Match Report: Kensington & Ealing 2-3 Fisher

Kensington & Ealing Borough 2-3 Fisher
Wednesday 10 July 2019
Pre-season friendly

Fisher travelled across London to take on Combined Counties League side Kensington and Ealing Borough in a pre-season friendly. Again manager Allan Fenn used a large squad as he continues his squad building programme.
The starting eleven got off to the perfect start when without the hosts having a touch of the ball Fisher scored. From kick off the ball was knocked around the back four and a series of slick passes saw the ball advance up the left flank before it was switched to find Jamie Yahi on the right of the box with space and time to drive the ball low and hard into the far corner.

However, Fisher failed to capitalise on the start and slowly the hoists pulled themselves back into the game getting a good grip in midfield as Fisher struggled to find their shape. With pockets of space appearing between the Fisher lines Kensington were able to force the running and it was certainly not against the run of play when they pulled a goal back five minutes before the break, when a powerful if speculative shot from the right channel flew into the net. The equaliser rocked Fisher and seconds later they were behind when Kensington again broke down their right and some quick passing released their impressive right sided forward in the box where he neatly slotted the ball past keeper Chris Clark. It looked to all in the ground that the goal should have been chalked off as inexplicitly his fellow forward who was well ahead of play tapped the goal bound ball in from six yards when clearly offside. However, the goal stood and Fisher when into the break trailing by the odd goal in three.

The second spell saw Fisher regroup but the big change in momentum came on the hour when Fisher introduced no less than nine substitutes. The fresh legs quickly imposed themselves on the game and final half hour was spent with Fisher on the attack for long periods. The direct energetic of Billy Brown impressed all with Ijah Currie-Wilson, Faron Smith and Archie Mehmet combining well the Fisher attack had more menace. In midfield Martin Begg added some missing bite as Fisher pushed for an equaliser.

The equaliser came on 70 minutes when a long range shot from Billy Brown, bounced awkwardly in front of the hoists keeper and squirmed through his hands and roll into the net. There was some element of fortune with the keepers error for what should have been regulation save, but the goal was no more than Fisher attacking play during the previous ten minutes warranted. Buoyed by the equaliser Fisher pushed for a winner and with ten minutes to play it duly came. A surging run from Billy Brown from side his own half saw him glide past three defenders and despite looking to be tackled twenty five yards from goal he quickly nicked the ball back, found a yard of space and fired off an unstoppable rocket into the top corner for a quite stunning finish.

Fisher could have added more, as Faron Smith saw his effort flash past the upright and Ijah Currie-Wilson saw his long range effort crash of the crossbar with keeper well beaten. Some late pressure from Kensington was easily dealt with by the Fisher back line and the eleven travelling fans were able to applaud a winning team off the pitch for the first time this season.

Manager Allan Fenn will have learnt a little more about his squad, and precious games time was put into the squads legs as they move onto the next game with a Millwall XI on Friday night.

Squad:
Starting Line Up: Chris Clark, Luke Thomas, Henry Gashi, Chris Lockwood, Ade Oluwo, Karolis Atutis, Jamie Yahi, Flavio Jumo, Manny Bennett, Rob Brown, Wahid Zerrouki,
Subs (all played) Jacob Skelly, Elias Armah-Tackie, Chris Villanucci, Michael Graham, Harvey Brinkley, Martin Begg, Julio DaMata, Faron Smith, Archie Mehmet, Billy Brown, Ijah Currie-Wilson