11 things that happened to Dulwich Hamlet this week

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Image: Duncan Palmer Photography

Ben Sibley gives a recap of a memorable week for Dulwich Hamlet…

Tuesday – Meadow terminate DHFC’s licence to play at Champion Hill for “repeated breaches of the licence by the Club, together with unwarranted personal attacks on the company, which has funded the Club for a number of years and without which the Club would not have survived as long as it has”. Dulwich Hamlet are homeless.

Tuesday – On behalf of Meadow, UK law firm Blake Morgan contact Dulwich Hamlet claiming that ‘Dulwich Hamlet Football Club’, ‘The Hamlet’ and ‘DHFC’ had been registered as trademarks on 17 October 2017 and demanded that they no longer be used by the club.

Tuesday – Mayor of London Sadiq Kahn and leader of Southwark council Peter John issue a joint statement urging Meadow to walk away and sell the ground to Southwark Council at market value.

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Ghana’s Albert Adomah & the World Cup’s Non-League Connections

wpid-Albert-Adomah-made-thd-provisional-Ghana-squad-for-the-2014-World-CupTFN’s Hugo Greenhalgh profiles Middlesbrough’s Albert Adomah and looks at the other players with non-league connections at this World Cup…

Ghana’s squad for this World Cup might be one of the youngest at the tournament but it still features some illustrious names from Europe’s top leagues. In Michael Essien and Sulley Muntari they possess two Champions League winners with nearly 140 caps between them, while Kevin-Prince Boateng, André Ayew and Kwadwo Asamoah have been recent regulars in the competition.  Yet alongside stars such as these, there are a couple of players who started their careers in England’s non-league.

Albert Adomah currently plays for Middlesbrough but he started out at another ‘Boro, five divisions lower, in the Isthmian Premier with Harrow Borough FC. Adomah used to have kickabouts with his local street wardens when he was a teenager and they encouraged him to play for a Sunday team. This lead to trials at Harrow Borough, in North West London, who Adomah signed for while he continued to take a painting and decorating course at a local college. Continue reading

149 Years in the Making – Wrexham FC at Wembley

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The False Nine editor James Dutton was at Wembley on Sunday, reporting on the FA Trophy final for Wrexham.com. Here he gives his thoughts on the implications of a 4-1 penalty shoot out victory over Grimsby Town for his hometown club Wrexham…

An astonishing day, so befitting of a club that has fought for its very survival. As Johnny Hunt saw his final spot kick send the outstanding James McKeown the wrong way, the Wrexham end erupted. An outpouring of jubilation and relief, so alien to this historic club during its recent murky past, wrenched away the ghosts of financial gloom that threatened to destroy Wales’ oldest footballing establishment.

As captain Dean Keates held aloft the FA Trophy, the demons of the club’s recent history were extinguished, banished into the beyond. This was Wrexham’s day in the sun.

No set of football supporters deserve it more; ‘stand up if you own your club’ they chorused during a pedestrian first half. Continue reading

Has Welsh Football ever had it so good?

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In the wake of Swansea’s glorious League Cup triumph, The False Nine editor James Dutton explores the state of the Welsh game…

As the dust settles on Swansea’s emphatic Capital One Cup victory over the unlikely opposition of Bradford City, Blue Square Conference leaders Wrexham are due to travel to Wembley next month for the FA Trophy Final. Cardiff City sit eight points clear at the summit of the Championship with a game in hand, whilst Newport County sit just two points behind their North Walian countrymen, also with a game in hand.

Swansea’s meteoric rise from the basement of the Football League pyramid in 2004 to the heady heights of the Premier League, and now League Cup winners just nine years later, is an astounding tale. Next year the Swans will be playing European football; a chance for Welsh football to showcase its burgeoning ascension on the continent.  Continue reading

Ebbsfleet United and MyFootballClub – Five Years On

Fives years on from the creation of MyFootballClub, False Nine editor Hugo Greenhalgh takes a look at Ebbsfleet United and their unorthodox owners…

The past fortnight has offered some respite for a club currently sitting 22nd in the Blue Square Premier. Continue reading

No Place to Hyde in the Conference Premier

In the wake of another Champions League outing for Manchester City, False Nine editor Andrew Belt looks at the club’s work down at non-league Hyde FC and profiles a club embarking on a first Conference Premier season…

It’s been a tough few months for Hyde FC. A fortnight after winning promotion to the Blue Square Conference Premier for the first time in the Greater Manchester club’s history boss, Gary Lowe, and assistant, Martyn Booty, quit the side, citing a lack of funds and only a short-term contract offer as the driving force behind their decision. Continue reading