Fisher 3-0 Glebe - Fisher is a massive club, a sleeping giant club and we're about to wake it up this season, says manager Ajay Ashanike

Fisher 3 – 0 Glebe
Location	St Paul's Stadium, Salter Road, Rotherhithe, London SE16 6NT
Kickoff	28/12/2024 15:00

FISHER  3-0  GLEBE
Presence & Co Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division
Saturday 28 December 2024
Stephen McCartney reports from St Paul’s Stadium

FISHER manager Ajay Ashanike insists his side are not letting off and will keep going until the end as they bid to finish in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division play-offs for the very first time.

Glebe arrived at St Paul’s Stadium on an 11 match unbeaten run in all competitions since they were knocked out of the London Senior Cup by Hanwell Town, who claimed a 4-2 win at Foxbury Avenue on Wednesday 9 October.

But the Chislehurst-based outfit put in a lacklustre performance here today and after a first-half that lacked quality from both sides.

Fisher – who lost 2-1 at Snodland Town last weekend - claimed a comfortable victory thanks to three second half goals.

Attacking midfielder Charles Yiadom-Konadu, 38, capped off an impressive performance by scoring his fifth goal of the season, before Omotunmise Akanni and Jacob Katonia both came off the bench to score inside the final nine minutes.

Fisher were without Armani-Jordan Martin (illness) and Jack Gibbons (family commitments), while Glebe's 38-year-old defender Sam Wood (groin) took part in the pre-match warm-up and is close to making a return.

“We asked for the boys after last week to bounce back and the bouncebackability had to be there,” said Ashanike, whose side remain in third-place in the table, just four points adrift of leaders VCD Athletic, who have two games in hand.

“Today, they’ve come out absolutely buzzing about it, a 3-0 win, a clean-sheet. To get back and play against someone like Glebe who were 11 games unbeaten, it was a really good performance from the boys.

“I said to everyone in the team, if we could come out first half, 0-0 or 1-0 down, we should be ok for the game. 

“We’ve gone in there (at half-time) and we’ve told Courtney (Barrington) what to do and he done it as well.

“When it’s 0-0, we’re more than comfortable to say ‘we’re going to win the game,’ as long as we controlled the game and we did control the game in the first half, a large amount of the first half but the cutting edge wasn’t there for us because we set up for 3-5-2 with them, but they went back to a back four and the boys were adjusting to systems.

“But second half we had a chance to address it, we’ve come out and we’ve done that.”

Glebe manager Fred Dillon added: “A game of two halves. First one, not a lot in it. I think the decision the ref made, gives us a pen and then the linesman gets involved and takes it away from us, it’s a bit of a game-changer and then second half they had a little bit more productivity.

“We’ve been on a hell of a run. The lads have done ever so well but over the last few weeks we’ve just missed a little bit that needed to get us over the line, so we’ve had a few draws and maybe just a little bit comfortable and it showed.

“We’ve just re-visited it today and just said to them ‘don’t forget what it takes to get across the line,’ and ultimately they (Fisher) get the better edge in the second half.”

Fisher often linked up well down the left with Yiadom-Konadu (playing in the number 10 role behind nine-goal striker Kesna Clarke) often pulling the strings and linking up well with impressive left-winger Courtney Barrington and the overlapping left-back Edward Sata were all posing a threat.

“We know what Charles can give us. He might not be able to go for 90 minutes but when he’s on the pitch, Charles gives us everything,” said Ashanike.

“Today we just though having Charles at the 10 (attacking midfielder role) might kill them a bit with the ball control and having Salim Nassor as the four (holding midfielder) and Flavio Jumo with the energy in there it really worked really well, compliments them really well.”

The first real goalscoring chance arrived in the 24^th minute when Fisher’s centre-half Ange Djadja hit a free-kick sailing over the head of Glebe’s poor right-back Paul Lee and Barrington cut into the box and his left-footed angled drive deflected past the foot of the near-post.

“It was a cagey match. I think it was like a boxing match where they come out in the first round and just find out what the weaknesses were for the other team.  Yes, not much happened in that half but I was happy with them because it was 0-0 and we could go in there and address what was wrong,” added Ashanike.

Sata threw the ball to Barrington, who laid the ball inside to Yiadom-Konadu, who teed up central midfielder Flavio Jumo, who dragged his right-footed half-volley harmlessly wide of the left-hand post from 22-yards in a central position.

Ashanike said: “Credit to (my assistant manager) Luke With. That’s the kind of patterns that we’re working on in training and for it to come off on match days is really fantastic.  You can’t waste a session on a Thursday and when you see it actually works on a match day, you get the joy out of it today.”

Glebe put seven free-kicks into the Fisher penalty area in the first half, four of them from recalled centre-half James Fitchett, the others from central midfielder Alex Arif but were delivered with poor quality and were comfortably dealt with by an untroubled Fisher defence.

“We had quite a few free-kicks. We spoke about that at half-time and Arif’s put a couple of balls in dangerous areas but we just didn’t get on the end of them,” admitted Dillon.

“We had one which dropped in and no one got anywhere near it. Another one, Philpot tried to wrap one first time and went wide.

“There were a couple in there that really if you get on the end of one you score – and we didn’t quite do that.”

Glebe produced their best well-worked move when debutant right-winger Harvey Mead linked up with 16-goal striker Jamie Philpot, who reversed the ball back to Mead, who fell to the ground as Fisher goalkeeper Isaac Ogunseri came off his line.

