Fisher 2-2 Cray Wanderers (4-3 PENS) - The difference was the Fisher keeper, says Jenkins

Monday 08th March 2010

FISHER 2-2 CRAY WANDERERS
(after extra time - Fisher won 4-3 on penalties)
Monday 8th March 2010
London Senior Cup Third Round
Stephen McCartney reports from Champion Hill Stadium

FISHER manager Gary Lisney hailed his side’s character as they completed a smash-and-grab raid to dump dominant Cray Wanderers out of the London Senior Cup.

The Ryman Premier League visitors dominated proceedings for all but five of the 120 minutes played, but had to wait until extra time to break Fisher’s battling resilience as goals from Leigh Bremner and substitute George Porter appeared to put them through.

But Colin Luckett’s extra time penalty was saved by heroic Fisher keeper Adam Lisney - who made a string of fine saves - and two late goals from the struggling Kent League side took the game to penalties.

Jamie Lawrence, Jimmy Beauhamp, Lloyd Boateng and Bryan Glover all converted their spot-kicks for Fisher, as did Luckett, Leigh Bremner and Mark Willy for Cray, but Lisney pulled off a fine save to deny Tommy Tyne and Lewis Wood looped the ninth and final penalty over the crossbar as Fisher booked another home tie - against Croydon Athletic - in the quarter-finals.

Cray Wanderers boss Ian Jenkins fielded a strong first team squad for this tie - youth-team player Gio Fulloni made his first team debut at right-back - and four changes were made from the side that were defeated by Wealdstone in the Ryman Premier League at the weekend.

Despite naming Des Boateng, John Guest and Ross Lover on the substitutes bench, the trio were all injured and were unable to take to the field at Champion Hill.

Enjoying plenty of possession, Cray Wanderers created - and wasted - a hat-full of chances against an unpaid Fisher side that created very little up front - despite the returning striker Cedric Abraham, who captained Fisher Athletic fourteen times in Blue Square South last season.

Lisney made his first save of the game from Jamie Wood, who’s initial free-kick rebounded to the him off the wall and his follow-up shot was tipped over by the Fisher keeper.

When he was beaten (a driven shot from Tyne following Liam Bellamy’s free-kick from the right), his defence were on hand to clear the ball off the line - on more than one occasion.

Lisney also had some help from the woodwork as Lewis Wood’s right-footed drive from the right crashed against the crossbar with 35 minutes on the clock.

Jamie Wood then floated in a free-kick from the right and this was headed over by an unmarked Tyne as the visitors rued another missed opportunity.

Fisher rode their luck, and the longer the game went on grew in confidence, but in truth had Cray Wanderers had their shooting boots on then the game would have been over by the time the 90th minute arrived.

Cray’s best chance to finally break the deadlock arrived in the 61st minute when Bremner passed to his strike partner Lewis Wood, who took right-back Kris Hollidge out of the game with some trickery and the tiny striker slid the ball towards goal but the advancing Lisney was on hand to make a fine block.

Fisher almost grabbed victory at the death when a long clearance out of defence by Boateng released pacy French substitute Elstrom Die down the right and after cutting inside he sprayed the ball to striker Luke Coleman, who laid the ball to Louis Sprosen, who cut inside and unleashed a fine shot which was heading towards the far corner, but this was beaten out by the diving Pat Brennan.

Cray then had a couple of efforts dealt with by the resilient Fisher defence on the line, but what was to follow in extra-time was simply astonishing!

Jamie Wood’s low centre from the left bounced off Bremner at the near post and Lewis Wood was denied by a smart near-post save by Lisney inside the opening two minutes of extra-time.

Die was then released on the counter attack, and after riding a challenge from last defender Rob Quinn, the winger burst forward and drove a poor shot high into the side netting when he only had the visiting keeper to beat.

Lisney was to thwart Cray again when Bellamy sent a powerful header towards goal (following Luckett’s swung-in free-kick) but the keeper tipped the ball to safety.

But Lisney’s resilience was finally broken on the stroke of the turnaround.

Substitute Porter raced down the right wing and passed to Bellamy who in turn found Bremner and he applied the finish from six-yards out to score his 13th goal of the season, despite Fisher fans claiming the striker was off-side.

But Lisney pulled off his first penalty save when he produced a top-drawer save to keep out Luckett’s left-footed penalty.

But he was beaten for a second time in the 110th minute as highly-rated teenager Porter sent a stunning shot into the top far corner from the edge of the penalty box.

With the visitors destined to be celebrating a deserved 2-0 win, Fisher somehow pulled it out of the bag in dramatic style.

Bryan Glover released Die through the Cray defence and with the home fans urging him on the nippy attacker rounded Brennan and his low shot rolled towards goal but Willy got back on the line.

