Match report: Hollands & Blair 1-0 Fisher

Hollands & Blair 1 – 0 Fisher
Saturday 4 August 2018
SCEFL Premier Division

Guest match report (and photos) from our friends at The Non-League Chronicles, please like their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thenonleaguechronicles/ and support passionate non-leaguers (and big Fish fans!)

I even managed to get my wife to today’s game as some retail therapy at the Ashford retail outlet softened the blow!! 😂😂😂

We arrived very early and went off for lunch before entering the ground. 7 quid gets you in and that includes the programme.

The ground itself is fairly typical Kent league fair one seated area with dugouts opposite.

The pitch sloped quite a lot from right to left and to be fair the pitch was bone dry with almost all of its surface looking straw like.

As we walked around to the seats I asked Ian Murphy what the team was today? I looked down and I didn’t see George Edes name in the squad?

Ian told me he had moved on! I wasn’t shocked as that’s the nature of football. Good luck George and keep us in the loop with who you are playing for and I will come and see you play.

Spoke to Fisher manager Dean Harrison at some length regarding players and some of the new faces on display today.

A couple of loans and some regulars missing for various reasons.

Hollands team had also changed massively since I saw them lose to cray valley at the back end of last season. They looked a big strong side and this turned out to be crucial.

With the new season buzz and a healthy 85 attendance through the turnstiles every single player on display had there touch tested at regular intervals as the ball bounced around like a ping pong ball on the rock hard surface.

The early exchanges saw Ritchie hamill at left back playing some silky passes down the line to trey small and this unsettled H&B but it didn’t happen enough.

The ball by now was asking the ref to stop play as it was hurting from being pumped from one end of the field to the other. Both teams were really working hard but without much end product.

Fisher really need somebody to attack hamills set pieces. He has a left foot as sweet as you will see at this level and anyone worth there salt should be busting a gut to get on the end of the quality service he provides.

H&B were doing some pressing of there own and it looked like they had broken the deadlock from another set piece move that saw giant centre half lee Irvine (or Charlie Plummer) win a header at the far post. He headed it down and it looked home and hosed but Luke Haidarovic cleared it off the line to keep it 0-0.

Half time 0-0

The second half started with some football being played on the deck and this suited fisher just fine. The ball being popped about was good to see but hnb soon battled themselves back into the game.

Only one goal was going to win this game and it came from the left foot of jason fregene who span neatly just to the left of the penalty spot and slammed his low shot past loan keeper Hossam Hassan.

Fisher dug in and tried to respond and they could not have come any closer in the dying moments and a seven man pile up with the ball shooting around like a bullet from tin can alley saw the ref blow up for a foul on the keeper.

Another Hamill delivery to the head of trey small when well placed small headed over.

Onwards and upwards to Tuesdays home game against Croydon.

Final score H&B 1-0 Fisher