Dulwich rocked at the death by East Thurrock fightback

Our last home match on the 21st of March produced an exciting 3-3 draw with East Thurrock, another of the playoff hopefuls. It was disappointing not to win after taking the lead as late as the 89th minute,but our opponents had led twice themselves earlier in the match and so probably deserved their point.

We got off to a bad start when we gifted the Rocks a third minute lead. An uncharacteristic error by Ethan Pinnock let in Mitchell Gilbey who sidestepped the stranded Phil Wilson and comfortably beat the sole defender on our goalline. We drew level in the 18th minute through an own goal. A neat pass from Ashley Carew found Kevin James inside the box, but before he could get in his shot, Ben Wood intercepted, only to place his back pass wide of his own ‘keeper, the ball going in off the post. However, the Rocks regained the lead within a minute. Gilbey was again the scorer. Receiving in the inside right channel about 15 yards from goal, he fired his shot across Phil Wilson and in off the far upright. After that further setback we got back on top. Albert Jarrett had a shot deflected behind for a corner, the same player narrowly missed the angle of post and bar from a 20 yard free kick, and later Nyren Clunis was unlucky when his goal-bound shot was blocked by Kevin James! East Thurrock mopped up the pressure and almost caught us on the counter just before the interval when a long range effort from Connor Witherspoon narrowly missed the crossbar.

After a quiet start to the second half, we equalised on the hour mark.Ashley Carew latched on to a short pass from Joe Benjamin but was brought down clumsily by ‘keeper David Hughes. Ashley Carew took the resultant penalty himself, firing the ball into the top corner. Shortly afterwards, Ashley nearly scored again, this time from a 25 yard free kick that had Hughes beaten all ends up, but curled inches wide of the post. Midway through the half there was a delay when Phil Wilson was caught in the face by a stray elbow and received lengthy treatment for a broken nose. Our ‘keeper bravely carried on and we were soon pressing again at the other end. Terrell Forbes had a header cleared off the line and Joe Benjamin went close from 15 yards.The pressure paid off when, with just one minute of normal time remaining, Joe Benjamin was fouled inside the box and Ashley Carew planted his second penalty of the afternoon past Hughes to put us 3-2 up. But, following our ‘keeper’s injury, there was some ten minutes of stoppage time and in the 94th minute, Rocks’ substitute Ross Parmenter equalised with a rather soft low shot from 18 yards which a fully fit Phil Wilson would surely have saved.

Match report courtesy of John Lawrence and published first in the match day programme, available from all good programme sellers priced just £2.