Fisher 0-6 AFC Croydon Athletic - All I can do is totally apologise, says Fisher boss Billy Walton

FISHER  0-6  AFC CROYDON ATHLETIC
The FA Carlsberg Vase Second Qualifying Round
Sunday 22^nd September 2013
Stephen McCartney reports from Champion Hill Stadium

FISHER manager Billy Walton issued an apology after his side suffered an unacceptable 6-0 home defeat to lower league AFC Croydon Athletic in The FA Carlsberg Vase.

AFC Croydon, who arrived at Champion Hill for this Second Qualifying Round tie sitting in eighth-place in the second tier of the Combined Counties League with an 50% record from their eight league games, destroyed a very poor Fisher side with quality up front.

Striker Joe Loyza took his goalscoring tally to six for the season with a 35 minute hat-trick during the first half, before things deteriorated for the bottom-three Southern Counties East Football League side after the break.

Former Sevenoaks Town striker Louis Blake scored goals number four and five in a devastating 106 second spell early in the second half before John Doherty rifled home goal number six.

Fisher finished the game with ten-men after midfielder Jamie Taylor picked up his second yellow card with fourteen minutes remaining, before the Rams also finished with ten-men after man-of-the-match Loyza was forced off through injury three minutes later after manager Anthony Williams had used all of his subs.

Walton walked down the players’ tunnel and turned round and said: “You know that Spanish word? That could be it!”

Walton said after their second game of the season that it could be “adios Bill” if his side failed to pick up a point from their opening ten games.

This was to be Fisher’s seventh defeat in ten competitive games – and Walton was very honest after the game.

“What can I say? I thought we played well.  All joking aisde. No. Totally shell-shocked to be honest with you!

“I come out here, I don’t know what to say to you, but what I will say is everything what we’ve done out there is just not acceptable, just not acceptable!

“I said to you a while ago – I’ve just said to the lads in (the dressing room), we’ve got to try and regroup and come out and play against the second best team (Phoenix Sports) in our league so far this year on Wednesday night and that’s what I’ll try and do. Try and recover from it and get on with that game on Wednesday.”

To his credit, Walton issued an apology to everybody involved with the club.

He said: “Yes, without a doubt.  I don’t think they (my players’) have to apologise. The buck stops with me! It’s me who puts the side out there and me who tells them how to play, the style we want to play and I take full responsibility for that performance.

“I will promise the supporters’ they won’t see another Fisher performance like that while I’m here. I will guarantee that!”

Walton continued: “Listen, you’ve known me for a while.  I’m not going to hide or run from the fact that we were dreadful.

“It is the worst performance from a side that I’ve ever been involved in, in senior football, even Greenwich Borough sides.

“Even when we were getting beat before (in each of our opening six games of the season) we still put in effort and still had little goes and little phases of the game when we were strong but today we had absolutely nothing and all I can do is apologise to every single person, Fisher supporter that came here today, chairman and secretary and everyone else involved in the club. All I can do is just totally, totally apologise.”

Things started to go downhill for Fisher even before the game. Goalkeeper Charlie Hyam was withdrawn from the team sheet after pulling his groin in the warm up and striker Troy Abbey was handed his debut after Rob Hughes was also withdrawn from the starting eleven.

AFC Croydon Athletic stamped their authority on the game straight form the kick-off and forced four corners inside the opening ten minutes.

From their third one, set-piece specialist Tony Martin swung in the ball from the left and Jordan Martin sent his towering header past the post from six-yards.

AFC Croydon Athletic opened the floodgates inside the opening eight minutes – leaving boss Walton not wanting to reflect on any of the goals during his honest sixteen-minute press conference.

 Impressive winger Edmund Walker played the ball into the box and poor defending from the home side allowed the ball fall to the unmarked Alan Bidi-Lacadoug and his shot was blocked by goalkeeper Billy Hensman and Loyza steered his right-footed shot into the empty net.

“I’m not going to go on with every goal with you, but it’s just all basic, basic stuff,” complained the Fisher boss.

“I’ve just spoke to all of them, what they did wasn’t acceptable. The basics weren’t right. The attitude weren’t right. Everything!

“We’ve had two players today for whatever reason, stuck in traffic or whatever, didn’t even turn up for us today and it’s not acceptable.”

It was what AFC Croydon Athletic deserved and boss Walton said: “Shocking, shocking! I said most of the lads here think they can turn up and play nice, little pretty football and roll teams over. That aint the case!

“These people come to a nice facility, a nice stadium, a nice ground, roll their sleeves up and get stuck into you and you’ve got to match that.  You’ve got to match all the work rate and all the effort and all the passion that goes with it and everything we’ve talked about, we did nothing, we did nothing!

“I’m totally, totally let down by every single – not every single one of them because I thought Troy Abbey on his debut ran his socks off and worked extremely hard - apart from him I thought the others were dreadful.”

Fisher received their only slice of luck when Doherty whipped in a good low ball from the left and Fisher skipper Tom Hopkins was relieved when his attempted clearance bounced off the left-hand post.