Unfortunately for the skipper, Willy stabbed the ball onto the post and the ball cruelly bounced off his floored body and the ball crossed the line to go down as a 117th minute own-goal.

Pouring forward, Fisher then punished a sleepy Cray defence two minutes later as the visitors left Die and Boateng unmarked inside the penalty box and Die allowed the ball to bounce into Boateng’s path and the defender lashed the ball high into the roof of an empty net to spark wild celebrations.

Fisher were clinical from the spot, leaving Tyne and Lewis Wood to be the fall guys for Cray and it was Fisher - a side that haven’t won a home Kent League game all season - that progressed.

Lisney, who was speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk afterwards, praised his heroes for producing a cup upset.

“Very good result obviously!” he smiled. “Great team spirit, character, 2-0 down, I don’t know how long left, ten minutes or something like that? Five minutes left, 2-0 down, nicked a goal, chucked a couple people up top, took a chance and it paid off for us tonight.”

Praising his goalkeeper son, he continued, “He’s done alright for us most of the season to be fair. That’s what he’s there for, he’s a goalkeeper. Nights like this, it sometimes goes for you like that. A chance to be a hero.

“Obviously he made a penalty save during the game, which was quite important. Would we have got back? I don’t know!

“I’m the type of person, manager, if we are 1-0 down or whatever, 10-15 minutes to go, I’d rather chuck people forward. I won’t lose many games 1-0. We’d either lose them two or three nil or we’ll get ourselves back into the game somehow. That’s the person I am.

“When it comes to penalties the goalkeeper’s got a very good chance to be a hero on the night. No-one expects them to save any and he made an important save during the penalties, put a little bit of pressure off us really or makes it a little bit easier for our penalty takers going next when their player has just missed.

“But I think he looked very composed. All the penalty takers are experienced players. They’ve played at this level for a little while and we done alright tonight.”

The club have described the London Senior Cup as their FA Cup and it was evident what tonight’s success meant to everybody at Fisher.

“Every game means a lot to us at the moment,” explained Lisney. “We’ve reformed, the budget situation is well known but everyone in the ground tonight can see we’ve got a very good team spirit, showed a lot of character and everyone kept going until the end.

“Everyone’s passionate about it. That’s one of our failings in a way, sometimes the emotion spills over and we pick up far too many bookings for dissent and things like that. That’s because people care. Every game’s important to us.

“We’ve had to start from the bottom and start building. It’s a long, long-term project.”

Cray Wanderers boss Jenkins, who was also speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk afterwards, wishes Fisher all the best of luck in the quarter-finals.

“Penalties are always a bit of a lottery,” he admitted. “They took them well. Fair play to them. Whoever wins on penalties, fair enough.”

But Jenkins wasn’t expecting to be dumped out of a cup competition that he was taking seriously by a Kent League club that don’t pay their players.

“You expect (to be the better side) when you’re playing a team two leagues below. You wouldn’t expect anything different,” said Jenkins.

“But fair play to them. Their keeper had a worldie and that’s cup football for you at the end of the day. They rode their luck with it a little bit but won the penalties.”

Speaking about Luckett’s penalty woe, Jenkins replied, “He’s missed the last one, probably not as confident as he normally is but he struck a great penalty but a great save by the goalkeeper and he’s pulled one out in the penalty shoot-out as swell.

“The difference between the two sides was the goalkeeper at the end of the day.”

Lisney admitted: “We were a bit lucky on the night to be fair. We didn’t have a great deal of possession. They must have had a lot of the ball but we got lucky at the end of the night.”

Fisher: Adam Lisney, Kris Hollidge (George Savage 86), Mark Lewis, Jimmy Beauchamp, Lloyd Boateng, Bryan Glover, Anthony Glover (Elstrom Die 70), Jamie Lawrence, Cedric Abraham (Declan Thompson 82), Luke Coleman, Louis Sprosen.
Subs: Raphael Akala, Luiz Rosen.

Goals: Mark Willy 117 (own goal), Lloyd Boateng 119

Booked: Louis Sprosen 50, Kris Hollidge 81, Bryan Glover 99, Luke Coleman 106

Cray Wanderers: Pat Brennan, Gio Fulloni (George Porter 70), Colin Luckett, Rob Quinn, Mark Willy, Aaron Day, Liam Bellamy, Tommy Tyne, Leigh Bremner, Lewis Wood, Jamie Wood.
Subs: Des Boateng, John Guest, Ross Lover, Ian Jenkins.

Goals: Leigh Bremner 105, George Porter 110

Booked: Colin Luckett 48, George Porter 78

Attendance: 71
Referee: Mr Quentin Pearsall (Barnet)
Assistants: Mr Lee Mills (Southgate) & Mr Peter Nagy (Camden Town)