Up the wall

As this blog is unlikely to be called upon to photograph a fixture in the Eton Wall Game, Dulwich Hamlet's game against Leatherhead seemed the next best thing.

There are many reasons why animosity can arise between clubs, some shrouded in the mists of time. Visiting Mangotsfield United in 2002, we found a shared dislike of Gloucester City, in our case arising from their only visit to our ground nine years previously. Relations between us and Leatherhead deteriorated last season, after part of their pitch perimeter wall collapsed in the 85th minute of our League fixture. Their officials tried to blame the dozen or so of our schoolboy supporters who were leaning on it celebrating a goal. Their players crowded round the referee as he inspected the pitch for debris, and celebrated the abandonment as though they had won the game, in which we had been leading.

Having secured the Championship despite losing the replayed game, we were not expecting to meet them again for a while, but we reckoned without the draw for the FA Trophy.

Peter Adeniyi

Although the day was mainly dry, there was a heavy shower whilst I was on the way to the game, so I headed in to Sainsbury's. This was not just for the driest sausage roll I have had in a long time, but I had forgotten to pack the rain cover for my camera (serves me right for being so smug in midweek), and the plastic bag might have been needed as an emergency replacement.

A few minutes before the game (thirteen to be precise), a smartly dressed gentleman scurried past me carrying a large kit bag. I believe clubs are fined if they arrive less than 45 minutes before the game is due to start: I am not sure if anything equivalent applies to the match officials.

The sun was shining for the first half, where we were attacking the Greendale end. The sun is behind this end in the afternoon, and there are three tall trees behind the ground.

These ensure that, when the sun is shining, we can encounter just about all lighting conditions, usually within a few yards. We go from full sunshine ...

Billy Crook

... through mixed shadows ...

Nyren Clunis

... lit foreground against background shadow ...

Matthieu Boyer

... and vice versa ...

Erhun Öztümer

... although the low angle of the sun meant few shots were completely in shadow.

This was my first sight of the club's new kit. The shade of pink is better for the camera than on the previous kit, which sometimes came out nearer to purple. I would have preferred the player's number on the front of the shirt or, as with the previous kit, on the shorts (although the latter makes more work for the kit man matching shirt and shorts). In their absence, I rather hope I have got the captions right on the pictures above.

By the second half, the sun was almost completely below the trees, so the light was more even.

Dean Lodge, immediately before he was fouled for a penalty

We finish after sunset at this time of year, especially as the second half did not start until 4.10, which seemed late, with only a couple of minutes delay to the start and another couple added on in the first half. The floodlights became more significant for the lighting as the game went on.

Lewis Gonsalves

The end result was a satisfying progression to the next round, in front of the lowest crowd for a Saturday game this season, although I still got some decent crowd shots.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen here.

Final score: Dulwich Hamlet 3 (Daly 2,Öztümer) Leatherhead 0.

No walls were harmed in the making of this report.