Dulwich Hamlet 1-2 Cray Wanderers - Dolby maintains Wands push for the title

Taking the field without Danny Chapman and Jamie Kempster in midfield, the Wands adopted a 4-2-4 formation with Shawn Beveney and Tyrone Sterling wide on the right and left respectively, while Dean Morris and Scott Kinch formed the axis in midfield.

It proved to be an evening when the Wands had to scrap hard to contain a youthful and pacy Dulwich side whose familiar ploy of the long ball through the middle had produced goals against Cray on this ground in previous years.

Some Dulwich fans might say that the Wands did indeed scrap hard, as evidenced by five men in the light blue shirts receiving yellow cards that must have been borderline reds in one or two cases.
Thanks to some great interceptions and blocks by Colin Luckett, Steve Aris and Ryan Royston at the back, and some judicious use of the offside trap, Cray survived the home side’s early raids on goal.

For all the non-stop movement and running of central strikers Tony Atkins and Tommy Whitnell, who kept the Dulwich defenders busy all night, it always looked as though set-pieces were Cray’s best likelihood of finding the net.

Royston met a Luckett free-kick with a thundering header that struck the underside of the bar in the 25th minute, but it was second time lucky in the 37th minute when Royston headed home from Luckett’s corner-kick, the ball being helped over the line by a Dulwich defender.

Glen Knight was equal to a fierce angled shot from Paka just before the break, and when Paka again found free space on the right immediately afterwards it was Aris to the rescue for Cray with a solid header out of the danger zone.

Cray’s one-nil half-time lead only lasted just five minutes into the second half. A free-kick from just beyond the centre-circle travelled a long way into the Cray goalmouth and reached the unmarked Plummer who reacted quickly to slip the ball past Knight.

Cray started to look ominously short in midfield, leaving gaps for the resurgent home forwards to run in to.

Free-kicks and yellow cards against Cray began to mount up, but play was nevertheless surging from end to end, with neither side gaining complete dominance of the game.

Plummer cut in from the left but pinged his shot against the near post after Knight came out to cleverly narrow the angle.

At the other end Dulwich survived a fearsome goalmouth scramble following a corner-kick from Luckett, with some Cray supporters optimistically claiming that the ball had crossed the goal line at one point.

Back to the other end and Arron Day managed to tidy up on the six-yard line with Dulwich looking set to score.

Knight then produced the best save of the evening, clutching a powerful drive from Simpson that he must have seen very late through a crowd of players.

When the Wands brought on Dolby as substitute with 16 minutes remaining it might have been thought that they were content to shore up and hold on for a point.

In fact, thanks to Dolby’s strength in holding the ball and giving the Wands some new options to play in their opponents’ half of the field, Cray put in a strong finish and Dolby himself might have given them the lead on 88 minutes when he flighted a free-kick narrowly wide from a central position just outside the box.

Two minutes later there was a second chance for Dolby, this time a little wider on the left but still within shooting range after Kinch was chopped down by one of Dulwich’s tired-looking defenders.

Royston made a dummy run at the ball, pretending that he would blast it at goal, but it was Dolby lurking behind him who took the kick, whipping a curling shot into the far corner of the net with Ceesay unable to get a hand to it.

34-year-old Dolby is not exactly a secret weapon for Cray – his skill at dead-ball kicking is legendary in the Ryman League – but he certainly turned this game around in favour of the Wands tonight.

Ian Jenkins' side are now sitting in second place in the table, three points behind Kingstonian, having won 5 and drawn 2 of their first 8 games.

Cray Wanderers: Knight, Day, Luckett, Morris, Royston, Aris, Kinch, Atkins, Beveney (Dolby 74), Whitnell (J Wood 90), Sterling.
Subs: Callaghan, Lee, Bradshaw.

Attendance: 241