Sit down Shepherdson, I can't see

Thus said the famously taciturn Sir Alf Ramsey as his assistant jumped up to celebrate England's 4th goal in the 1966 World Cup Final.

Cup finals and league championship deciders are not really there for people to see. In years to come, we will probably not remember much of the play, just that we were there. My activities involve tracking the game, although with Dulwich Hamlet, this is less of a responsibility than with Prescot Cables. I am something of an occasional attender (even more so this season), so if I come up with pictures the club or my friend John from the Southwark News can use, then that is a bonus.

Crowds at Dulwich have been increasing steadily over the last couple of seasons, brought in largely by the attractive football played under the manager Gavin Rose. My friend Richard commented on the forum recently that a couple of seasons ago, if he saw someone in pink and blue, he would probably know them, at least by sight; now he sees colours being worn by people he does not recognise, often some distance from the ground. I first noticed how the support base was widening about a year ago, when I went into a pub 5 minutes' walk from the ground, and found 5 or 6 tables occupied, every one by people wearing items of pink and blue clothing, or with club scarves across the back of chairs.

The crowd for this game was 1137, a majority of whom were wearing scarves and other colours, which suggests people who have come to Champion Hill before and been interested enough to buy something, rather than being people who wandered in because there was a big game. Flags were much in evidence.

The home support was distributed around the ground, as some people like to stand at the end they came in, so I had no trouble finding a bit of railing on which to lean. Playing this way means the light is right for the photographer: even when operating slightly on auto pilot.

Danny Carr plays his last game for Dulwich before joining Huddersfield Town

I do not generally go for many crowd shots, apart from a few people I know, or on a day out with the Cables Train Crew. However, on an occasion like this, the crowd become part of the event, much more than at a "normal" game, so I stood back a few times and snapped a few of the crowd too.

Shaun Dooley, joint organiser of the 12th Man scheme, gets some pictures

Dulwich needed one point to secure the Championship ahead of Maidstone United. A clean sheet would guarantee success, like in 1992, my first season watching Dulwich, when we needed one point from our final game at Hitchin Town to secure a promotion place (no playoffs back then) ahead of Boreham Wood. On that occasion, we created a buffer on 3 minutes, when Jon Egan found the net.

Nerves were not so soothed on this occasion, with Burgess Hill scoring after 29 minutes. Supporters' mood was dampened further at half time when "the Highest gave his thunder: hail stones and coals of fire". Well perhaps not coals of fire, but it was an impressive hailstorm for April. There was talk of how a team losing a commanding position on the final day almost always go on to lose in the playoffs.

From the reports I have been getting, however, Gavin is good at motivating the team to come back from a poor first half performance. I was therefore still optimistic when I squeezed into a place at the Champion Hill end, where most of the standing supporters had gathered. We were rewarded with a goal from Xavier Vidal at 65 minutes.

Xavier Vidal shoots for goal

It is not the best of photos, but the most important goal of the season is the most important goal of the season. There was an ice cream van in the ground, doing a good trade as, apart from the half time storm, the weather was quite sunny. The proprietor was clearly a supporter too, and sometimes ice cream has to take a back seat.

The ice cream vendor pauses mid-cornet to celebrate the goal

Now we were back in control, and "just" needed to prevent Burgess Hill scoring again (still keeping up pressure for an extra goal). Nerves meant attention in the crowd was starting to wander.

Attention seems elsewhere as Ethan Pinnock takes a throw in ...

... but people are looking again when the ball is back in play

The final score of 1-1 meant that Dulwich had secured our first championship since 1978. Winning the Championship at your own ground means the celebrations can get into full swing without an audience of bored home stewards wondering when you will go away.

Lifelong supporter Malcolm Bateman, looking relieved

The League official with the trophy, whose duty we assume was to spend the afternoon following the scores in a layby in the Swanley area, must have set his satnav for Dulwich once Xavier Vidal scored, as the trophy was ready to be presented a few minutes after the final whistle.

Regular goalkeeper Phil Wilson celebrates with Chico Ramos, signed with 12th Man funds when injury ended Phil's season

After that, it was some noisy celebrations in the club bar, the Cherry Tree, back to the club bar, then Goose Green roundabout (for the more fleet of foot). I left at this point, but I understand the East Dulwich Tavern was followed by more dancing on the roundabout, in some cases with less clothes.

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

The maîtres d'hôtel know me well and let me sign the bill

"Adult?" asked the gate man as my friend Christian went through ahead of me. I met Christian 20 years ago, as part of a young and noisy support to be found behind the goal Dulwich Hamlet were attacking, known to all as "the rabble". Now in his thirties, he has been fortunate to retain a youthful appearance, augmented with a neatly trimmed greying beard, so we were unsure whether he was being invited to consider applying for a discount as a young person or senior citizen.

There are a couple of clubs where I thought of a line from a poem as a title for a post, and work through for more surreal titles when I visit again. So Warrington Town gets Under Milk Wood, and Burgess Hill Town gets John Betjeman's Executive with its reference to every roadside hostelry from here to Burgess Hill. For the avoidance of doubt, I am not known to any maîtres d'hôtel, and the only bit of the bill I get to sign is where it says "please charge my card".