However, Fisher did create chances to get back into the game.

Their first chance arrived in the thirteenth minute when attacking midfielder Kieron Campbell moved forward before unleashing a right-footed drive from 20-yards, which forced visiting keeper Dean Rose to dive to his right to push the ball away.

Walton admitted he was forced to reshuffle his pack after he lost Hopkins to a calf-strain - and at the end of the first half Chris Hubbard was forced off with a dead leg.

He said: “We put a patched up centre half pair in and as you saw Tom wasn’t fit enough to play so we’ve had to put Tom in because there’s no other centre half.  Tom came off and the reason why Billy (Walton junior) was left out is because Bill’s not fit enough so we didn’t want to throw Bill on.

“That was a thing that we had to try to cope with and we couldn’t cope with it.”

Boss Walton admitted afterwards former Erith Town and Ebbsfleet United striker Adam Williams missed his side’s best chance to claw themselves back into the game.
 
A long kick from Hensman released winger Hubbard down the right and his floated cross was met by a diving header from Williams, which sailed harmlessly wide of the far post.

Boss Walton said: “I think if Adam Williams would’ve scored to equalise, you never know do you?

“But he missed it. I thought it was a good chance for us to equalise and get straight back into it straight away but we missed that opportunity. 

“They took over in every department. They just run all over us.”

AFC Croydon Athletic regained dominance and tore Fisher’s shabby back-line to shreads with Walker instrumental with his pace down the right wing and the Lozya’s and Blake’s partnership up front was immaculate.

Tony Martin swung in a free-kick from the right with his right foot and Bidi-Lacadoug’s stooping header from eight-yards bounced harmlessly wide of the left-hand post in the 21^st minute.

Fisher did have some respite as nine minutes later Campbell played the ball into Danny Maguire, who turned to create some space before cracking a left-footed drive from 25-yards, which sailed high and wide.

The Rams hit Fisher on the break and should have doubled their lead when Walker played the ball forward to Loyza, who released Walker galloping down the right flank and he cut the ball back to the unmarked Loyza who swept his shot towards the corner flag when he was left unmarked a couple of yards inside the Fisher penalty area.  The striker kicked thin air in despair because he knew he should have done better.

That should have been the turning point in the game because Fisher were still in the game at this point, but another chance went begging for the home side.

Abbey’s run took him over the half-way line before he floated a cross towards the Rams’ penalty area. The ball was headed away by central defender Chris Head but Campbell’s right-footed shot from 22-yards was straight at Rose.

But AFC Croydon Athletic deservedly doubled their lead in the 39^th minute.

Walker played the ball into Blake, who passed to Tony Martin and then Bidi-Lacadoug skipped past Taylor’s tackle in midfield.

The ball was spread out wide to the left for Doherty to cut inside before whipping in an inch-perfect cross and Loyza’s towering header flew into the roof of the net from eight-yards.

Fisher’s defence went missing when AFC Croydon Athletic scored their third goal two minutes before the break.

The ball was played into Blake’s feet inside the penalty area and he played the ball square to the unmarked Loyza, who side footed the ball into the bottom right-hand corner from fifteen-yards.

For a team to be 3-0 down at home at the break to a lower league side in the cup tie was hard to take for Walton.

He explained: “First 20 minutes, when you play a team from a league below, it’s like if we play (Ryman Premier League) Cray Wanderers in a cup game we will go there and we’ll be all fired up. 

“Teams above you, you’ve got to be able to cope with that first little bit of onslaught and if you match teams like this with their team work and their effort you’re skill and better players should come on board and take over. As the game settles down you can gradually take over but we never showed that throughout any part of the game.

“The first 20 minutes is what I always say to people – just match teams for their effort. If you’re in the game and you match that then your better players come through and start getting on the ball and start doing things for you.  Today no-one did that for us."

AFC Croydon Athletic withdrew keeper Rose at the interval through injury and substitute keeper Michael Lidbury had a quiet second half as he was untroubled after rushing back from his holiday.

AFC Croydon Athletic raced into a 4-0 lead, with only 110 seconds into the second half, as Blake deservedly got himself on the scoresheet.

Taylor, who was having a nightmare in the middle of the park, lost the ball to Loyza, who ran into the penalty area and goalkeeper Hensman suffered a rush of blood as he came rushing out of his goal and Loyza squared the ball for Blake to steer his right-footed shot into the empty net from eight-yards.

Walton said his side should have tested Lidbury during the second half.

“I think me and you better get our boots on – we could’ve tested him more out there today!

“Listen, make no excuses. All the players’ know. We were just absolutely shocking!”

AFC Croydon Athletic made it five in the 49^th minute when Loyza cut the ball back to Blake to rifle his right-footed shot in off the underside of the crossbar beyond Hensman’s desperate dive low to his right at his near post.

Blake then set up a chance for Bidi-Lacadoug, who curled a right-footed shot narrowly past the far post from the corner of the Fisher penalty area.

