MATCH REPORT: Rusthall 2-1 Fisher

Rusthall 2-1 Fisher
Saturday 15 August 2026
SCEFL Premier Division

Attn: 186
Scorer: Euan Mutale (27 min)

For the second season in a row, a goal deep into added time saw Fisher slip to defeat at the Jockey Farm stadium against Rusthall. As with the game last April, Fisher were just about hanging on in the last few minutes until a long ball forward in the ninety seventh minute was finally their undoing in a heartbreaking ending. Fisher had given full debuts to James Bessey Saldanha and Euan Mutale, after good displays off the bench last week, with new centre back Aaron Archibald also in the starting eleven. The players were thankful of a well-watered surface with the hard work at the Rusthall grounds team paying off to give plenty of grass covering on a day with many surfaces were parched bare.
Fisher made an electric start playing down the slope and looked to have opened the scoring inside two minutes when Alex Kozak’s free kick from wide on the right appeared to be turned in at the back post by Temi Alaka, but the blast of the referee’s whistle was to indicate an unspotted foul in the scramble rather than the ball crossing the line before it was scooped away. Fisher continued to look well on top playing down the slope with Alaka looking lively and Euan Mutale a constant threat. It was very much against the run of play then when Russell opened the scoring on nine minutes with what was their first real sight of goal. A strong tackle in midfield saw them feed the ball out to the left to Jack Kirby when he was inexplicably allowed to run inside until he reached the edge of the penalty area from where he unleashed a reverse drive, low inside the near post past the outstretched dive of Zacharias Akinde in the Fisher goal. Fisher responded well and almost equalised within a minute as a neat exchange of passing released Mutale whose stabbed effort with the outside of his right foot just failed to curl inside the far post.
The game opened up and the hosts would have felt they should have done better with a couple of chances that they created once they started showing more attacking intent. Fisher continued to push forward though and deservedly drew level in the twenty seventh minute. Good play from Tyron Mbuenimo saw him slip in Alaka down the right, whose pace and power took him to the byline from where he was able to pick out Euan Mutale at the back of the penalty area, who calmly took a touch, before drilling the ball past Senneh, in the Rusthall goal, to open his goal account in a Fisher shirt.
The second half saw both sides drop their tempo a little with heat seemingly a factor. Fisher worked their way into the Rusthall penalty area on several occasions but seem to want one pass too many rather than getting a shot away as neither side was able to take control of the game.
With twenty minutes to go Charles Yiadom-Konadu entered the fray and with his first touch almost put Fisher ahead as he picked the ball up from a short corner and left his marker bamboozled with a neat bit of footwork and danced along the byline before slamming the ball under Senneh from a tight angle, only to see it hit the outside of the post. With Festos Kamara’s pace on the wing becoming an outlet, Fisher were looking the more likely for the three points, when inexplicably, with ten minutes remaining they seemed to run out of ambition, sitting deeper and hooking the ball forward aimlessly rather than building up the pitch as a unit, which allowed Rusthall to push on down the slope. As the game went into added time Rusthall missed a glorious opportunity to seal the points, when the ball was sent back across the area, with a posse of forwards all failing to get a vital touch as the ball skimmed past the post. With time virtually up and seven added minutes played, a failure to close allowed Rusthall to send one last hail Mary ball forward, with the well struck delivery not met by a Fisher head, allowing substitute Lekan Osideko to ghost into the box and neatly take the ball down on his chest and stab it past Akinde to take all three points and leave Fisher with nothing to show for their efforts. Fisher will need to bounce back on Tuesday night to finally get their league season up and running with a win.