Assistant Boss Neil Hunter – So many positives to take forward. Sheppey United 3-1 Fisher

With returning boss Dean Harrison away on Saturday, new Assistant Manager Neil Hunter led the Fish at Sheppey United, where an early Jospeh Adesina goal gave the visitors hope, before Sheppey came back to finish the day top of the SCEFL Premier Division table. Having taken the lead after 18 mins, Fisher were pegged back almost immediately as Richard Atkins and Joshua Froggatt made it 2-1 at the break. In the second period both sides built into the game, with Sheppey having a couple of chances ruled out by the offside flag, whilst Fisher striker Kieron McMahon saw a close range effort cannon back off the bar. Timmy Babbington wrapped the points up for the hosts with 6 minutes remaining, before frustration got the better of Harry Bugden who saw red after a second yellow card before the final whistle.

Speaking after the game Hunter was philosophical about his first experience in the dugout for the Fish, focusing on the progress the new management team have already seen in their week in charge.

“Deano, Richard (White, Head Coach) and myself worked on a shape that was going to help us defensively and be a threat going forward. To be honest the boys took what we said to them on board and we had a very good shape about us. We looked very solid at the back and I thought we looked a real threat, especially in the second half. The game got a little stretched in the last 20 mins as we were really giving it a real go and, as so often happens, we got caught in the break. I spoke with Deano last night and said there were so many positives to take forward to next week’s game.

Team spirit is something that we need and having Dan Fleming and Dan Lawson back in there gives us that bit of experience and I thought they were both rocks for us yesterday, so it’s looking a lot better already. As I say, team spirit is something we are really big on and if we’re going get out of this we all need to stick together and that includes the board and the fans also. I’ve got to say something about the fans today, it’s my first time at Fisher and the support they gave us vocally was fantastic. Around 300 people there and our fans were heard all through the game. I felt that the the least we could do at the end is go over and thank the supporters because they will have a massive part to play in this dog fight.

As for Harry Bugden, he was buzzing to be back at Fisher and a little bit of frustration got the better of him. We’re now all looking forward to having a couple more training sessions and getting ready for our trip to Deal next week. Hopefully we will get a few fans there again because they were a massive help to us yesterday. This is a great club and I’m so pleased to be involved, today has been a very proud day for myself to lead Fisher.”

Sheppey United 3 – 1 Fisher

Sheppey goals – Atkins ’20, Froggatt ’24, Babbington ’84
Fisher goal – Adesina ’18

Fisher Red Card – Bugden

Fisher Starting XI – R. Wadman, Thompson, Bugden, Lawson, Flemming (c), Agyemang, Forte, Mensah, McMahon, Devia Peneida, Adesina
Fisher subs – J. Wadman, Jabbie, Abbey, Bangura

Attendance – 304

Image and video – Steve Alison (c)