It’s only four sleeps until Christmas – but most Dulwich Hamlet fans will tell you that five is the magic number for their festive dream coming true.
The National League South club will end nine months away from their Champion Hill home when they host Eastbourne Borough on Boxing Day.
And if the club had not been able to reach an agreement with Southwark council and Meadow Partners then the future was grim.
Director Ben Clasper admits that the club – which regularly got gates in excess of 2,000 before being forced to groundshare at Tooting & Mitcham’s KNK Stadium in March – had run out of money.
It was Hamlet fan Clasper, a partner and chief executive at entertainment and media consultancy firm Rogo Scott, who opened up lines of communication that had previously broken down. The company is Dulwich’s shirt sponsor this season.
“Dulwich brought me in in September to look at the situation with the club financially and whether there was a way to get us back to Champion Hill,” he said. “I started looking at things in detail on September 17 and by September 24 I knew it was over – the club had gone. We were out of money and couldn’t possibly survive unless we were back at Champion Hill.
“I had two options. One was to let it go – but I’d been a season-ticket holder for years. The other option was to fund it and it keep it going as long as I possibly could – to see if I could resolve it before I ran out of money.
“It was easily a five-figure sum [to cover that period].”
So how did Clasper solve the impasse?
“Just by starting afresh,” he said. “Talking to people and not focusing on all the bad stuff that had happened in the past. I focused on the good stuff ahead. We found people to be very reasonable when we sat down with them.”
The visit of Eastbourne is followed straight away by another home fixture against Slough Town – with gate and bar receipts set to inject vital funds.
“The Christmas games are always a bit lower in terms of gates but we have already pre-sold more than 1,400,” said Clasper. “If you add season tickets then we are past 2,000. We want to keep back tickets on the day for people who fancy wandering up.
“Our capacity is 3,000 and that is a conservative estimate. We want to make sure people get a good viewing position, not just cram people in for the sake of it.”
Plenty of people have helped get Champion Hill back in the shape to stage a game – with the turnaround a tight one.
“The supporters’ trust have learned more about plumbing than they would ever want to admit,” said Clasper. “The rest of us have been clearing out a lot of rubbish that has been dumped.
“We don’t take the help for granted. The support to get the stadium ready has been incredible.
“I hadn’t thought about how it would feel to go back for a game until Monday.
“My mates who I go with said ‘right, are we going for the usual routine – what pub are we meeting up?’ You think ‘my God, this is going to happen’. Now I’m worried if I’ll get my usual spot – I’ll have to get there early. I’m on the step behind the goal as you are looking at the pitch – right at the corner of it.”
Nobody is saying the battle is over for Dulwich. But being back in their South London manor is a big step in the right direction – especially when there really was no viable alternative.
“First of all we want to stabilise in the National League,” said Clasper. “It is a new level for us.
“With the size of our crowds we are more than capable of holding our own at this level, if not getting promoted. But let’s just have a decent season competing first.
“The hard work starts now. This was just about getting back to where we were – and where we were was never a long-term position for the club. We all know there needs to be a discussion beyond that.”
Clasper only has praise for the job that Rose, one of the long-serving bosses in non-league football, has done at Dulwich. An attractive brand of football, two promotions – not to mention countless near misses in the play-offs – have seen attendances rocket.
“He is the reason crowds got to 3,000. If you look at other clubs at this level you don’t see what he has done at many of them. I can’t even imagine life without Gav.”
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