Welcome to today’s match against Hampton & Richmond Borough!

Now that we are a month into the season, everyone at the Club is beginning to get used to life in the National League South, both on and off the pitch. Of particular importance is the need to maintain strong attendances at our home matches whilst we are away from Champion Hill.

The Supporters’ Trust Joint Chair Duncan Chapman spoke to Tom Bale (DHTV Commentator) live on air at half time at Monday’s away fixture at Slough Town. Duncan emphasised that more than ever it’s time for everyone to pull together and re-iterated that one of the main focuses remains getting the club back to Champion Hill. He went on to comment that the most important thing is that we all need to work together – supporters, 12th Man , SaveDHFC, the Trust and the Directors to back Gavin and the team on the pitch and support the club in any way we can off it. Don’t forget if you cannot make it to a game, either home or away, do make sure that you tune into Tom’s DHTV’s radio commentary.

At today’s game, the football club has organised a collection of non-perishable food items and toiletries, which are to be donated to the Wimbledon food bank. The Club’s long standing commitment to reach out to help those in need and to raise awareness of issues faced everyday by those around us, is one of the reasons many of us love this football club. It is so important that, despite playing away from Champion Hill and being in our own fight, we are still able to continue to help the communities that surround us.

You may have seen in my last programme notes that I mentioned that the Mega-Container had now arrived at Imperial Fields. At the time of writing the notes everything was in place to transport the container from Champion Hill. Sadly, and not for want of trying, we were unable to load the container on the transport vehicle. Further arrangements to move the container are currently being made…. we are just going to need a bigger crane!

Last Saturday, home and away replica shirts flew off the mega-trestle table with many sizes running low already. Saturday also saw the first day of sale of our Promotion Roundabout T-shirts prices £12 adults and £9 children. Presently, replica shirts and the promotion t-shirts are only available at home games, however you will be able to purchase them online in early October.

I mentioned last week that we had recently elected four new members to the Trust Board. Paul Griffin is well known to most Dulwich Hamlet fans old and new as the friendly face of the turnstiles. For many years Griff served on the Football Club Committee working on things such as the 1893 Club and the club website. At present, his main role will be to lead on the Trust’s 100 Club as part of Membership Engagement subgroup with a view to merging the two lottery schemes. In his election statement Griff stated “Looking ahead I am determined to see Dulwich Hamlet return home to Champion Hill as a sustainable club. This club must be able to live within its means yet continue to attract the quality of players & personnel along with the investment to compete as well as challenge at the highest echelons of Non-League Football.”

Michelle Chapman who describes herself “As a long suffering Villa fan…” and “as a lifelong football fan” stated that she found “the experience at Dulwich was genuinely different. I felt included and welcomed into the Rabble with open arms. Soon, I had bought a mega-step to account for the lack of terracing and became ‘step-sister’ to a similarly vertically challenged fan and tried many times but failed to start my own (admittedly very poor) songs.” With her background in public service, she hopes to bring a range of skills gained from her experiences of working with young people and communities as well as having oversight of projects and policy, much of which required in depth legal knowledge. Michelle will be part of the Trust’s community engagement and events subgroup.

Next week, we will be introducing our two other new board members Mark McGann and Alex Smith.

Enjoy the game!

Mark (Scolly) Scoltock