Wealdstone continued their dominance of the National League South with a hard fought 2-1 win Dulwich Hamlet at The Vale coming from behind.
Quick goals in quick succession from Wealdstone’s Michele Efete and Sanchez Watt cancelled out Jeff Monakana first half penalty and insured Dean Brennan’s Wealdstone side wrapped the 3 points .
A much throughly improved Dulwich Hamlet side will be kicking themselves as they managed to go toe to toe with the league leaders. Unfortunately for Gavin Rose’s side the Hamlets left The Vale with nothing to show for their efforts .
Wealdstone started the game very well as Dennon Lewis’s individual quick break forward was cut out by Dulwich’s Nathan Smith.
Dulwich Hamlet managed to ease their way to a big chance and in the 25th minute former Wealdstone player Jeffrey Monakana played through Danny Mills on goal but was denied by a great save from Wealdstone’s Aston Oxborough.
The game erupted into life 5 minutes later as Dulwich’s Lionel Ainsworth struck a beautiful shot from the edge of the box which smashed against the bar , the rebound was collected by Danny Mills who was then fouled in the box for a Dulwich penalty .
As a result of Oxborough foul in the box on Mills , Jeffrey Monakana stepped for penalty duty on the 32nd minute and managed to cooly slot it home giving Dulwich & Hamlet a shock lead at the league leaders.
The minutes before first half didn’t see much chances for both sides as long range strikes were the only troubles made for both sets of keepers of Wealdstone and Dulwich.
The first ended with Dulwich & Hamlet having a shock 1-0 lead but their star players Danny Mills and Christian Smith were removed from the side due to injuries they sustained in that half.
Wealdstone brought on fire power of their own as Sanchez Watt and Ryan Sellers were brought onto the fields to give Wealdstone a chance to turn this game around.
Both sides started the second half the same as they played throughout the first as Dulwich & Hamlet contained Wealdstone for much larger parts of the early second half .
Dulwich almost scored a 2nd on the 56th minute mark as Wealdstone were complacent in posssesion and Dulwich’s Barbosa orchestrated a quick counter attack playing a ball out-wide to Ainsworth who’s low cross found Quade Taylor but his low strike effort was saved by Wealdstone’s Oxborough.
Wealdstone made Dulwich & Hamlet pay for the chances they couldn’t convert in the early second half as Michele Efete header looped into the net from Ashley Charles’s resulting corner giving Wealdstone the equaliser on the 68th minute mark.
Wealdstone gained a much needed boost from that equaliser as only 120 seconds later , Dean Brennan’s tactical substitute Sanchez Watt pounced sharply from Danny Green’s cross with his header entering the bottom corner.
The home faithful went into eruption as they witnessed two quick goals in the space of 2 minutes and the game now completely turned around with less than half and hour to go .
The last 20 minutes of the game saw both sides push for another goal as Wealdstone’s goal scorer almost turned assister as his defence splitting through ball into Dennon Lewis was ruled out for offside. Dulwich thought they could’ve gained equalised very late on as Ainsworth went one on one with Oxborough but Oxborough saved easily from Ainsworth’s very weak effort.
A huge win for Wealdstone as they confirmed their 15th home win of the season and stay top of the National League South with 69 points. Dulwich & Hamlet unfortunately stay in the race for releagation as they look to bounce back after a bittersweet performance.
Dean Brennan’s post match interview on the Dulwich & Hamlet result is available to listen and watch below.
Wealdstone: Oxborough, Efete, Sheppard (Sellers, 57), Phillips, Okimo, Charles, Green, Clifford (Watt, 58), Emmanuel (Krasniqi, 87), Lafayette, Lewis.
Dulwich Hamlet: Grainger, McCoy, N. Smith, Taylor, David, Orlu, Monakana (Kearney, 75), C. Smith (Monlouis, 65), Mills (Mullings, 57), Barbosa, Ainsworth.
Ahmed Ali
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