MATCH REPORT: Lydd Town 1-0 Fisher

Lydd Town 1-0 Fisher
Saturday 22 February 2025
SCEFL Premier Division

Attn: 105

Fisher’s play-off spot aspirations took a blow, as a late goal saw them fall to defeat against a resurgent Lydd Town. It was a strong looking squad that made the side’s longest trip of the season down to Romney Marsh, with Jake Lovell recovering from a knock to the knee to take a place on the bench and returns for Charles Yiadom-Konadu and Salim Nassor in midfield.
The flooded fields along the roads leading to the ground gave an indication of a difficult playing surface in store, which the ground staff had worked on all morning to get the game on, and the heavy pitch did Fisher few favours in trying to play their passing football. It was imperative Fisher made a good start before the surface started to cut up and despite seeing a lot of possession the finishing was wayward and the opening goal would not come.
Jacob Katonia had Fisher’s first chance of the game when powering past his marker on the right but his shot flashed across the face of the goal. The lively winger then saw another curled effort fly just wide of the far post after he had again left this marker and advanced into the box. Charles Yiadom-Konadu also went close looking to emulate his wonder goal against Corinthian, beating several defenders as he cut across the edge of the area to a central position before rifling a shot that flew inches wide of the post. Despite the surface the midfield maestro was in full flow turning away from opposition players with delightful footwork and shoulder feints, but Fisher couldn’t get pace on the a passes across the pitch to play at the speed the wanted allowing the home defence to regroup and cover each time they were opened up. Courtney Barrington and Katonia both found space on their respective by lines, but the pull backs fell to Lydd defenders.
At the other end Isaac Ogunseri had been a virtual spectator as Lydd looked to play on the counter but were well marshalled by the centre back pairing of Ange Djadja and Don Macaulay and only a free kick just before the half time whistle after a clumsy challenge from Djadja caused any real alarm.
The second half saw the pitch become more troublesome and whether it was this or a lack of patience saw Fisher go a little longer and more direct which was food and drink to the Lydd defensive line. When they did get the ball down in wide areas Fisher looked far more threatening and Armani-Jordan Martin cut in from the left but saw his effort fail to swerve sufficiently to tuck inside the far post. As with the recent goalless draw at Kennington, the more time went by the more desperate Fisher became to find the opening goal and the less effective the build-up play became as the repeatedly got into good positions inside the Lydd area but couldn’t find a final ball to pick out a unmarked player to convert or were marshalled over the dead ball line before getting a cross away. Without a big aerial threat Fisher were forced into short corner routines as it became more and more obvious that the best route to goal in the conditions may well be to take the pitch out the equation with high crosses into the box.
As the game moved into the latter stages Lydd became more adventurous with the introduction of Tyler Sterling adding to their attacking intent and allowing them to find a lot of space in front of the Fisher back four. Ogunseri was forced to make a fine save high to his left to push over a well struck shot from Luke Burdon and a number of dangerous corners were swung into the Fisher area. A raft of substitutions did little to improve Fisher’s attacking flow and the game looked to be heading towards Fisher’s third goalless draw on the road in a row. However, with just two minutes remaining the hosts snatched a winner. Having won a corner out of nothing on the right, an inch perfect delivery to the front post was met by a powerful run and header from Sterling and the ball was planted into the roof of the net.
With nine games to go Fisher will need to regroup and find five wins if they are to maintain their end of season play off hopes and hope for some kinder conditions in their remaining away fixtures.