After crashing out of the Kent Senior Trophy earlier in the week, Fisher bounced back from a poor run of form by recording league win number two when they hosted Sevenoaks Town on Saturday, writes Ian Murphy.
The game started iwith both sides passing the ball around well. The first real chance of the game fell to Sevenoaks midfielder Ricky Hazard, whose shot was saved comfortably by Billy Hensman. Fisher coped well with the early spell of pressure and looked good going forward, creating a few chances in the opening twenty minutes, most of which failed to trouble Oaks goalkeeper Charlie Mann.
The visitors had a few more chances to take the lead, but Hensman looked determined not to concede and pulled off several great saves which were coupled with several well timed tackles from the Fish defence. The only time he was beaten by a shot that wasn’t offside was in the 21st minute, when Jermeel Jno-Baptiste saw his looping shot cannon off the cross bar. Throughout the half, although they created enough chances to warrant a lead, Sevenoaks were wasteful in front of goal and never looked like really troubling Hensman.
With both sides looking for an opening goal, the game became very much like a cup tie, both teamss playing really good, free-flowing football. But it wasn’t until the 40th minute that the deadlock was broken: Troy Abbey fired the ball at Mann, who couldn’t get enough of a touch to keep the ball out, and Fisher were ahead. The hosts could have easily doubled their lead in first half injury time, when a close range effort sailed across the face of goal.
The second half was more scrappy than the first with both sides conceding silly free kicks for various offences. Fisher could (and probably should) have doubled their lead in the 53rd minute when but Charlie Mann pulled off a great triple save to deny Fisher.
Just minutes later, the game could have descended into chaos after a tackle on Sevenoaks’ Jonny Winter saw tensions boil over and following a bit of a scuffle, the referee did well to take control of the situation. Winter (who could have been sent off for his part in the incident) was booked, along with team-mate Shawn Hinds.
Two minutes after the scuffle, Oaks drew level courtesy of a superb strike from top scorer Baptiste. The Oaks players celebrated the goal with gusto, but this appeared to spur Fisher on and four minutes later the hosts were ahead again thanks to a fine strike from Bryan Zepo.
Sevenoaks did continue to get the ball forward but, much like in the first half, didn’t trouble Hensman. Fisher took control of the game and sealed the points nine minutes from time when Abbey found the net for the second time to put the Fish 3-1 up. At that point, Sevenoaks’ game plan crumbled and with Oaks wasting more chances, Fisher introduced Keiron Campbell (replacing Junior Fatai-Somuwiya). Campbell’s introduction added pace to Fisher’s attacks and with just a few minutes of normal time left to play, the Fish won a couple of corners. Sevenoaks failed to clear their lines and Tom Carr fired in Fisher’s fourth, before Keiron Campbell added a fifth just minutes later.
FISHER: BILLY HENSMAN, DANNY AKERS, DANNY TIPPLE, HARVEY HANIFAN, TOM CARR, BILLY WALTON, HARRY DRAPER, DANNY MAGUIRE, BRIAN ZEPO (PIERS HANIFAN), JUNIOR FATAI-SOMUWIYA (KEIRON CAMPBELL), TROY ABBEY. UNUSED SUBS: CHRIS HUBBARD, NATHANIEL BELL
ATTENDANCE: 101
