Erith and Belvedere          3          Ogunseye 9, 65, 75

K Sports                               1          Bignell 26

A good sequence of scorelines from the start of the season for Deres: 3-1, 5-1, 1-1, 3-1, 3-1.  In the last four of those games the opposition have equalised and in three of them Deres have gone on to win.  So it seemed a familiar pattern as K Sports, who whacked Erith 7-0 during their turbulent pre-lockdown period, were seen off on a sunny day at Park View Road, with Benga Ogunseye bagging a hat-trick.

With Dave Martin having moved on to Hastings United after just two appearances, the Deres had recruited another highly experienced midfielder in former Dulwich Hamlet mainstay Ashley Carew, and his influence was immediately beneficial as the Deres dominated the opening phase.  The ever-lively Henry Dasofunjo set Carew up with a golden chance as early as the 7th minute, but his shot was pushed around the post by Charlie Walker.

It wasn’t long, however, before Benga Ogunseye, getting his second Deres start, opened the scoring by firing through a crowd of players from the edge of the box to give the home side a 9th-minute lead.

Carew continued to impress, with a couple of free-kicks being blocked either side of a shot just wide after he did well to make space.  However in the 26th minute, just after Rob Curtis had been booked and given away a free-kick, a bit of pinball in the Deres’ box and a half-clearance by Rilwan Anibaba was returned with interest by Isaac Bignell to equalise.

Five minutes later Kane Butler had a golden chance with a volley that Anibaba had to tip up in the air and hold at the second attempt, as Sports threatened to take the lead.  Victor Aiyelabola, the only Deres success story of the pre-lockdown period with two goals in a nightmare period, was not as successful on his return, his main contribution being to bring down a goal-bound Kazzeem Richards.

The quality of the third quarter of the game was summed up by Drew Allassani’s shot into the woods at the Danson Park end, but on 65 minutes Ogunseye restored the Deres’ lead with a header from close range.  Ten minutes later a good buildup down the left resulted in a fine finish from Ogunseye to complete the hat-trick and leave Deres in second place in the early-season league table behind Glebe.

DERES: Rilwan Anibaba; Kazzeem Richards (Vinnie Medhurst 63), Marlon Patterson, Drew Allassani, Rob Curtis, Reece Barrett, Henry Dasofunjo (Malakai Hyman 81), Ashley Carew, Benga Ogunseye, Nassim Dukali (Danny Patterson 68), Tyler Anderson-Parr.  Subs: Matt Neary, Calum Willock.

K SPORTS: Charlie Walker; Kwasi Amoah (Connor Cheek 88), Greg Smith (Ryan Young 64), Segun Ikudehinbu, Jack Bray, Lewis Foreman, Callum Marshall, George Batten, Isaac Bignell, Kane Butler, Victor Aiyelabola.