On the face of it a straightforward game. A routine 3-0 win against a demoralised and dejected and frankly awful looking Tooting side, with a routine hat-trick from Paul vines. The crowd of around 280 was a little higher than in recent weeks that maybe reflects a good run of being unbeaten in now 5 games. But there is a backdrop to all this and as usaul can only give a personal opinion. On arrivial at around 2pm at the ground a leaflet was thrust more than given to me extolling the need for all Carshalton fans to boycott the final home game of the season in two weeks. This as a protest against their manager / owner Paul dipre. A litany of reasons are given on the A3 piece of paper that range from bad results, failure to talk to the fans enough and many more between. When reading Twitter and other social media one reads not about the good run of late but this litany of complaints against Dipre. what I have seen in the 5 games that I have attended this season is a good team that I have chosen to come and watch over other non-league teams, because they play good football and give 100% effort. This is what I saw today, a superb hat-trick from Paul Vines, who also incidentally you will see in one of the photos defending his goal from corners and free-kicks. On the terraces I heard not a single shout against the manager all game? So is this all helpful? In my opinion sadly not. The fans should get behind their team and not effectively penalise them which is what their actions achieve. Furthermore to do this via some silent leaflet and to hear nothing in the ground suggests a little dissonance in their actions. No one can deny that today Carshalton were good. Maybe the fans ought to give Dipre more time and more encouragement. Relationships have broken down and one suspects that for all parties to meet halfway might be the optimum solution.
The game itself. It was clear from the start that Tooting were dejected and well on their way back to Ryman South. It was the worst team I have seen at this level for a while and rarely did they look like scoring. The photos tell the story really.














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burger carshalton fc,
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football,
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paul dipre,
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ryman league,
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tooting and mitcham fc |