Match Report: Fisher 0-1 Balham

Match report courtesy of The Non-League Chronicles, always honest and to the point. Give their Facebook page a like: https://www.facebook.com/thenonleaguechronicles

Fisher 0-1 Balham
Tuesday 8 September 2020
SCEFL Premier Division

Attendance- 134
Programme- Digital version
Clubhouse- Not in use at the moment

Fisher opened the gates to all comers last night. And the turnout was decent with 134 coming through the turnstiles. AJ made three changes from Saturdays 0-0 draw with Crowborough. Out went Brown, Gibbons and Katonia due to suspension. In came Lockwood to skipper the side with Rocha and Ibrahim. The first action of the game came in the 6th minute when Balham were awarded a penalty for handball. It was one of those pens that can go either way. Happy if you get it, fuming if it’s given against you. Up stepped Tom Read who made no mistake dispatching his effort low into Carpaninis right
Hand corner. 0-1

Fisher won a free kick out to the right when Ibrahim was fouled. The free kick was floated in and the Balham keeper Read drops the ball but gets away with it. (Are the keeper and number 11 brothers?)
To be brutally honest Balham dominated the opening 15 minutes. A big side that knocked it around well. And we’re not afraid to put a foot in and get in Fisher faces.

I was particularly impressed with the Balham right winger James Adebayo who gave Sarpong a tough night. Adebayo is a big strong lad who doesn’t mind putting it about. He’s also got a turn of pace and tricky feet. Put all that together and you have a real handful.

Fisher struggled to get into any rhythm. Careless passes and passes not played into each other with enough quality saw the ball return to Balham time and again. You could sense that it was going to be one of those evenings.

In the 26th minute Ibrahim wins a free kick about 25 yards from goal. Rocha steps up beats Read all ends up only for his effort to canon back off the bar into the path of Yila who side foots wide with the goal wide open. Two minutes later Balham’s Adebayo makes a powerful run from inside his own half dribbling past a couple of players only to be stopped by Luke Thomas who concedes a corner. Carpanini claims the cross from the resultant corner and duly screams at his team mates to liven up.

Next up for the Adebayo experience is De Mata who takes a heavy challenge. Moments later Read hits a dipping drive they Carpanini collects into his midriff. As the ball breaks loose in midfield Lockwood puts the equaliser in on Adebayo and picks up a yellow card for his troubles.

35 minutes in Fisher still under the gun concede another corner after the big man Sam Fitzgerald clears from inside the six yard box. Balham’s Erriu wins the header but Carps collects comfortably. Two minutes later and Cameron Gordon gets himself between Fitzgerald and Thomas down the channel and his pace takes him away. He fires his effort into the side netting. And perhaps another let off for Fisher when Gordon’s finish could have been better.

De Mata needed a lengthy treatment after taking a whack just before half time. As the game went into stoppage time Thomas and Yila combined well down the right to force a couple of quick corners that didn’t come to anything.

HT 0-1

A half time switch by AJ saw Rocha replaced by Lemba saw Fisher go with two up top in a bid to get back into the game. The opening 15 minutes of the half saw Fisher get a footing back into the game. A free kick from the left was fired in by Lockwood but it didn’t have his usual quality on it. Read collects with ease and this was going to be the story of the remainder of the match. Read collecting corners and free kicks without being under any real pressure as Fishers final ball/pass was not good enough on the night.

Balham now feeling under a bit of pressure remained well organised throughout and they look a side that are going to be well suited to the Scefl premier. Balham’s right back Julian Fuller had a very good night marking Jamie Yila out of the game. Yila was eventually replaced by Gibbons who also didn’t get much change from Fuller.

Yila can’t be a 10/10 every game, every player knows if they have played well or not. Jamie can’t do it all of his own. And he also didn’t receive much in the way of service last night. Fisher are now fully in the ascendancy but whatever they tried fizzled out. Corner after corner wasted and another cross from Lockwood that looked like it was heading towards Lemba was plucked out the air from Read.

frustrating evening was also had by Biddlecombe who’s only poke at goal was deflected behind when fired in from around the penalty spot. The corner you guessed it came to nothing again. Biddlecombe makes way for Main and he makes himself busy getting in amongst it in his short cameo appearance.

As the game went into the usual 4 minutes injury time Fisher forced another couple of corners that came to nothing. Fisher could still be out there now and still not score. It was just a bad night at the office for all involved. Balham held on for all three points and have made a very good start to life in the scefl.

FT Fisher 0-1 Balham

Petes MOM (Adebayo) Balham

Next up for Fisher is the FA cup game at Tooting & Mitcham. So far Fisher have sold all 60 of the tickets available. The club have been given another 25 tickets. So if you want to go get yourself a ticket.

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