Dulwich Hamlet 0-1 Tunbridge Wells - Martin Larkin very proud of his resilient FA Cup giant-killers

Tuesday 31st August 2010

DULWICH HAMLET 0-1 TUNBRIDGE WELLS
FA Cup (Sponsored by E.ON) Preliminary Round Replay
Tuesday 31st August 2010
Stephen McCartney reports from Champion Hill Stadium

TUNBRIDGE WELLS boss Martin Larkin says he will give the man-of-the-match award to every single player as they pulled off a giant killing to dump Ryman League Division One South side Dulwich Hamlet out of the FA Cup - silencing the Champion Hill faithful in the process.

It was a proud night for the Kent League side - a club that does NOT pay their players - as a backs-against-the-wall, never-say-die attitude guided them towards a trip to Ryman Premier League side Carshalton Athletic in the next round on 11 September.

Yes, it was a smash-and-grab raid by Larkin’s men, who managed bravely to maintain their fourth clean sheet in five games, against pacy wingers, although visiting goalkeeper Michal Czanner hardly had a save to make, as striker Keelan Mooney was the hero, scoring against the run of play after 34 minutes, to bank the Culverden Stadium outfit a further, much-needed £1,500 in prize money.

The Wells showed their character during the first game on home soil, taking the lead within the first minute through Mooney, before conceding three before the break to face a mountain to climb. But midfielder Andy McMath pulled a goal back, before substitute Benji Agana volleyed home a last-gasp 94th minute to earn a replay in south London.

Larkin told www.kentishfootball.co.uk afterwards: “Very happy, very, very proud. We said to them before the game they earned the right to come here today with their second half performance (on Saturday).

“We played incredibly well. A clean sheet away from home against a top six Ryman South team, their attacking side was very, very good. They had lots of the ball but only had one, I thought, shot on target in the first half, one in the second half, so to do that is just immense.

“The credit has to go to the whole team with the way they defended, particularly Perry (Spackman) and Scott (Whibley), Alex (Rich) and Jason (Bourne). The back four with Michel (Czanner) in goal and Sam Phillips (in the middle of the park) was absolutely outstanding, really, really good. I’m very proud of them.”

Larkin revealed that tonight’s Preliminary Round replay win at Champion Hill has buried a personal ghost from the past.

“When I first started, I was the youth team manager at Ashford and we had a run in the FA Youth Cup and we got through three qualifying rounds to the first round proper and I came here against Dulwich Hamlet and we lost 1-0 that night and we missed a hatful of chances,” he recalled.

“I always said that day that I’ll come back and put it right and we have done today. That would have been five years ago. I didn‘t tell the players about it but it was in my head for the two games so it‘s nice to come here and put that to bed. I’m very, very proud of all the players.”

Despite enjoying most of the possession, Dulwich Hamlet failed to call Slovakian keeper Czanner into serious action, and Tunbridge Wells were resilient throughout.

The south Londoners took 26 minutes for their first shot on target when Alim Seesay chipped cross found the impressive Sol Pinnock unmarked at the far post and his fierce angled drive flew straight at Czanner, who got his body behind the shot to make a routine save.

Tunbridge Wells created their first chance of the game when Andy McMath’s corner from the left found it’s way to Whibley at the far post, but the central defender smashed a shot on the turn agonisingly past the near post.

Dulwich Hamlet’s second chance fell to Jason Pinnock - but his shot from the edge of the penalty area was blocked by man-mountain Czanner.

But as soon as Tunbridge Wells grabbed the lead - against the run of play - after 34 minutes - the amateurs clearly relished protecting their lead.

Midfielder Tom Davey appeared to have run into a brick wall on the half-way line as he hugged the near touch-line, but he managed to smash a ball up field which was flicked on by Mike Lord, which released Mooney through on goal, and he showed why he should be playing at a higher level of football, by embarrassing keeper James Dunn as he eased past him and slotted the ball into an empty net with his right-foot from eight-yards out.

This goal stunned the long-suffering Hamlet faithful to silence and inspired the Wells to keep hold of what they had, by throwing their bodies on the line during the second half.

They were grateful to Czanner inside the opening nine minutes of the second half when Sol Pinnock left three players in his wake before lashing a right-footed drive towards the top corner, but heroic Czanner stuck out a strong left arm to beat the shot away.

