Trophy hunters told to turn up early!

The south Londoners - looking forward to hosting a season best crowd for their biggest match in decades against Macclesfield Town in the last eight of Non-League's showpiece competition - say all their turnstiles will be open from 1pm with one dedicated solely to fans who've purchased online e-tickets in advance to ease congestion.

After pre-sold tickets left only 1,500 to be sold on the day, supporters arriving late also risk missing out altogether with the Ryman Premier club's officials bracing themselves for a bumper crowd at their 3,000 capacity home.

A Hamlet spokesman said: "Fans are advised to get down very early for this game, attendances at Champion Hill have been soaring in recent seasons and this year our average league gate is 1,208, with a top crowd of 2,217. Advance tickets have already sold out but there are plenty of tickets available on the gate."

After coming through six rounds and giant-killing performances against Braintree Town and Whitehawk, Rose told fans on Friday that he was allowing himself to start dreaming of Wembley and another scalp to write a new chapter in the club's history books 37 years after their 1980 defeat by Boston at the same stage of the competition.

With his side now rubbing shoulders with Non-League's Emirates FA Cup quarter-finalists Lincoln City and National League heavyweights Tranmere Rovers in the last eight, the Dulwich Hamlet boss declared: "Now we’re in the quarter-finals, the mentality changes. Beforehand we’ve been the underdogs for so long, and it’s hard to look beyond each round. But now you look at the clubs you’re still in the competition with and you think ‘we’re really in this’.

“As a club we’re really looking forward to Saturday. It’s a great chance for the players to pit themselves against National League players. I’m very proud of what the boys have achieved this year. They have represented the club really well and got Dulwich Hamlet known nationally. Hopefully we can give a good account of ourselves.”

Rose also told the FA.com on Friday that the Silkmen, the first winners of the competition in 1970 and hoping to become the first club to lift the trophy for a third time, can look forward to an appreciative crowd despite what's at stake, a place in Monday's semi-final draw and £8,000 in prize money.

He added: “Our crowd will be passionate but they are not the type to make the opposition feel unwelcome. They’re good people and if the opposition score a good goal they’ll applaud it. They’ll certainly be 110 per cent behind us.

“We will need to be at our best and the concentration levels high. We need to be confident individually and tactically get it right. Things will need to go our way on the day, but we do have capable players, who I think will relish playing against those from a higher level, and they will be given the chance to express themselves."

Images courtesy of Dulwich Hamlet & Twitter

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