Kent Senior Trophy – 2nd Round

Erith Town 2 - 0 Fisher
Saturday 25 November 2023 - 15:00

Erith Town 2-0 Fisher
Saturday 25 November
DFDS Kent Senior Trophy Second Round

Despite a busy and hardworking performance, Fisher fell out of the Kent Senior Trophy at the second round stage after a 2-0 defeat away at Erith Town.
There was a debut for new singing Emmanuel Robe upfront and returns to the starting line up for Joseph Adewunmi, Julio Da Mata, Kaylam Burgess and Nathan Tshola as manager Ajay Ashanike rotated his squad, mindful of a league fixture on Tuesday evening.
On a bitterly cold afternoon, Fisher started brightly with Andres Tobon trying a speculative, long range effort, just seconds into the game, but keeper Mackenzie Foley was alert to the ruse and scampered to his left to save.
Fisher’s good start continued with Kaylam Burgess outing a header over the bar from Inesh Sumithran’s good centre. However, Erith started to see more of the ball as the half progressed with James Dyer having a good battle with Charles Yiadom-Konadu for midfield dominance, with both payers looking the likeliest to unlock the respective defences with good footwork and an eye for a through ball.
Fisher were frustrated by several marginal offside calls not going their way when playing in striker Eniye Amgbaduba, and as a result were finding it hard to get within range of goal. Yiadom-Konadu did make space for a shot but saw it canon off a defender and despite a good range of balls into the box from the right via Sumithran Ryan Mahal was proving a dominant force in the Erith back line.
At the other end keeper Arthur Leblond was well placed to hold a well struck long range effort after Fisher had only half cleared a free kick into the box as Erith started to push for an opener before the break. The half ended though with a good chance for the Fish as Robe ran down the right channel and worked space in the box to fire a low shot that drifted wide of the far post.
The second spell was only a few minutes old when Erith broke the deadlock. Fisher failed to defend a corner that resulted from a miskicked clearance and Thomas Ash stabbed the ball home at the near post amongst several prostrate bodies, with Fisher looking for a foul from the preceding jostling. However, the goal stood – one of those you get some days and not others.
Fisher responded well to going behind and really should have been on level terms five minutes later when from a free kick on the right, Sumithran’s sweeping delivery was met by Namory Kane, but despite being unchallenged he couldn’t get his header on target and it went high and wide when he will feel he should have done better.
On the hour mark Fisher switched from a midfield diamond to a more conventional 433 with Teddy Jones introduced off the bench for Andres Tobon, but before the change could have much effect Fisher fell further behind. A quick transition from Erith having won possession from Fisher overplay, saw a raking cross field pass set their suspiciously offside looking left winger away and cutting inside he teed up Joe Chalker who fired home from just outside the box as Fisher’s defence desperately tried to regroup.
Fisher brought on Pat Hoy and Flavio Jumo in last role of dice, but a two goal cushion seemed unsurmountable. Fishe did manage to create some late pressure. Teddy Jones almost wriggled through a massed defence and a low shot come cross from Sumithran was tipped away by Foley who then managed to smoother Jumo’s effort on the rebound.
Despite a lot of good football from the Fish, especially in the middle third of the pitch a failure to dominate in either box saw their downfall. All the pretty patterns of play count for little if you can’t keep the ball out your own net or stick it in the other teams!  Fisher will now have to regroup for a return to league action on Tuesday evening when VCD Athletic visit St Paul’s and only have the London Senior Cup in the new year left for knockout football.

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