Jason Pinnock headed the ball into Czanner’s arms after he met Jordan Wilson’s cross from the right.

Left-winger, Sol Pinnock, who gave the Wells’ skipper Bourne a difficult evening, whipped in an excellent cross just before the hour-mark, but substitute Nyren Clunis (who was ghosting in at the far post) drilled his shot into the side netting.

Another substitute, Michael Owezu, flicked the ball straight into the visiting keepers arms as Dulwich Hamlet threatened down the flanks with electrifying pace - but there was no end product when it mattered.

The longer the game went on, the more belief and passion oozed from the Kent League heroes and with around 30 travelling supporters kicking every ball and winning every tackle with them, they even bravely created a couple of decent late chances on the break to embarrass their hosts further.

McMath hooked a pass from the middle to the right for substitute Ben Palmer to latch on to and the striker flashed his driven shot agonisingly past the foot of the far post.

Tunbridge Wells were lucky too, something that you need in this game, when Dunn’s long clearance bounced into Czanner’s penalty area and the keeper failed to gather the ball as Gerry Gonnella pounced, but luckily his shot from a very acute angle arrowed over.

With the Kent side on the brink of achieving something special, Mooney, with the travelling faithful urging him on, was released through the middle and with only the keeper to beat, Dunn pulled off his best save of the night, diving to his right to tip the ball around the post.

The heroic Tunbridge Wells players deserved their standing ovation from their supporters that made the journey up to Champion Hill tonight and they can now look forward to a trip to Carshalton Athletic on 11 September.

Larkin paid tribute to all off his players for pulling off the giant killing, but special praise when to goalscoring hero Mooney.

“I said to him put pressure on their back four, we’ll give you the ball,” he revealed.

“He works very hard and he’s scored two goals in these two games and they’ve both been pressing their centre halves and obviously finishing against the keeper.

“But he probably deserves a lot more credit than that because he’s an exceptional footballer. His finishing round the box is just incredible. What he needs to do now, we have to make better chances for him, because taps in’s like that is not what it’s all about. He’s a fantastic footballer and we’re very lucky to have him.

“He works very hard for us, he’s very happy here and we look after him. We didn’t cause him problems, even when he went back to Maidstone in pre-season. That’s what it’s all about. We gave him everything we could, we put extra fitness work on for him so he could try and make it there. He wasn’t in their plans so he came back and we’re delighted to have him.

“He really enjoys it here, the lads make him very welcome but at the same time if someone comes in for him from a higher league and wants to take him then we’ll support him, but he’s a very, very important player for us and we’ll do our best to keep hold of him.”

The defensive play was also pleasing to watch, although it wasn’t a really good game to watch, it was good to see an UNPAID side humble a side that were unbeaten in third place in the league above.

“The centre halves, they’re good old fashioned centre halves. They would put their head where I wouldn’t put my foot and that’s what you need,” added Larkin.

“We worked hard, they obviously had a lot off the ball, but when we got it down we played and we could’ve had two or three in the last ten minutes. We thoroughly deserved it.

“We played well when we had the ball and when we defended we defended as a team and that’s what it’s all about really. We worked really hard for each other and they deserve all the credit.”

When it was suggested that he had 11 heroes out on the pitch tonight, Larkin agreed, “I can’t really pick one out to be honest. They all deserve the credit and that includes the guys on the bench and in the squad. We used subs at the right times both Saturday and today and the guys that came off the bench made an impact and that’s what we want from the squad.

“Dulwich are a very, very good team and when they go forward some of their pace is absolutely frightening but sometimes it appears teams don’t play well but the reason they don’t play well is because the other team stops them and that was the key.

“We said if we stop this team from playing then we’ve got a really serious chance of winning the game and that’s what we did.

“I was telling Brad (Sandeman, my assistant) the game on Saturday flashed past. It was our quickest hour and half we’ve ever had but today the first 25 minutes flashed past but once the goal goes in the clock slows down and things take forever, but it was dragging on but I was confident if we could get through the first 15 minutes of each half with a clean sheet then we’ll get them frustrated and the belief will come in from that.

