Southern Counties East Football League

Fisher continued to show signs of progress against Rochester United on Saturday. Rochester managed to scrape a victory from the game but it was very much against the overall run of play.
Fisher started the game brightly as they looked to bounce back from a 4-1 defeat last Wednesday when they visited Phoenix Sports. The Fish looked threatening for the entire 90 minutes, creating several chances (most of which fell to Troy Abbey), but the killer touch was lacking for the home side and they could only muster a handful of shots on target all afternoon. To their credit, Rochester dealt with Fisher well on the whole, creating a couple of chances for themselves and looked dangerous coming forward.
The battle of midfield was won by the Fish as they dominated possession and brought back the trademark passing game that had been missing from the last few games. Fisher looked the more likely to score but a clever move from Rochester following a rare defensive mistake saw them take the lead midway through the first half. The ball fell kindly for James Huggins who fired the ball home from short range.
Fisher, now behind despite the chances they had created, pushed forward in search of the equaliser and just a few minutes after conceding could have been awarded a penalty. The linesman on flagged for a foul and much to the dismay of the Fisher supporters, the referee allowed the game to continue before going back to book the offender.
The second half started the same way the first half ended, with Fisher pressing forward straight from the restart, and started to really test the resilient Rochester defence with a mix of clever passing, short range efforts and the occasional long range shot. Rochester continued to do all they could to keep the fish out. Fisher mustered a dangerous looking attack, and a rash looking tackle from a Rochester defender appeared to have gifted Fisher a penalty. With both players involved on the ground inside the penalty box, the Fisher players 9and supporters) seemed certain that they had won a penalty, but the referee had other ideas. He agreed it was a foul but awarded a free kick right on the edge of the box (which angered the vocal Fisher fans). The free kick was sent well over the bar and Rochester had got away with yet another spell of pressure.
Rochester tried to get another goal to consolidate their lead but were unable to test Billy Hensman in the Fisher goal. Hensman had a relatively quiet afternoon (compared the last two matches anyway).
Fisher finally equalised in the 79^th minute. The Fish were awarded a free kick, which was whipped into the box by Rob Hughes, and Billy Walton (junior) headed the ball home to level things up going into the last ten minutes of the game.
With Fisher now pressing for the winner, Rochester got the ball into the Fisher defensive area, managed to get through the Fisher defence with James Huggins eventually smuggling the ball over the line (although there were suspicions of an own goal) to win the game for Rochester.