I attended Dulwich Hamlet's last game of last season at Burgess Hill, in which we were seeking to secure promotion, and they to avoid relegation. They were successful, we were not, so, by coincidence, my first Dulwich game of this season was at the same location. As last year, this was late in the season: having steered clear of London during the Olympics, a couple of things kept me away for longer. I think we are now allowed to use the words London and Olympics in the same blog post, and the organising committee have not copyrighted them for all eternity, in the same way the Canadians can sing their national anthem after the Vancouver Winter Games let go of the words "glorious and free".

Peter Adeniyi

The game started in the conditions of a proper autumn day, overcast and having rained earlier. Finding the sports mode was offering speeds that were too slow, I went to shutter priority. Both sides had a substantial amount of dark colour in their kit. Indeed, in some competitions, Dulwich's dark blue and Burgess Hill's black would be considered a clash of socks, hindering the referee in identifying whose feet were in which position in a tackle.

Since my last visit, Burgess Hill have changed their main colour from yellow to green, not a choice I would have made in a ground bordered on two sides with conifers, I can see players blending in to the background on a wet Saturday afternoon in January.

The Burgess Hill kit, sported by an unnamed player - numbers on the front, you know it makes sense

It takes about 5 or 6 appearances for me to recognise players, so being an irregular attender at Dulwich games, I have the best chance with those who have been in the team for the last couple of years, like Nyren Clunis, here being closely watched by Mishi and Liam from the committee.

There are some new players I can recognise quickly, as they are popular with the terraces. One such is Erhun Öztümer, who has joined us on returning home to London after playing professionally in Turkey. Recognition is aided by his being our penalty taker: reports suggest we have been good at drawing defenders into committing fouls in the penalty area. Most people think he will be snapped up by a club at a higher level before long, but are enjoying his play, and goals, whilst he is with us.

Erhun Öztümer

By the second half, the clouds had cleared, giving a fine autumn sunset on the deciduous trees behind the conifers.

Once the sun had gone down, I did not get many shots, as Burgess Hill have an arrangement of lights with two pylons along each side (not on the corners). This is the same arrangement as Warrington Town, and, although the light did seem a bit brighter than at Warrington, it was still even without the bright spots that are helpful for those of us working with consumer kit.

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

In every roadside hostelry from here to Burgess Hill

Last weekend I was in the London area, in part to see Dulwich Hamlet play their final game of the regular season at Burgess Hill Town. Having seen the EvoStik League affected by matters off the field, issues at the top of the Ryman League were to be settled in the traditional manner. Bognor Regis Town went into April with the best chance on paper, being 2 points off the lead with a game in hand. When they lost to Worthing, this handed the advantage to Dulwich Hamlet, who had still to play Whitehawk, at that stage in third place. A win for Whitehawk put them in charge of their own destiny.

Some end of season games can be effectively dead, with little at stake for the teams, but this was very much alive - a win for Dulwich Hamlet could still win the title if Whitehawk were to slip up, and Burgess Hill needed to perform better than Whyteleafe to avoid finishing in a relegation position.

Whilst I did not try every roadside hostelry on the way, and with the dual carriageway A23 there are not many left, most people from my train took a sharp right out of the station to the Watermill. Suitably refreshed, I arrived at the ground to find John from the Southwark News taking notes from the team list posted outside the clubhouse. I went for the simpler expedient of taking a picture of it.

The weather people tell us this has been the wettest April for some time, and there was some concern a couple of days before the game that it may be postponed, which would have been a problem for the League, as the composition of the play off semi finals on the Tuesday depended on this and other games. Fortunately, the rain eased off, allowing the water to soak in, or not, as the water companies tell us.

The light was the worst I have seen for an afternoon game in April, I had to switch from the sports mode to shutter priority on the camera when I found I was getting shutter speeds down to 1/160s at ISO 1600, something I do not expect to need to do at this time of year. The background provided by the trees did not help.

Phil Wilson against a dark background

I took up a position by the side of the pitch to avoid the wind blowing the rain on to the front of the lens, as, despite the forecast, I had forgotten my lens hood. Still, it is good for the side on movement shots.

Kevin James

Many of our supporters thought this was our worst performance for some time - I have not seen many games, so there are plenty of which I am not aware, but the team seemed to play as though they knew the title was out of reach. Indeed it was, a whopping (for them) 287 spectators squeezing into the Enclosed Ground to see Whitehawk make sure of it by winning against Chipstead.

For the second half, the trees afforded some protection for my more usual position behind the goal.

Sanchez Ming leaves his marker horizontal

Lewis Goncalves goes for a header

With Whyteleafe winning, Burgess Hill needed a goal to retain their league status, and efficiently scored one after 80 minutes, the defeat giving Dulwich a third place finish, and a home fixture against Folkestone Invicta in the playoffs.

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