Dulwich Hamlet 3-2 Truro City, match report and video highlights, 16th March 2019

Following on from our photo feature and fans comments about Dulwich Hamlet’s hard fought victory over Truro City on Saturday, here’s a full match report by Buzz reporter Ricardo Domingos and video highlights by the DHFCTV team.

If watching a ball whizz about through the air with a mind of its own in gale force winds is your kind of thing, then this was the match for you. And if not? Well it was still some pretty exciting stuff.

5 goals, 3 red cards and what must be the most intimidated goalie in the history of the National League South.

Dulwich started the game facing the onrush of wind but, despite this, stuck to their guns and once again attempted the early long ball down the line. Despite never actually seeing this work, this one was special in that it was an early indicator of just how ferocious the wind was, instantly seizing the ball and whipping it out of play.

After this both teams continued to battle with the wind but it seems no one got the memo about keeping it down in these conditions. As long ball after long ball went awry Mascoll found himself at the by-line and whipped a ball across the goal mouth, however Dipo arrived just a tad late and failed to get the decisive touch.

This did seem to inspire the Hamlet however, and they began feeding the ball to Clunis who seemed to be in the mood to give the Truro left-back a migraine. He drove past him with clever feet and delivered a series of crosses, one of which Dipo finally turned in in the 36th minute.

As half time neared, the Dulwich fans were well and truly making their presence known to the Truro keeper. Maybe it’s because they just signed the world’s tallest player but the fans seemed particularly keen to draw attention to the keeper’s height, some truly devastating stuff but fair play to the keeper for keeping his head throughout.

Bang on 45 minutes Truro’s Michael Herve delivered an aggressive late challenge which the card-happy ref gave a red for. He had also given Dipo a yellow in the 23rd for, well we’re not too sure really, but he continued to dish them out.

The second half kicked off and Dulwich’s Tajbakhsh continued his fine form; slamming into Truro players like a steam train and feeding through killer balls to Clunis and Dipo. The wind had picked up even more this half and Truro were under constant pressure. Dulwich were buzzing around the box and in the 48th Ferguson wriggled into some space and fired a left-footed shot into the bottom right. Post and in, glorious.

A few minutes later a cracking through ball and a great first touch put Dipo past the keeper and in front of an open goal. He missed. We’re not sure how so we’ll just blame the wind.

We’ll also blame the wind for Truro’s Alex Battle firing on goal out of nowhere from 25 yards and it dipping over Edwards’ head and into the net.

This goal gave Truro a bit of momentum who seemed to finally have figured out how to deal with the wind. However, in the 72nd minute Truro’s Jamie Richards was shown a red for apparently abusing the linesman.

The Dulwich fans think this might be their new favourite ref until he shows Vose a red just seven minutes later for an awkward challenge.
Dulwich’s centre backs struggled with the high Truro pressure and tried to play clever football when they should have used the wind to put it out to safety. Inevitably, Truro gained a penalty which Riley-Lowe duly converted in the 80th minute.

Dulwich started putting Wanadio’s freshly subbed legs to work, firing balls down the flank for him to chase, desperate to secure the much-deserved win. Finally, it was Tajbakhsh putting in yet another huge tackle, followed by a killer through-ball, that led to Wanadio gathering it on the edge of the area and shooting into the bottom left in the 85th to put the Hamlet back in front.

It was a fantastic show of resolve to fight back for the win, and while there was certainly a sense of anxiousness around Champion Hill as the fourth official showed five minutes injury time, Dulwich kept their cool and sealed the win.

An incredibly exciting game that took the Hamlet one more step away from the drop-zone.