MATCH REPORT: Lordswood 4-1 Fisher
Lordswood 4-1 Fisher
Saturday 10 August 2024
SCEFL Premier Division
Attn: 96
Scorer: Ed Sata (46 min)
Fisher’s tricky start to the season continued with a heavy defeat at Lordswood, with careless errors at the back costing them dearly in an otherwise well contested game.
Injuries and unavailability conspired to leave Fisher needing to make several changes from the opening league fixture a fortnight previous and the imbalance as a result culminated with Fisher ending the game with six wingers on the field as the looked to try and find a way back in. In truth though, the game was gone by half time with the defensive errors giving them far too much to do.
The early exchanges were fairly even, as both sides tried to get to grips with a difficult dry surface with Fisher looking lively going forward. Armani-Jordan Martin forced an early corner that resulted in Billy Brown firing over the bar and from a pinpoint cross from Jack Gibbons, Alvin Reji sent his header over the bar, having had a little more time than he perhaps realised.
Fisher were to pay for not taking advantage of the early openings and on twenty minutes Lordswood took the lead, as some very sloppy marking left two free players at the back post, where Will Currie gratefully nodded home an in-swinging corner without a challenge coming in as Fishers defender’s all looked around at each other to see who should have picked him up.
Fisher then almost profited from similar defensive carelessness from their hosts, as Armani-Jordan Martin picked off a loose pass on the edge of the box, but again did not seem to realise the time he had and taking the shot early with just the keeper to beat, saw it just pass the outside of the post. They were again made to pay for their profligacy in front of goal though, as almost immediately the hosts doubled their advantage. With little seeming danger, a bouncing ball into the Fisher box saw Matt Gething get in between a posse of Fisher defenders and slide his shot low to squirm in off the far post.
Another long through ball almost caught Fisher out again but Nwabuko saved well in the one on one but was left powerless to do anything just before the break, as a poor decision to play the ball back to him was equally poorly executed and allowed Jake Embery to nip in and round the stranded keeper before rolling the ball into an empty net.
For the second game in a row Fisher therefore went into the break three goals adrift. However, it only took a minute of the second half for them to reduce the deficit to two. Excellent work by Billy Brown down the right set Alvin Reji free and his low cross travelled through the penalty area to find the unlikely figure of left back Ed Sata arriving late to thrash the ball into the roof of the net and give the Fish hope of a comeback. The goal clearly rattled the hosts and led to a sustained period of Fisher pressure with the pace of Courtney Barrington and substitute Jake Lovell a constant threat, but a series of corners only culminated in Jack Gibbons heading over.
A series of substitutions and an ill-timed drinks break took the sting out of Fisher’s momentum, allowing the hosts to break up play and regroup and the game became increasingly stretched with Lordswood wasting several good chances of their own to put the game to bed, heading over on several occasions with free headers and drawing a couple of excellent saves out of Nwabuko. Greta work Barrington down the left seemed to tee up Lovell at the back post but he couldn’t direct the ball goalward and the keeper nipped in to deny Teddy Jones applying the finishing touch to force it over the line.
With Fisher now just throwing bodies forward and losing defensive shape due to the substitutions, more chances came Lordswood’s way and on 88 minutes they duly added a fourth, spreading play to find an extra man and skipping a missed sliding tackle Elliot Duncan netted with ease to wrap up a disappointing afternoon for the Fish and leave them still searching for their first league points.