canvey box, playing a one-two with Krasniqi before neatly finishing through Sam Jackson’s legs.
The finish from the debutant summed up Hayrettin’s brand-new Dulwich Hamlet: refreshing, powerful and clinical.
While Hayrettin knows the “season is not going to be plain sailing”, he believes that the team are “only going to get better”.
Hayrettin added: “The team is not just the team on the pitch, the team is the supporters, the security guards, the bar staff…that’s the bigger team”.
Dulwich play Hastings United at Champion Hill this Saturday at 3pm.
Image: @robavis