Fisher 3-3 Glebe - We have progressed from last season, says Glebe boss Rocky McMillan

Glebe, who finished in tenth-place in their inaugural campaign in senior football, were by far the better side for the first 65 minutes.

The Bromley-based club took the lead through striker Quinten Conteh’s excellent strike, before outplayed Fisher clawed themselves back into the game through Harry Draper’s 30-yard chip.

Glebe regained the lead just before the break through another chip, this time from former Orpington winger Lewis Gregory, 18.

Glebe midfielder Carson Dennis drilled home a third early in the second half before two clinically struck penalties from Fisher skipper Danny Maguire, 24, salvaged a draw for the Southern Counties East Football League hosts, who finished the stronger side.

“It was entertaining, end-to-end, I think we got out what we wanted,” said Walton afterwards.

“Glebe came here and I thought Glebe played some good football to be honest with you.  They gave us a real run for our money and made us work extremely hard, which we wanted on a nice, sunny day and everyone got minutes.

“I just said to them in there, there’s quite a few that don’t realise how much fitter you’ve got to be and today proved it!  It’s going to be hot next week (for our league opener at Ashford United) so it will be the same conditions.

“I thought it was a good work-out for us and pleased at the end.”

Glebe’s manager/chairman Rocky McMillan was extremely pleased with his players for their efforts during their penultimate warm-up game.

“Forgetting the score, I thought we played ever so well for 65 minutes and they were probably a little bit tired.

“With the two penalties, the referee has to give them as he shows them. It’s just a little bit upsetting when he said ‘he didn’t think it was a penalty, but I don’t want to ruin the assistant referee’s day’.

“I thought we did some very, very good stuff against a step five team.

“I got out of it exactly what I wanted. We scored three good goals. We made one sloppy mistake for their first goal and that cost us a goal so we know we have to cut out those avoidable goals.  Apart from that Fisher didn’t score from open play in my opinion in 90 minutes.”

The early kick-off time of 13:00 proved too much for Fisher goalkeeper Ben Lancaster, who arrived at the ground late and Fisher striker Bryan Zepo borrowed a pair of gloves from Glebe’s substitute goalkeeper to play the first eight minutes in goal.

Zepo comfortably caught Jonny Mohan’s in-swinging free-kick from the left and collected Conteh’s right-footed shot on the turn, which rolled towards him from 18-yards during his period in goal.

Walton said: “Ben’s a new lad. He played for Loughborough last year so he’s our goalkeeper.

“Apparently he stayed at his relations house and they never woke him up at the right time!

“I’ve just had a word with him and that won’t happen again! You don’t do things like that so I’ve told him off and hopefully he’ll learn from it.  It’s just not the way to prepare for the game is it? It’s dreadful really.”

McMillan added: “I never expect any step five side to be easy.  Unfortunately the first 5-10 minutes when the goalkeeper came on we could have tested him but I think with fresh legs it was pretty even for 10 minutes.”

Lancaster arrived and took his place in goal after eight minutes and looked on as Lee Warren’s right-footed free-kick sailed over his crossbar.

But Glebe’s impressive play should have been rewarded with a goal inside 11 minutes.

The impressive Elliott Thompson made progress down the left wing before whipping in a cross towards the far post where the unmarked Gregory planted his header wide of the near post.

“I think all he needed to do to score was head it back where it came really,” said McMillan.

“Perhaps he was a bit shaken to get a free header at the back post.  People have got their winds up, people are excited. It’s a lovely stadium. People suddenly get a little bit nervous in front of goal, don’t they?”

Thompson, 18, was an impressive figure down the left wing and it was a surprise when McMillan took him off at the break.

“Elliott’s been with me since he was thirteen,” revealed McMillan.

“He’s just come out of under 18’s football. His potential I think is phenomenal. He got in with the wrong crowd in the club last year.  Three or four and those players haven’t been invited back this year.

“As youngsters you can get into the wrong group and I wanted to isolate him from the group, which we’ve done.  He turned up to an extra training session yesterday.

“I think he wants to play for me. I know because he’s been with me for so long.  He wants to play with the football club and I think he’s now coming out of school and getting a far more mature attitude and the older players are a big influence on him.”

Fisher went close when good link-up play involving Kyle Dimitri and lone striker Junior James found Draper on the edge of the box but his right-footed chip sailed just over the crossbar.

But Glebe opened the scoring with a quality strike from Conteh inside 17 minutes.

Conteh easily turned Fisher midfielder Billy Walton and drilled a superb right-footed drive into the bottom left-hand corner from 25-yards.

McMillan said: “It was a nice bit of skill from our striker Quinten Conteh to score an excellent first goal.

“He’s been on fire in pre-season.  I think that’s six in five. He’s scored in every game.  He came into us last season, had a few niggling injuries and never really showed me what he can do. He came back pre-season, lost some weight and came back with a far more positive attitude.  I think the experienced players we’ve brought in has really had a beneficial effect on him.”

Walton complained about his son’s attitude.

