Games against Dulwich usually end up high scoring, and Saturday was no exception. It was a good game, and the better side on the day won. Quite simply, Dulwich had more pace, more technically gifted players, and as the game wore on, more stamina. Although Whitstable battled hard, a point would probably have been unfair on the hosts.

 

Whitstable came out firing on all cylinders and took control of the game from the outset. They worked the ball forward with some nice one touch football – long gone, it seems, was the long ball. With just nine minutes on the clock, the Oystermen won a free kick which Cornhill lifted to Cory who from beyond the far post managed to bundle in the ball from an acute angle. The goal looked good from distance even if the photographic evidence may indicate a possible helping hand. But we don’t care, and maybe Cory’s goal will have opened up the floodgates for him? 


  





 

 The new formation seemed to be doing its trick, but the problem on Saturday was that Parker was left to pick up both the full back and the right winger – which was impossible. Someone else should have been closing down the right full back, who in the words of jimmygreaves, was “running the show”. Sure enough, Dulwich won a free kick on the right hand side of the pitch and their captain (No. 4 and centre back) equalised for the hosts with a wicked deflection off Gary Sayer’s head. 

Six minutes before the end of the first half, the Dulwich captain (who was really running the show) set their no.8 free on the right hand side – he drilled and cut a low cross back to Frankie Sawyer, hovering outside the area, who struck a half volley into the bottom left hand corner of Fewell’s net. There was nothing the keeper could have done about it.

Dulwich were starting to threaten more and their set pieces looked especially dangerous. Within a minute of the re-start, Whitstable almost conceded a third, but another Cornhill freekick, was palmed out by the Dulwich keeper straight to Hitchings lurking outside the area who chipped both the keeper and the Dulwich right winger to send the visitors into the changing room on equal terms at the break. 




Cornhill whips in a freekick



 

Unfortunately, within minutes of the restart, Smith’s lack of pace saw him fail to deal with a meandering attack across the front of the area, and Sawyer netted his second of the afternoon from the right. Smith had been struggling with the pace of the game throughout, and so it was not surprising to see him substituted off. Parker dropped into the middle and Dean Grant took up the wing back position.

 

There were two immediate consequences: the Oystermen seemed to lose their shape a little and it was difficult to work out who was playing where in the middle of the park. We also became potentially more vulnerable to attacks down the wings because Grant is not renowned for his tackling.

It was perhaps, therefore not surprising that Dulwich’s attacking game came to the fore thereafter. Although Grant did some really good work when he received the ball down the left hand side, we were always vulnerable to the counter-attack which was employed to greater and greater effect as the game wore on. Dulwich were particularly adept at using it after corners when most of our defenders were pushing for an equaliser. 

Denly, GS, Gooding and Cornhill all made last ditch tackles at the back, but when some of them not only tackled but then brought the ball out from defence, there were no willing receivers. This might be explained by the fact that Hitchings had gone off being replaced by Vahid.Whitstable came close to an equaliser on a couple of occasions: an uncharacteristic loose back pass by Dulwich should have been intercepted by Wisker, but he didn’t find enough acceleration to capitalise. But Whitstable heads had dropped a little in the drizzle. So despite some good work down the left hand side courtesy of Grant, Dulwich always looked more likely to score. They came close when their No.11 beat Fewell when one on one, but Lloyd somehow managed to keep the ball out as it bobbled towards the line. A minute later, however, the same player made no mistake with a powerful drive.



 

 

There was no coming back from that scoreline. Dulwich are a very pacey counter attacking side who will look to break from corners. So although Parker almost got a consolation direct from a corner, Dulwich’s tendency to counter attack at speed meant a draining of physical resources, and it it hadn’t been for GS in the dying minutes, sweeping up after Lloyd was beaten for pace, it could have been five. Despite the scoreline, I was encouraged by the overall performance although I did feel that heads dropped quite quickly in the second half after Dulwich went ahead. Smith should have been substituted earlier: probably towards the end of the first half when it was becoming very clear that he simply could not keep up with the pace of the game and when the Dulwich attacks down the right hand side was screaming out for 4-4-2. Had I been the manager (which thankfully I’m not), I would have brought Dolton on for Smith and (after Cornhill had done his good work), Grant on for Cornhill later on with GS at right back and Parker at left back when it was clear what Dulwich were doing.

 

Anyway, Godalming next, and let’s hope for another good performance. I think there are many positives to take from Saturday, and more goals and results will come. You Reds!