Last Saturday, we lost 0-1 here to Bognor Regis Town, our first home league defeat of the season. It was a disappointing performance on our part and we could have no complaints about the result. The first half was fairly even, with both sides patiently building up their attacks, but scoring opportunities were few and far between. We created the first opening in the sixth minute when Shawn McCoulsky was sent clear, but Rocks ‘keeper Chris Winterton spread himself well to save. Six minutes later, a long cross from the Bognor right was nodded back across goal by Jason Prior to an unmarked Ollie Pearce who somehow headed over the bar from no more than a couple of yards out although an off-side flag spared his blushes. Xavier Vidal had a chance on 21 minutes to the left of goal, but Winterton made another fine block. The only other time we threatened was when Ethan Pinnock beat Winterton to a cross from Bagasan Graham and his header struck the post, but the referee blew for a foul on the ‘keeper. The score remained 0-0 at half time.

However, within five minutes of the restart, Bognor broke the deadlock with what proved to be the winning goal. A right-wing cross from Alex Parsons was only headed clear to the edge of the box and Doug Tuck struck a first-time drive past Oshane Brown and into the corner of the net. We nearly gave away a second goal shortly afterwards, but Terrell Forbes headed Prior’s shot off the line. At the other end, our attacks were lacking in both invention and determination with the result that we made little impression on Bognor’s well-organised defence. In fact, we hardly mustered a decent shot on target in the entire second half. The Sussex side could have won more emphatically, but Oshane Brown kept us in the game with some smart saves. On 64 minutes, he parried a far post header from Prior and a minute later he collected a downward header from Craig Robson. We made three substitutions during the half, but to no avail, and even in the closing stages we failed to raise our game. Oshane Brown was certainly the busier ‘keeper and he pulled off two more fine saves before the end, diving low to his right to deny Harvey Whyte and then tipping over a shot on the turn from Prior.

Attendance 1,061

Dulwich Hamlet: 1 Oshane Brown; 2 Jordan Hibbert, 3 Frazer Shaw, 4 Kershaney Samuels, 5 Terrell Forbes (Capt.), 6 Ethan Pinnock, 7 Nyren Clunis, 8 Ashley Carew, 9 Shawn McCoulsky, 10 Xavier Vidal, 11 Bagasan Graham.
Subs used - 14 Ibrahim Mansaray (for Clunis 81), 15 Matteo Candolini (for Hibbert 69), 16 Dean McDonald (for Graham 69).
Subs not used - 12 Lewis Gonsalves, 17 Emiliano Hysi.
Yellow Cards - None Red Cards – None

Bognor Regis Town: 1 Chris Winterton; 2 James Crane, 3 Harry Medway, 4 Doug Tuck, 5 Dan Sackman, 6 Craig Robson (Capt.), 7 Harvey Whyte, 8 Jake Thomson, 9 Jason Prior, 10 Alex Parsons, 11 Ollie Pearce.
Subs used - 12 Curtis Da Costa (for Thomson 90), 17 Omarr Lawson (for Pearce 85).
Subs not used - 14 Josh Warren, 15 George Branford, 16 Stuart Green.
Yellow Cards - None Red Cards - None

Referee - Peter Killip
Assistant Referees - Aaron Goodwin, Jamaal Home

Match report lifted from the match day programme courtesy of Mr John Lawrence