He said: “What do you say to people? That’s just basic defending. You know he’s going to come inside all day long on the right foot! You never send someone inside to have a free shot on goal.

“I weren’t happy with Bill, but Bill’s been at a wedding all the way over in Wentworth. He’s travelled all the way back from a wedding where he’s most probably been drinking all night so I’ve told him that I weren’t happy with Bill. That’s why I took him off pretty early so he knows. He’ll come through alright, he’s a fit lad.”

Giant Fisher defender Calum McGeehan was a threat at the back post from Maguire’s corners and he directed his downward header wide from six-yards.

Conteh, who was causing Fisher’s defence a headache, played the ball inside to Dennis who rolled his first time shot into Lancaster’s gloves from 22-yards.

Fisher then began to start to get back into the game.

James clipped a sublime diagonal which was brought down under his spell by left-winger Ashley Henry-Brown, who whipped in a cross towards the near post where Walton sent a speculative flick high over the bar from 15-yards.

But Fisher clawed themselves back into the game with another sublime finish in the 36^th minute.

A poor inside pass by Glebe’s left-back Simon Todd was picked up by the unmarked Draper, who looked up and sent his right-footed chip sailing over Jamie Williams’ head from 30-yards, the ball dropping in off the underside of the crossbar.

Walton said: “You know what Harry’s like, he’s a great little player for us.  He’ll pop up all day long and get things going.  He’s just got a great football brain and when he scored his goal it was very similar to the one he’s put over the bar.”

Walton admitted the goal got his side out of jail.

“We was all over the shop! We tried to play a system that we wanted to play next week but that’s gone out of the window now.  We won’t be playing that system because we were dreadful at it! We was all over the place and Glebe took full advantage of it.”

McMillan added: “A bad mistake by us. We’ve spoken all pre-season about avoidable goals and that was an avoidable goal!

“I don’t blame the goalkeeper on that because he’s thinking it’s going to go long and he’s six-yards off his line and all of a sudden he chips it, it hits the underside of the crossbar and goes in.

“Poor goal defensively. We spoke about it at half-time.  We know there will be mistakes and we’ll learn by that and I’m sure it won’t happen again.  The player put his hands up.  We spoke about it. Despatched.”

An injury to Glebe defender Lee McPherson brought a five-minute break in play and a water break and Glebe composed themselves to retain the lead in the 44^th minute.

Dennis roamed forward from the middle of the park and swept the ball out to Gregory, who cut inside from the left and sent his right-footed lob over Lancaster’s head to find the top near corner from 25-yards.

It was exactly what Lancaster deserved for his lack of professionalism and Glebe deserved to be leading.

McMillan said: “Lewis come to me from Orpington.  We actually took four players from Orpington in the summer.

“Lewis is a young lad. Like a lot of young lads needs a cuddle every now and then, needs an arm around them to encourage him.

“He’s so skilful. He’s a fantastic skill. I’m encouraging him to run at defenders, go outside, go inside but what we’re trying to do is isolate the full-back so they know they can’t get forward because if you go beyond them they can’t catch you up.

“He’s only eighteen. I think he’ll play a lot of football this season and I think he’ll be a tricky customer. There’s one or two higher sides interested in him but I’ve told him there’s no point being a bench burner.  He’s got the skill and he’s got to play minutes.”

Walton sounded like a broken record when speaking about Glebe’s second goal.

“Same thing again.  You tell defenders all day long he’s always going to come inside on his right foot.  They switched him over because he’s a right-footer and I knew full well he was going to go inside on his favourite foot.

“You can’t let people, no matter what level you’re playing at, sooner or later they will come inside and ping one and it will go in and that’s exactly what they did.”

Both sides remained outside in the glorious London sunshine for the half-time interval and Walton questioned his side.

“I basically said it wasn’t good enough, simple as that! Our passing was array; the movement was terrible; our work-rate was terrible.  Everything that I asked them to do, the desire and the transition of passing from the back to the midfield to the ground was just far, far too slow.  We was just slow letting Glebe set and they just let us play in front of them so it was easy for them.

“We upped it, made a few substitutions, changed the shape and I think we was the dominant side in the second half.”

McMillan added: “Very happy with the 45.  We isolated the mistake. That was done and dusted.  I just turned round and emphasised you can’t make mistakes at this level or at step six because there’s so many good teams at step six.

“Very, very pleased. I thought we were the better team in the first half, scored two really cracking goals, should have had a third, may have had a fourth.  Our goalkeeper didn’t really have to make a save in the first half so at half-time it was more of the same.”

McMillan’s side came out of the traps quicker than Fisher after the break and substitute Jack Highwood (who replaced Thompson) but played on the right wing, was causing problems too.

Highwood played the ball into Conteh, who flicked the ball back through to Highwood, who dinked his shot straight at Lancaster just inside the penalty area.

Glebe increased their lead further in the 52^nd minute.

Highwood played a sublime diagonal pass from the right to pick out Gregory on the left and he played the ball into Dennis, who drilled his left-footed shot across the keeper for the ball to nestle into the bottom far corner of the net.

