An absolutely astonishing game finished with Fisher and Canterbury City sharing twelve goals. With non stop action at both ends, it was a fantastic sporting gesture from City that ensured this Macron Premier League Cup first leg finished even as they allowed a walk in goal after the Fish had seen a late equaliser wrongly chalked off by the officials.
Fisher manager Steve Firkins shuffled his pack, with Billy Hensman returning in goal and Richie Monan and Nathaniel Bell supporting Mark Sisson in attack. City played two new signings in Wayon Anderson and Michael Scott. It was the Fish who got off to a flying start, though not before Anderson had stabbed a good chance wide for City.
Nathaniel Bell opened the scoring on 6 minutes, as he latched on to a delightful through ball played with the outside of his boot by Frankie Warren. Bell attacked the left-hand edge of the box and fired past Connor Quinn in the City goal. Five minutes later it was 2-0, Mark Sisson nodding home from a yard after Warren’s cross had been deflected against the crossbar.
City though began to show signs of waking up from their slumber, and they were back in the game on 15 minutes when Joe Kennett headed home a corner as Fisher paid for slack marking. The Fish were still looking sharph however and scored a tremendous team goal as the ball was moved across midfield from right to left. Ken Jarrett-Elliott stepped out of defence to pick up a square ball, and he looked up and played a killer pass forward to Jamie Turner who was making a break forward. Turner, through on goal, rounded the keeper and finished from a tight angle to put the Fish 3-1 up with just 20 minutes on the clock.
But City were not prepared to give up on the game and as the half wore on they became the stronger side. Michael Smisson capitalised on Fisher’s failure to deal with a ball in the box to beat Hensman and make it 3-2, and Smisson struck again on the stroke of half-time to send the sides in level and the fans struggling to catch their breath after an exhilarating first half.
There was more to come. Fisher made a slow start after halftime and Anderson pounced for City, beating Hensman in a one-on-one and putting Canterbury 4-3 up. City began to press – they had a goal disallowed for a foul on Hensman, and the Fisher keeper pulled off an excellent save to keep out a drive from Jake Gess.
At the other end, Sisson missed from close range – a chance he would expect to take under normal circumstances, but this game was anything but normal.
And then it all went crazy. First Kyle Demetrius made a late run into the box on the right and latched on to a ball that fizzed across from the left, and his first time low drive beat Quinn to level the scores at 4-4 on 72 minutes. No sooner had the game restarted than Stacey Davies put City back into a 5-4 lead. And then two minutes after that, Monan found himself in a similar position to Demetrius and repeated the trick, scoring to make it an incredible 5-5.
City weren’t done – Smisson completed his hat trick with five minutes left to put Canterbury 6-5 in the lead. Still there was more – Hensman made a magnificent save at Anderson’s feet after he was put through on goal. At the other end, Quinn made an equally good stop to keep out a Danny Hunt header then topped it with a dramatic flying tip over the bar from a Warren 25 yard half volley.
Finally Fisher’s pressure told and Nathaniel Bell met a corner with his head, the ball beating Quinn and nestling in the back of the net to make the scores 6-6. Except hang on – the ball wasn’t actually nestled in the back of the net at all. It had somehow escaped and had ended up by the advertising hoardings behind the goal. A couple of City players pointed this out to the referee, who had given the goal and was running back to the centre-circle.
The referee consulted the nearest assistant and after a discussion, gave a goal kick. At which point all hell broke loose as the Fisher players, bench and crowd tried to alert the officials to their error. Further heated discussions took place involving both benches and all three officials. But the decision remained unchanged.
Loud boos rang out around Champion Hill as Quinn took the goal kick – but they soon changed to cheers. Canterbury manager Paul Murray had instructed his keeper to pass the ball to Fisher, and he did so by rolling the ball to Hunt on the edge of the area. Hunt squared the ball to Bell and Quinn stood back and watched as Bell slotted home. Finally, it was 6-6 and justice was done thanks to an incredible act of sportsmanship from Murray and Canterbury City.
And that was that. An incredible finish to an amazing game – and it is only half time with the second leg to follow next Saturday!
Murray and Canterbury City deserve a huge amount of credit for their actions at the end of the game, and this was truly a match that neither side deserved to lose.
Fisher meanwhile will seek urgent discussions with Dulwich Hamlet about the state of the goal at the car park end, as the cause of the controversy appears to have been the failure of the pegs to hold the bottom bar of the goal in place against the pitch.
Fisher: Hensman, Demetrius, Tipple, Warren, Jarrett-Elliott, Wadmore, Monan (James 80), Turner, Sisson (Wilson-Joseph 90), Taylor (Hunt 62), Bell. Unused Subs: Bangura, Hubbard
Attendance: 74
