Dulwich Hamlet’s uncertain future has stopped them making moves in transfer market
By Richard Cawley
Gavin Rose has admitted he would probably have delved into the transfer market to solve Dulwich Hamlet’s scoring problems – if there was not major uncertainty over the club’s future.
The Bostik League Premier Division outfit had been leading the table until a five-game winless run started just over a month ago.
Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Enfield Town dropped them to third in the standings.
Hamlet chairman Liam Hickey revealed recently that a “significant sum of money” was needed for the club to meet paying their bills and salaries for the remainder of the campaign.
“There is a discussion with the owners at the moment as to whether they are going to release money we believe to have been promised to the club,” said Dulwich boss Rose. “If that happens – and it is what we have budgeted for – then there won’t be a problem seeing us through to the end of the season.
“If they don’t, then we won’t make it through to the end of the season. We’ll have to make a massive appeal to the supporters to see if we can get through to the end of the season and honour the contracts we have got.
“We are trying to get players in but it is hard getting better than we have already got for not a lot of money.
“We’re trying to find a way to make it happen. The deadline for signings is this time next month. We’d like to do it sooner than later but we need to know our position with the owners.
“If we are raising an appeal for money right now then we don’t want to add to the burden.
“We are quite hamstrung in what we can do in terms of bringing players in, otherwise we would have brought them in a bit earlier. Everyone knows what is going on off the pitch. We have to be very careful.
“We have had Dumebi Dumaka and Gavin Tomlin injured for the majority of the season. They are experienced forwards who would probably have started the games. We’ve been without two strong front-runners and they are on contract, so we still have to pay them. To get players in is just adding to the bill.
“We’ve done fantastically well to still sustain some sort of challenge for the play-offs with our financial situation off the pitch.”
Ashley Carew’s 63rd-minute free-kick put Dulwich ahead on Saturday against Enfield Town. But a bumper 2,158 crowd at Champion Hill saw Sam Youngs level with 11 minutes to go.
Reise Allassani missed chances but the former Crystal Palace attacker was defended by Rose.
“It was not just Reise. We’ve got Nathan Ferguson in an attacking position and he gets enough opportunities to score goals and doesn’t get enough for our liking.
“Nyren Clunis invariably has three or four good chances in a game and he’s not taking them either.
“If Reise doesn’t play well we still need others to turn up and score goals. The spotlight shouldn’t really be Reise – it should be all the other lads who need to be chipping in.
“It has been pretty much the same old story for the last five games. We have failed to win but been the dominant team. We just have not taken our chances.
Image by Keith Gillard
“It is really frustrating for myself, Junior [Kadi, assistant manager] and probably even the squad – because they are doing everything apart from sticking the ball in the net.”
Dulwich are in London Senior Cup action at home to Harrow Borough tonight (7.45pm).
Tooting & Mitcham extended their unbeaten run to five matches with a 0-0 draw at Lowestoft Town on Saturday.
They also play in the London Senior Cup tonight with a tie at Met Police.