Gary – We keep making the same mistakes. Fisher 1 – 3 Sheppey United

The Fisher manager Gary Abbott was left ruing an awful start against Sheppey United on Saturday, seeing his side go 1-0 down in the opening minute at St Paul’s – “Not a good start. One ball through the middle after 45 seconds. Not good, I’m not at all happy; we talked about defensive errors and we go and do it again.”

The Fish battled back, with great encouragement coming from the home fans behind the goal. Those fans were rewarded, with Joseph Adesina’s persistent running down the left flank leading to the equaliser. “Joseph is getting match fitness and is looking sharper and will only get better. We got back into the game with a good run and pass from Joseph into a good area to equalise.”

Abbo recognised the contribution of Sheppey’s winger Timmy Babington too – “Their right winger was very nippy and was a handful for Eli Graham and will be for other teams as well. I said to Eli you must get tight on his first touch and don’t let him run at you, but for the first 15 minutes he didn’t manage to and you can’t afford to do that with someone who is as quick as him. Eli started getting closer but Sheppey’s movement was good all over and I expect they will be up there in top five teams come the end of the season.”

Having seen the Fish get back into the game, Gary felt that there were chances to take the game before Sheppey scored, followed by another red card. “George Booker had a great chance to score his first goal today, great work from him to get into a good position to shoot but he’s hit the ball wide. Sheppey then score their second goal with some good football, but at the same time Scott Watson got sent off for 2 yellows which I can’t argue with. That’s 3 sendings off in 6 games and that’s not good enough. I had to make a change at 2-1 down and switched to a  3-4-2, and it looked better but then we concede another sloppy goal. Dwayne Agyemang has 2 yards on the striker and should have cleared the ball but instead he tried coming inside and lost it and they get a last minute penalty.” The referee Alasdair King showed good application of the recent rule change that a keeper doesn’t inevitably walk for a foul leading to a penalty, which saw Ricky Wadman booked prior to Sheppey’s third goal on 94 minutes.

At the break skipper Luke Haidarovic was withdrawn after taking a hard knock, but Gary is confident he’ll be back in action soon. “Luke wasn’t 100% fit but had to come off at half time. Joel Mensah worked hard in there but got tired so I put Roache on for him.”

Thoughts now turn to Wednesday evening’s away game at Croydon. “The result now makes Wednesday more important to get the 3 points. As a team we gave the ball away to easy and our final ball wasn’t good enough; we keep making the same mistakes in there final third and we get punished. Roll on Wednesday when we can put it right.”

Fisher 1 – 3 Sheppey United

Fisher goals – Adesina ’20
Sheppey United goals – Gething ‘1, Davis ’75, Battern ’90(+4)

Fisher starting XI – Wadman, Miller, Graham, Jabbie, Haidarovic, Abbey, McLeod-Bentley, Mensah, Wason, Booker & Adesina
Fisher subs – Thorne, Collins, M. Agemang (on for McLeod-Bentley), Roche (on for Mensah), D. Agemang (on for Haidarovic)

Fisher bookings – Wason, Wadman
Fisher red card – Wason

Attendance – 109