April is the crunchiest month for our Hamlet sides, as we reach the back end of this cracking season. The month brings a final five fixtures for our Men’s team as well as four for our Women’s firsts – and crucially it’s still all to play for!
For the men, after the April Fools’ Day fixture at Carshalton Athletic on Easter Monday, it’s Enfield Town at home on Saturday 6th April, followed by away jaunts to Essex and Kent: with trips to Canvey (‘you’re a peninsula!’) Island on Saturday 13th and Folkestone Invicta on Saturday 20th. After that it’s end game – or hopefully, maybe, not quite – as the final fixture of the season proper sees the visit of Cray Wanderers to the Hill on Saturday 27th April, when a play-off prize could still be on the cards.
At the time of writing we’re sitting just six points off those play-off places, and still to face three of the teams above us. Dare I say it, dreams of promotion glory are beginning to drift down from Goose Green. Picture the roundabout!
Meanwhile our Women’s first team is dreaming even bigger and, dare I even think it, the league title itself remains a target. Imagine that roundabout rocking! Chasing hard to catch the two sides above us, and with games in hand, our women face one of those teams in a crunch clash on Wednesday 3rd April, with Fulham’s visit to Champion Hill. A Wednesday night under the lights with so much at stake is surely unmissable.
To keep the pressure on, and our ‘spice’ levels high, the women then have two more home games, hosting Dorking Wanderers on Sunday 7th; then Enfield Town on Sunday 14th, eight days after the visit of Enfield’s men. We end April with the Women’s away trip to AFC Crawley on Sunday 28th.
After that there’s a potentially tortuous three-week wait before the last game of the season, away at Saltdean on 19th May. By then the pressure could be unbearable. But just remember that roundabout! And so to complete the fixtures, our Women’s Reserves face Richmond Park on Sunday 7th April before a final game against Camden & Islington on 5th May.
I should add that by the time April begins the picture for both our Men’s and Women’s sides could have shifted, depending on results elsewhere, from the delirious scenes of roundabout glory I’m allowing myself to imagine now. But in any case get the dates in your diary and don’t risk not being there when pink ‘n’ blue history is made!
While you’re at it you can add a couple more dates to look forward to: the next DHFC Fan Forum is on Wednesday 10th April in the Champion Hill bar. And looking ahead further to when the season’s dust has settled, our Supporters’ Trust AGM will be in late June – so still plenty of time to join the Trust, the voice of our fans. Hopefully we’ll have a hell of a lot to shout about by then. Tales of roundabout revelry and all! Up the Hamlet