For 77 minutes, it seemed like an easy night's work for the Hamlet, 4-1 up against Cray Wanderers and comfortably heading to the quarter finals of the London Senior Cup.

However, two goals in the final fifteen minutes for our visitors made things closer than they needed to be, but certainly the small crowd were treated to an exciting cup tie.

Much of the focus had been on the return of Hamlet legend Nyren Clunis, captaining the Wands on his first appearance at Champion Hill since departing in 2020. For the Hamlet, two of Nyren's long-time teammates lined up against him, Quade Taylor as captain, and Sanchez Ming returning from injury. Temi Eweka made his competitive debut from the start.

The game started slowly in terms of chances, with the Hamlet failing to capitalise on a series of early corners, Kreshnic Krasniqi nodding one of them wide, whilst Clunis hit the wall with a free kick at the Greendale End. Both sides struggled to create out and out opportunities, and in that respect, it was no surprise that it took 31 minutes for the game to truly come to life, and that first real chance brought the first goal.

The hosts earned a free kick 30 yards out, with Nana Owusu lining it up. The forward hit a swerving shot which was too hot to handle for Shaun Rowley, with the ball bursting out of his grasp, and there was Jayden Clarke sweeping home from 12 yards out to give us the lead, his first goal since August.

Having scored one, Clarke would add to his tally four minutes later. Owusu again was the architect, sending in a low cross from the right hand side, which a defender could only deflect into the path of the oncoming Clarke to once more find the bottom corner. In the space of a matter of moments, Clarke had doubled his tally for the season.

Ashley Nzala had also performed admirably again on the left of the front line, causing constant headaches for Jephte Tanga, and he almost created a third in stoppage time, reaching the byline and floating in a cross for George Porter at the back post, but with a tight angle, could only head at Rowley.

Paul Barnes gave Charlie Grainger and Owusu a rest for the second half as Aaron Jones and Omari Hibbert came on for their competitive debuts, and the one-way traffic continued, as Will Wood tested Rowley with a free kick before captain Taylor smashed one over from a corner. It was no surprise then when goal number three arrived in the 60th minute, and it came through one of the moves of the match. Ming darted forwards from defence, played a one-two with Porter and continued to charge down the right wing. Looking up, he played in a lovely ball to the near post, where Hibbert broke in front of his marker to steer into the corner, two in two for the striker.

Almost instantly, the visitors were gifted a chance to get back into the game when they won a penalty. Josh Hill had replaced Ming after the goal had been scored, and within ninety seconds had chopped down Yahaya Bamba, with Bamba converting the spot kick.

A moment of pure genius restored our three goal lead in the 65th minute, as Porter played a ball wide to Nzala, with the former Brentwood man putting a low cross into the middle. A defender attempted to clear, but Porter, eight yards out, managed to flick the ball up and produce a volley with the outside of his boot to fire the ball into the top corner, inspirational stuff.

Substitute Joe Felix struck the bar as the wait for his first Hamlet goal went on, but thirteen minutes from time it was a second goal, and for a former Hamlet man. A long ball was played beyond the stretch of Taylor to Anthony Cook, with the experienced winger turning Hill inside and out before calmly slotting underneath Jones.

This reinvigorated the Wands, as Clunis, Bamba and Cook all chanced their arm in the last minutes of the game, before a goal six minutes into injury time brought us closer to penalties. A long ball forward found Jones haring out of his area to try and clear, but Bamba beat him to it, laying the ball off to full back Sam Wood to just lob it over the backtracking Jones and make it 4-3.

A nervous bit of injury time to still negotiate then, with Rowley going forward for a free kick, which did fall to a Cray player but the ball rolled free for Jones to gather and see out the result. The win means we will travel to either Wingate & Finchley or Woodford Town in the last eight.

Dulwich Hamlet Line-Up: 1 Charlie Grainger (13 Aaron Jones 46'), 2 Sanchez Ming (5 Josh Hill 61'), 3 Will Wood, 4 James Comley, 11 Nana Owusu (20 Omari Hibbert 46'), 14 Kreshnic Krasniqi, 15 Quade Taylor (c), 17 Temi Eweka, 18 George Porter (23 Joe Felix 68'), 21 Jayden Clarke (16 Johl Powell 61'), 22 Ashley Nzala

Goalscorers: Jayden Clarke 31', 35', Omari Hibbert 60', George Porter 65'

Yellow Card: Will Wood 79'

Cray Wanderers Line-Up: 1 Shaun Rowley, 4 Sam Skeffington (3 Sam Wood 62'), 6 Jalen Jones, 8 Ben Krauhaus (10 Anthony Cook 46'), 11 Nyren Clunis (c), 12 Yahaya Bamba, 14 Sinn'kaye Christie (20 Cerny Ando 62'), 15 Mitchell Chapman, 16 Michael Ademiluyi (7 Dan Bassett 65'), 17 Harrison Sodje, 18 Jephte Tanga (2 Kellen Fisher 46')

Goalscorers: Yahaya Bamba 63' (pen), Anthony Cook 77', Sam Wood 90+6'

Yellow Card: Jalen Jones 90+3'

Referee: Lawrence Torz-Brown
Attendance: 319