FC Peterborough vs Dussindale and Hellesdon Rovers

FC Peterborough are a club on the rise. As you walk through the turnstiles of The Focus centre located deep in Dogsthorpe, Peterborough, you can feel the sense of community spirit that flows through the club. It is a small yet tidy refurbished ground that formerly hosted the now non-existent Peterborough Northern Star who disbanded in 2021. Since then it has become home to FC Peterborough, a club who were founded in 2014 and made the move from Fulbridge Road in 2021 after being promoted to the PDFL Premier Division. The club have carried on from that by going from strength to strength and now find themselves up in the dizzy heights of the Eastern Counties Football League, now known for sponsorship reasons as the Thurlow Nunn First Division North which represents step six of the football league pyramid (level 10 when you account for the Football League and Premier League).

The Focus Centre 'Under the Floodlights.'

First Half action

After entering the ground, it became apparent from very early on that this is a club that welcomes everyone with open arms, they pride themselves on diversity and immediately we felt welcomed by representatives of the club, in particular founding member Arif Azeez who invited us into the clubhouse for hot drinks and food at half time. By the time the half time whistle had blown in the match, a strong and dominant FC Peterborough side looked physically stronger and sharper than their opponents from Norwich and had flown into a 2-0 lead. Our notable performances from the first half include full back and captain Zahid Choudhary, central midfielder Micael Goncalves who was pulling the strings, and finally Vitor Vaz in the 10 role who was finding pockets of space time and time again.

Another character we came across while enjoying our half time hospitality was non-league football lover Hugh, who had astoundingly travelled all the way from Essex for the match to watch his 999th game of football. Now that is what you call dedication. People like Hugh exist all across the country, football fans who enjoy the purity of non-league football, football without the glitz & glam of the Premier League. This is real football, played by working class people and brought together by a sense of community and a genuine love for the game.

In the second half FC Peterborough asserted their dominance even further and as the third goal went in, the away side looked helpless. Atif Khan was the star of the second half, proving far too hot to handle with his direct running style and physicality which saw the winger shrug and surge his way through the defence to score a delightful goal to put the result beyond any reasonable doubt. At this point we were situated behind the goal that the home side were attacking and we noticed the Dussindale goalkeeper berating his defenders and midfielders infront of him for their lack of desire, to which he got plenty of stick back and a fairly polite ‘shut up mate’ from his teammate in the middle of the park. It was all going wrong for the away team, and it got even worse as Darrick Dadzie answered the cries of the FC Peterborough supporters who demanded ‘we want 5’, and within seconds Dadzie managed to get onto the end of a ball fizzed across the goal to complete his hat trick and made the score 5-0. A fine consolation goal late on from a long range looping effort did little to raise the spirits of the Dussindale players but gave them something to cheer about at last.

On the full time whistle, a 5-1 victory was celebrated and it meant that FC Peterborough had avenged the 6-1 defeat to Dussindale that they suffered just a week ago in Norwich. The players did a lap of the pitch and made sure to acknowledge all the supporters who had stayed until the end with a handshake, a nice personal touch which you would rarely ever find at the higher levels. We came away from the Focus Centre thoroughly entertained and totally impressed by the hospitality shown by the club, the whole matchday experience highlights the essential role that community plays in football. Football is nothing without community, and FC Peterborough are a fine example of that.

Squad lists from the matchday programme

Written by Joe Horne