“The longer it went on you expected Dulwich to get more into it but the longer it went on we believed.”

Whilst Mooney will grab the headlines for tucking the chance away, special praise must go to Spackman, who told www.kentishfootball.co.uk that he is pleased with such a solid start to the season.

“What we’ve been working on in pre-season is just defend as a side and that’s what we’re looking at doing and build on from that so we just defend first and go on from there,” said the former Sevenoaks Town central defender.

“We’ve got some new kids in from Maidstone who are good going forward so I think we’ll do something this year.

“Keelan is our best player by a mile so if we can keep hold of him it’ll be a bonus. We’ll probably struggle to keep hold of him but if we keep him then happy days!”

Spackman was expecting Dulwich Hamlet to test Czanner a lot more than they did this evening.

He said: “They attacked a lot but they didn‘t create f*** all, they didn‘t create anything. They had a lot of the ball but they did nothing with it.”

Skipper Jason Bourne, who at right-back, faced the electrifying pace of Sol Pinnock, also paid tribute to his team-mates.

“I’m really proud! The boys were unbelievable today,” the 29-year-old told www.kentishfootball.co.uk.

“A few stand out performances, Sammy Phillips, I thought was immense, Scott Whibley, Perry Spackman, unbelievable but a real, real team performances today from front to back, just everyone worked hard. The shape was good and eventually we got a result.”

Bourne added: “We said after 20 minutes if we’re still in the game we’ll have a chance and after seeing them at Culverden we knew it was nothing really to fear if we stayed in the game.

“It was a smash-and-grab at times but it was a good result.”

Tunbridge Wells do NOT pay their players, and Bourne admitted this togetherness saw them through.

Describing the win as “good satisfaction,” he added, “Some people play for money, I’m not sure if these (Dulwich Hamlet) guys do our not but there’s not one in our dressing room that does.

“I think it showed tonight. If you were paying money maybe you wouldn’t have the same team spirit and the same sort of drive that we had tonight.

“This is my second spell at the club, I think it’s my fifth season and I thoroughly enjoy being here. I’m a local lad, I take a lot of pride in playing for my local side and that’s why I’m here basically.”

When asked what saw the side through, Bourne replied, “It’s all just about organisation really. I knew if we could get that right I knew we’d be in for a good chance.”

When asked the mood inside the dressing room afterwards, Bourne said: “I think a couple of lads are quiet, they can’t believe it! Other lads are bouncing off the walls. It’s a nice mix in there. It’s good to see. The boys thoroughly deserve it.”

Meanwhile, former Fisher chairman Martin Eede, who stepped down from his position at the Kent League club to take the chief executive role at landlords Dulwich Hamlet, was back at Champion Hill tonight, undertaking secretarial duties for the home club.

The 63-year-old had agreed to take up the post of chief executive at Croydon Athletic, but changed his mind after a national newspaper claimed Croydon Athletic owner Mazhar Majeed was connected to an alleged global betting scam.

When asked that he was supposed to be with the Thornton Heath based club, Mr Eede jokingly replied, “I know that I’m a mug, but not much of a mug!”

Dulwich Hamlet: James Dunn, Jordan Wilson, Ethan Pinnock, Kalvin Morath-Gibbs, Francis Duku, Justin Bowen, David Moore (Michael Owezu 46), Alim Seesay (Nyren Clunis 56), Jason Pinnock (Kevin James 67), Gerry Gonnella, Sol Pinnock.
Subs: Tom Lancaster, Ellis Wilson-Joseph, Osa Obamwunyi, Junior Kadi.

Booked: Jordan Wilson 80

Tunbridge Wells: Michal Czanner, Jason Bourne, Alex Rich, Sam Phillips, Scott Whibley, Perry Spackman, Jon Pilbeam, Andy McMath, Keelan Mooney, Mike Lord (Ben Palmer 68), Tom Davey (Alex Flisher 62).
Subs: Benji Agana, Andy Boyle, Drew Crush, Jon Lord, Darren Ibrahim.

Goal: Keelan Mooney 34

Booked: Ben Palmer 74

Attendance: 189
Referee: Mr David Spain (Westfield, East Sussex)
Assistants: Mr Stuart Jones (Bromley) & Mr Tair Isayev (Sutton, Surrey)