McMillan said: “A superb move! We switched play twice, switched it from right to left with Jack Highwood. The physicality of Dennis, he beat off a really strong defender, drilled it in with his left.

“Jack will be signing for us. He’s been out for two years with a bad shoulder injury.  Jack, again, has been with me since ten-years-of-age. He’s been at Holmesdale for a few years, he’s got a good goalscoring pedigree at step five. 

“He’s just delighted I’m giving him minutes at the moment. He needs to get his fitness back. He’s disappointed he’s missed two goals today but he’s a big, strong physical guy with a lot of desire and a lot of determination.”

Walton added: “There again, it’s the same thing as last year.  It’s just all really bad defending. I just can’t understand how people let them do the things that they do! They can see it all unfolding in front of them.  It just weren’t good enough!”

Fisher at this point were dead and buried.

But they were given a lifeline, which they accepted in the 62^nd minute when pacy striker Zepo was brought down by Glebe right-back Jonny Mohan following a counter-attack down the left.

Glebe substitute keeper Dan Teeley dived to his left but he couldn’t prevent Maguire clipping his right-footed penalty over him for the ball to caress the back of the net.

Walton admitted: “That changed the entire game. A little thing like that can change an entire game, which it did.

“After that we took hold of the game and really the last 20 minutes we should have scored three or four goals.

“Their goalkeeper’s made two or three good saves. We played some excellent football in the final third. 

“Key players – I won’t say who – created numerous chances for us so it was good.  The last 20 minutes was really good.”

McMillan could see the tide was beginning to turn.

“I think that was the start of the game being stretched because we actually had possession in our half.

“They broke quickly and we know the modern day rules. It’s very, very difficult to put in a challenge from behind in the area.  I’ve got no problems with that penalty. The guy dispatched it really well. I’ve got no issues with that penalty at all.”

Former Fisher keeper Teeley was beaten for the second time from the penalty spot nine minutes later.

Kyle Dimitri whipped in a deep cross from the left and assistant referee James Williams adjudged Todd had used his shoulder to play the ball back to his keeper.

Referee Steve Perry went over to his assistant referee to discuss the incident before a penalty was awarded.

Todd was booked for showing dissent and play was held up when McMillan made a substitution before Maguire maintained his composure to slot his right-footed penalty into the bottom right corner – Teeley once again diving the right way!

Both managers were asked their thoughts on the decision.

McMillan said: “If that would have been a league game I think I would have been extremely upset because I think we did enough to win the game in open play.

“The referee was in the same line as me. The referee could see it was a really good Copacabana shoulder back into the keeper. We try to keep the ball live.

“Referee has turned round and seen it.  The kid (Mr Williams) first of all he hasn’t even put the flag across his chest - (this signal no longer applies in the laws of the game) – he’s signalled for a throw in or something. He’s gone over and the referee turns round and said ‘I don’t want to spoil the young assistant referee’s confidence by not giving it, so I gave it.’

“Really not good enough! Not really good enough!”

The Glebe boss added: “I think they were super penalties. I think the thing with the penalties they were unstoppable because they’re hit with pace and they’ve hit in the corner stanchion and I think Dan did incredibly well to get close to them.”

Walton admitted: “A bit harsh really to be honest with you! If that was given against us I’d be fuming so it was a bit harsh.

“I think the linesman gave it. The referee didn’t give it. Perhaps from the angle the linesman (saw) it was handball but from where I was standing it was pretty harsh.  It hit him on the top of the arm, the shoulder, rather than the arm so I’ll be disappointed if that was against us.”

When asked about Maguire’s two goals, Walton revealed the former Queen’s Park Rangers has a 100% success rate from the spot, adding: “Don’t give Fisher any penalties because he will score!  He doesn’t miss Danny. I wish he played for England!”

Fisher’s attacking play was excellent for the rest of the game and Glebe were hanging on.

Draper reached the by-line before cutting the ball back to Maguire, who cracked a lowright-footed volley towards goal from 35-yards, but keeper Teeley made a great save, getting a strong right-hand to the shot as he dived low to his right to prevent the ball nestling into the bottom corner.

Zepo played a fine reverse pass to put fellow substitute Nick Crowe through on goal but his right-footed angled drive brought a low near post save from Teeley.

But Teeley produced a world-class save to deny his old club the winner in the last 12 minutes.

The Fish were awarded a free-kick 25-yards from goal and Maguire clipped his right-footed free-kick over the five-man wall towards the roof of the net but the diving keeper pushed the ball over the bar with his right-hand.

McMillan said: “Great save from Dan. It’s easy to say that’s what he’s there for. I think it was a wonderful save and there’s not many goalkeeper’s at step six that would have had the ability or agility to save that one.  Talk about quick foot work and I was very pleased with Dan.”

Walton said: “He’s got that in his locker Dan (Maguire).  You’ve seen it before.  Free-kicks like that he will hit the target.  The keeper’s pulled off a great save to tip it over the bar so I was well pleased.”