DULWICH Hamlet boss Mark Dacey felt “emotional” after his side suffered their first defeat of the year as they were edged out 1-0 by Cheshunt in the Isthmian League Premier Division at Champion Hill last weekend.
After Amadou Kassaratewas sent off in the 39th minute, the visitors won it through Matthias Fanimo’s goal three minutes into the second half.
The result meant Dacey’s side dropped to eleventh in the table, with a play-off push looking increasingly unlikely as they are ten points off the top five.
It was Cheshunt’s first win in nine games in all competitions.
“I feel emotional,” Dacey told Dulwich’s media. “It’s weird how I feel like I want to get upset over a game of football, and I am.
“All I want is for the boys to play for the badge and [have] pride in what we do and the philosophy we have, how we carry ourselves and go about it.
“At times when teams have got ten men or go down to ten men they just park the bus and try to hit people on counter-attacks. Chestnut have had two shots on goal. The first one has taken a massive deflection which has led to them going 1-0 up. Then in the 95th minute the lad goes through one-on-one and dinks [goalkeeper] Toby [Bull] and we get it off the line.
“I thought we were brilliant and really the first half has probably the game-changing moments because we had a couple of one-on-ones with the goalkeeper when we’ve not hit the target. A few balls across the box that we’ve not picked anybody out.
“But we’ve created chances. I know for some fans they can feel the pain, they all feel the pain, but they can see we’ve thrown the kitchen sink at it. We not only did that but did it in an organised manner and it didn’t look like we had a player less.
“There are other people who will just see we lost to a team down near the bottom, so it doesn’t matter what we looked like or what I say, they’re not going to be happy with it.
“We had chances and we had a lot of entries into the final third. We didn’t stop and for that, as tough as it is to take – and I think that’s why I feel so emotional – I’m just proud.”
Dulwich travel to Brentwood Town in the league this Saturday (3pm).
