I couldn’t make last week’s trip to Dulwich, had a Christmas party in Brighton in the evening. Although if I had a fiver for everyone who came up to me yesterday, grin wider than the club’s overdraft, telling me I’d missed “a great day out”, I won’t need to miss the corresponding fixture next season because I could afford my own helicopter to get back in time.
In my absence, it appears some of you enjoyed the game a little too much, with poor Pitts getting a shower of the black stuff when he went to celebrate the 4-1 win with the fans.
That’s an expensive mistake in Dulwich, where the half pint spilt over Craig’s jacket probably cost more than the jacket itself. In fact the beer’s so expensive, Captain Spock in the bottom left of the picture is trying to beam it back into the glass.
Craig’s early shower was by no means the only ‘scenes’ taking place at an Isthmian Premier League ground last weekend. The rumour mill suggests that Welling’s manager had an eventful Saturday too, although for the first time since Tony Russell packed his bags, we’ve had to engage the Lewes FC Supporters Club libel lawyers to ensure the following description of the incident doesn’t prejudice an ongoing police investigation:
An hour or two before kick-off at Park View Road on Saturday, an altercation broke out between the two rival managers, after Potters Bar named a player on their teamsheet who the clubs had agreed wouldn’t play in the game, after his transfer from Welling to Potters Bar.
Potters Bar Town’s manager, Sammy Moore, suffered a busted hooter and required medical attention, prompting The Filth to be called to the ground. The match was abandoned prior to kick-off.
Despite that spot of bother, Welling’s management team were still in place for their visit to The Pan. And after 90 minutes of this one, some of us were hoping Potters Bar’s manager would turn up for round two, because this was a pretty tough watch.
Chances were few are far between after the opening ten minutes, when Lukas Franzen-Jones was narrowly pipped to a chance from point-blank range, while the returning TQ Addy blazed a chance over from the edge of the six-yard box for Welling. We definitely had the better of the second half, but what few chances we had were speculative long-range efforts.
Of course, games of football don’t last for 90 minutes these days, but there were still gasps of surprise around the Pan when the board went up for nine minutes of time added-on. To be fair to the referee, there was plenty to add, not least because Welling keeper Rory Browne went down “injured” no fewer than three times in the game, twice in the second half. When the Old Bill have finished investigating last week’s incident, they should start a manhunt for the mystery sniper on the mound who was taking out their keeper.
The added time had barely ticked over before Jack Paxman launched into a shin-high challenge on (I think) Kaan Bennett, earning him the first squeeze of Radox in the showers, and now of course we’re all over them like Welling CID.
Tricksy Arezki Hamouchene had been brought on for his now customary eight minutes to change the game and he did just that, jinking his way past a couple of defenders before slipping it to Bobby Unwin, whose shot was palmed out into the path of Kaan Bennett to apply the winner in what I’m told was the 12th minute of time added-on.
Cue limbs.
Still the game ploughed on. As the smell of burning turkeys started drifting across The Dripping Pan, they had a long throw that the nuisance John Ufuah could only tap into the side netting, and then a corner for which their keeper came up to join the fray. He got his head to the ball and looked to have secured a scrawny equaliser, only for Louis Rogers to stick a mitt out and (I think) deflect it on to the post.
Finally, just as the pubs shut, the game ended.
It’s three wins from three in December now, and we have the delicious prospect of making it a festive clean sweep at Whitehawk next week. Merry Christmas, everyone.
Lewes: Rogers, Bernal, Hamstead, Burchell, Kpakpe (West), Allen (Bennett), Muirhead, Christian-Law (Hamouchene), Unwin, Walker (Watson), Franzen-Jones (Bassett)
Supporters Club man of the match: Kaan Bennett came on for Alfie towards the end of the first half and was on the end of the two best chances of the game, scoring the key one. A glass of Baileys to the little wizard Hamouchene who created the opportunity for the late winner, too.
Video highlights from Your Instant Replay: