DANILO BEAVERS FROM HOME!
WHILE footballers up and down the country restlessly paced around their living rooms this week, Hampton & Richmond’s prolific striker Danilo Orsi-Dadomo was bearing the fruits of some rather improvised thinking.
As the nation settled into an unprecedented lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Beavers striker was putting the finishing touches to his improvised homemade gym!
“It was looking increasingly likely that we were all going to be isolated so I fired up the Amazon Prime account and brought in some equipment,” the 23-year-old told The NLP.
“I took over one of the rooms in the house, the walls are all freshly painted, it took about three days but we got there in the end.
“It’s all about keeping the fitness ticking over. We have no idea how long things are going to be like this for, so I thought I better act quickly and make sure I stay in shape.
“I need to start properly using it now though, I quite like just looking at it rather than working out in it at the moment!”
The sudden halt to the National League South calendar came at the worst possible moment for Hampton & Richmond, who had defied the odds to reverse a disastrous start to the campaign, which saw the Beavers slip to eight defeats from their opening 11 games under boss Gary McCann.
But inspired by the clinical finishing of Orsi-Dadomo, who sits proudly at the top of Hampton’s scoring charts with 12 league goals to his name, the south-west Londoners were on the verge of completing what had looked like mission impossible by breaking into the play-off places.
“We were just a point away with games in hand and had so much momentum behind us,” added the former Hungerford frontman.
“We set ourselves a target in the middle in January by looking at how many points would be needed to make the play-offs based on previous years.
Confidence
“Confidence had been absolutely sky high in the camp because we had pulled off some amazing wins on the road against Maidstone United and Dartford and were on the cusp of really pushing into the promotion race.
“It is so frustrating but as important as football is, we all know that health has got to take priority.”
After linking up with McCann’s side over the summer, Orsi-Dadomo has enjoyed a season to remember and whatever happens, the man who returned from a four-year playing stint in the United States in 2018, will look back on the campaign with pride.
“I always knew I would come back to England,” he continued.
“Personally, going from Hungerford last season where we were fighting against relegation until the very last day of the season, to regularly scoring for a team that is looking to go up has been brilliant.
“I’ve definitely pushed forward a lot this year and there have been lots of great moments.
“The one that probably stands out the most is scoring a last minute winner at Maidstone in February.
“The supporters were segregated and to score in front of our fans was so special. It doesn’t get better than that.
“Just talking about it makes me want to get back out on the pitch.”