Concord net late penalty to pick up point against Dulwich Hamlet

By James Whiffing

Spoils were shared at Thames Road as Danny Mills’ first half double was cancelled out by Danny Green’s late penalty for Concord Rangers.

Concord were looked to build on their solid recent form, having taken seven points out of nine points in their last three games while a win for Dulwich Hamlet would help to consolidate their play-off spot, with the club sat in seventh position before kick-off.

The opening moments of the game were lively and end-to-end, with the visitors putting the ball in the Concord net, although the flag had gone up for a foul.

Myles Roberts was called into action for the first time after 16 minutes, with a smart one-two between McQueen and Mills finding the former with a shooting opportunity inside the box, although his effort was straight at the Beach Boys ‘keeper.

Against the run of play, Nana Kyei opened the scoring for the hosts with 20 minutes gone, unleashing a vicious curling effort from 20 yards out which found the top right corner, giving Charlie Grainger virtually no chance.

The Hamlet responded instantly, though, with the club’s top scorer  Mills heading home from a corner kick, thumping the ball into the bottom right corner of Roberts’ net; a goal which fired up the away support, who were in full voice.

With just 10 minutes to go until the interval, the away side found themselves 2-1 up, with Mills once again the scorer, striking a first-time strike into the bottom right-hand corner following some poor communication amongst the Concord defence.

Giovanni McGregor dribbled past one opponent before finding Andre Blackman on the overlap, who fizzed the ball through a crowd of yellow shirts for Mills to fire the Hamlet into the lead.

The first real chance of the second half went to Reise Allassani, who saw his goal ruled out for handball.

After a few wasted half-chances for Mills and McGregor, there was a temporary stoppage in play following a collision between Jayden Randell and Jordan Higgs which saw the former forced to come off.

With just under 10 minutes left to play, Roberts made another fine save to keep the hosts alive, diving to his right to keep out McGregor’s speculative effort.

With five minutes plus stoppage time to play, the Beach Boys won a penalty kick through Kyei, who was barged over by the onrushing Grainger.

Concord’s top scorer  Green slotted the spot-kick home into the bottom right-hand corner for his 15th goal in all competitions, sending Grainger the wrong way and snatching a point for Chris Search’s side.