Tony Martin’s corner from the right sailed over the flapping Hensman and Jordan Martin came up from the back and scrambled his shot agonisingly past the foot of the near post from on the line.

The sixth-goal arrived in the 64^th minute when Taylor once again lost the ball in midfield and the away side broke away through Loyza who played in Doherty, who dinked the ball over Hensman to bounce into the bottom near corner.

AFC Croydon Athletic created further chances to increase their lead.

Walker whipped in a cross from the right for Loyza to send his header across goal and sailing agonisingly wide of the far post.

By this point, shell-shocked boss Walton was sitting down on the bench and it was left to physio Emily Sawyer to rally the troops with cries of “keep your heads up boys,” as the team lacked fight, desire and pride.

Walton admitted Fisher teams of old would not surrender to opposing teams on their own patch.

He said: “I said to them that in the years I was at the club every one of the players who played for the club before were always up for it. They never shirked a challenge or a fight or anything like that.

“Some of the players have to go home. I just said to them ‘do you really want to play?’  Look at yourselves. I’ve asked them who wants to play Wednesday? Every one of them put their hands up.”

With twenty minutes remaining, Fisher right-back Danny Akers floated in a cross towards the near post, which sailed over the head of substitute Harvey Hanifan at the near post and towards safety – the striker kicking the post in anger was the closest they got to the goal in the second half.

Boss Walton was disappointed with Taylor’s lack of professionalism when he picked up two yellow cards and a red within the space of four minutes – after lashing out at Kieron Burrell.

Walton said: “Totally frustrated the lad.  Jamie’s a little terrier in there for us and he just got frustrated with what was going on around him like all of the players and I think he just got sent off out of frustration.

“I’ve spoken to him and said things like that are just unacceptable. You’ve got to be professional to get on when things are thrown in front of you.”

A blocked challenge from Akers took the sting out of Loyza’s shot and the ball rolled to Hensman and Fisher were pleased to see the back of the AFC Croydon Athletic striker.

Fisher create a couple of late chances when substitute striker Nathaniel Bell steered his left-footed shot just past the foot of the near post from the corner of the penalty area – before Adam Williams’ speculative right-footed shot from 35-yards was caught by Lidbury.

Sandwiched in between those two rare efforts on goal, AFC Croydon Athletic’s Tony Martin’s right-footed drive from 30-yards bounced once for Hensman to save comfortably.

Fisher Athletic were playing Conference South football before going bust in 2009 and Walton said he is hurting that his beloved club are struggling.

“I don’t feel no pressure,” said Walton. “All I want for this club is this club to be as successful as it used to be.

“This club is a massive, massive club in the south east.  Four years ago it was in the Conference (South).

“Whether it’s me, whoever it is, I just want this club to get back to where it belongs and I fully support what people want to do.  As of today what I did personally and what the players did is not good enough.”

When asked if he fears for his job after collecting one win and two draws in their first ten games of the season, Walton, who works without a playing budget, was perfectly honest.

“Listen, I’ll go up there now (to the boardroom) and I will say to them if they want me to carry on.

“If there’s someone that’s better than me then I will step aside, shake them by their hand and wish them all the best and most probably help them because I want this club, this club means everything to me and it’s got to go forward.

“It can’t be in this situation year in, year out. It’s got to move forward. It’s just a big, fantastic club. If it’s not me that’s doing it and it’s someone else that’s better than me then I will help them in whatever capacity they want me to.

“I will certainly go up (to the boardroom) and ask them if they want me to carry on. It will be the first question that I will say to the chairman.

“What hurts me even more is the actual people who run this club are fantastic and that’s why I feel terribly let down for them and the supporters of this club. That’s why I feel really sad for those people, not for myself or the players. I feel really sad for those people.”

Fisher:  Billy Hensman, Danny Akers, Danny Tipple, Tom Hopkins (Billy Walton 16), Tom Carr, Jamie Taylor, Danny Maguire (Nathaniel Bell 59), Kieron Campbell, Adam Williams, Troy Abbey, Chris Hubbard (Harvey Hanifan 45).
Subs: Duke Binitie, Rob Hughes

Booked: Troy Abbey 45, Jamie Taylor 72, Nathaniel Bell 75

Sent Off: Jamie Taylor 76

AFC Croydon Athletic: Dean Rose (Michael Lidbury 46), Dave Baker, Jamie Williams, Jordan Martin (Sayce Holmes-Lewis 66), Chris Head, Tony Martin, Edmund Walker, Alan Bidi-Lacadoug (Kieron Burrell 58), Joe Loyza, Louis Blake, John Doherty.
Subs: Lewis Goddard, Ben Camara

Goals: Joe Loyza 8, 39, 43, Louis Blake 47, 49, John Doherty 64

Booked: Alan Bidi-Lacadoug 56

Attendance: 88
Referee:  Mr Alexis Stacchini (Orpington)
Assistants: Mr Ben Wright (Walworth, London SE17) & Mr Alex Gray (Clapham, London SW4)