MATCH REPORT: Hythe Town 0-2 Fisher

Hythe Town 0-2 Fisher
Saturday 6th September
SCEFL Premier Division

Attn: 343
Scorers: Courtney Barrington (28 min), Rafael Garcia (71 min)

Fisher returned to winning ways, with a goal in each half capping a dominant performance against Hythe Town, on a sunny afternoon on the Kent coast. Fisher began the day having to overcome a host of injury problems with both centre backs, Ange Djadja and Don Macaulay ruled out through injury, along with left back Conor Darwish and Michael Sarpong also joining the injury list on Saturday morning. However, the strength of the current Fisher squad was evident as Stephan Richard Kingson and Adejola Lahan both came in at the heart of the defence and performed with distinction in helping to keep a clean sheet.
Fisher began the game strongly with their enthusiastic pressing stopping Hythe’s young side from playing out from the back, then confidently winning back the ball when forcing them to go long. Former Fish Armani Jordan Martin was well shackled in midfield by Tom Jones.
Fisher’s first chance came on twelve minutes when neat work from Courtney Barrington slipped the ball inside to Tom Jones who quickly shifted the ball onto his right foot and sent in a powerful shot that the keeper gathered on the second attempt. Fisher were linking up play well with Jack Gibbons joining in the attacks on the right, firing in an effort that flew over the bar and Festos Kamara’s eager running almost seeing him get round the keeper before running out of room to get his shot away.
Just before the half hour mark the opening goal arrived. Jack Gibbons deep cross was brought down by Festos Kamara and whilst his shot was charged down, Courtney Barrington was on hand to rifle the ball into the net. Having broken the deadlock Fisher continued to press, looking for a second. Tom Jones went close with a free kick that looked to have the keeper beaten as it just went over the bar by the top corner. Hythe’s best chance of the half came late on as Taylor pulled off a good save low at his near post from a free kick hit under the wall.
A goal to the good at half time, Fisher would have been minded of being in a similar situation on Tuesday night, when a failure to get a second goal cost them dearly, though they were not about to make the same mistake and continued to push forward playing with some style and swagger throughout the second spell. They almost grabbed the second they dearly wanted when Adejola Lahan headed powerfully down from a deep corner, but the keeper saved well on the goal line. Barrington also wing close when spinning on a ball five yards outside the box and slamming in a fierce shot which just rose about the framework of the goal.
The second goal finally arrived on seventy one minutes. A strong second press saw Ed Sata win possession and Tom Jones perfectly timed run allowed him to get onto a delightful through ball and with only the goalkeeper to beat he unselfishly squared it for Rafael Garcia to nudge the ball home.
Substitute Charles Yiadom Konadu sent in a free kick that just missed the target, before at the other end Tommy Taylor pulled off a fine save from a powerful shot from the right after Hythe’s forward got in behind the Fisher defence on a rare attack. Youngster Eden Deh also came on for Fisher and saw efforts, when cutting in from both the left and the right, just fail to dip or curl enough to find the top corners.
Fisher had several strong penalty claims waved away in the dying stages of the game before with three minutes remaining Gibbons was so clearly upended the referee had no option but to point to the spot. However, Hythe’s young keeper made a good block to his left from Garcia’s penalty kick. It was not to matter as Fisher eased through added time to take the points in what had been a comfortable away victory and move up into seventh spot in the SCEFL Premier Division.