Referee Connor Wood initially pointed to the spot (29:57) but walked over to senior assistant referee Alexis Stacchini (who didn’t raise his flag) and a corner was awarded instead.

Arif swung in the resulting corner from the right and 40-year-old centre-half Robert Gillman came up from the back and flicked his free header into the six-yard box and Ogunseri smothered and held the ball low to his right.

“Listen, there wasn’t a lot in it. It was partly our end, partly the opposite end and then in these games one decision can change everything,” said Dillon.

“We break well, Harvey goes into the box. It’s a penalty as far as I’m concerned!

“On another day, I think the linesman, whatever he says, I think the referee makes his decision and sticks with it and he didn’t and that was the game changer.”

Ashanike replied: “See again, it wasn’t a penalty in the first place and decisions like that absolutely kills teams off, especially when we’re looking to do well this season.

“Officials have to be spot on with what they do and again that’s a lack of concentration from us from the corner as well.  They shouldn’t have got the header there but we should’ve been screwed on.

“But decisions like that can absolutely kill people off. If we’re one-goal down, they pack the box and we can’t break them down, so credit to the lino. He done the right thing.  Everyone in the stadium knows it was never a penalty, apart from the referee but he changed his mind, which was good for us.”

Glebe’s sixth free-kick into the Fisher box was delivered by Arif’s right-footed driven delivery some 35-yards from goal and Philpot swept his first-time right-footed shot across the keeper and harmlessly wide of the right-hand post in the 40^th minute.

Fisher produced a well-worked move but there was plenty of quality missing from both sides during this drab first-half.

Nassor played the ball along the deck into Barrington, who cut in from the left wing past the poor Paul Lee before putting it on a plate for Yiadom-Konadou, who leaned back and skied his first time left-footed shot high over the crossbar from 15-yards.

The festive crowd of 254 hoped for better quality in the second half.

Ashanike said: “Just more of the same but more cutting edge.  We knew if we could get back to what we were doing, we were getting around the back and we were working on things that we actually worked on in training.

“If you’ve got two units in there with Kesna (Clarke) in the centre, they’re going to eat up everything. We went through the back of them and we actually travelled through the back door.

“Like I said to them, there’s going to be a lot of tap-ins, first time goal and that’s exactly what we did.

“We went in there and we done really well. They took on instructions and done it really well and we created a lot of chances in the second half and we put the game to bed.”

Dillon added: “I just said it was tough to take not coming in one-up but these things happen in football.  You have to get on with it, move on.

“We defended a lot of what they put up against us and I said to us we just needed to squeeze higher up the pitch. 

“Fisher picked up a lot of second balls so it felt like they had a lot more possession but if we can get higher up the pitch and squeeze the game in, obviously I felt we could get a little bit nearer to them.”

Fisher deserved their lead when it arrived through route-one football, with seven minutes and a second on the clock.

Ogunseri launched a long ball straight down the heart of the pitch with a hooked right-footed clearance and Yiadom-Konadu flicked the ball on towards Clarke and the ball dropped kindly to Yiadom-Konadu.

Goalkeeper Justin Lee rushed off his line, Gillman slid in in an attempt to make a last-gasp block on the 18-yard line, but Yiadom-Konadu flicked his left-footed shot into the empty goal.

“We’ve all said ‘follow the pass, follow the pass,’ but we wasn’t expecting Charles to follow that pass because he’s flicked it on and for his age, he’s got himself into the box as well to flick the ball over the keeper’s head. Absolutely brilliant, it really was,” hailed the Fisher manager.

“Sometimes it doesn’t have to be pretty. We can do the pretty side and we can do the ugly side and if we start showing both sides of it, teams know what you’re trying to do and today they’ve mixed it up.

“It was their decision to go straight from Isaac straight forward and they’re maturing, they’re a young squad but they’re maturing really, really well with the older heads in there.

“We know what Charles is going to do. Charlies is going to be Charles, especially on that 3G (pitch). He’s always going to be incredible and again today he showed the class that he’s got.”

Dillon added: “Yes, it’s one of them. Maybe we could’ve dealt with it a little bit quicker but again they had that upper edge on us and they were a little bit more intense, so when those balls were dropping, I just felt they were the side that were picking up a lot of those scraps.”

When asked what Gillman offers his side at the heart of their defence, Dillon replied: “Just experience.  You watch him in certain cases, he doesn’t commit. He keeps good shape. He’s that level-headed player that you need on the pitch. Unfortunately it just didn’t quite go the way we wanted today.”

Glebe also went route-one with 10 minutes and 58 seconds on the clock but former Millwall striker Philpot wasn’t troubling Ogunseri.

Justin Lee’s big kick dropped to Philpot, whose right-footed swept shot which lacked conviction and power from 22-yards, was comfortably gathered.

Dillon was asked about the chance and losing their talisman striker to a late sin-bin – the only player remaining at the club from last season’s squad that finished in the top three.

“He’s always going to sniff out an opportunity but didn’t quite capitalise on that one.

“It’s frustration. He’s very passionate and he tries to lead the team in the right way and obviously he’s just got frustrated.

“I think he got brought down just before that, which then obviously frustrated him that little bit more and he argued the point and then he’s apologised. He’s a great lad, he knows when he’s done wrong.”

Ashanike added: “Look, Jamie’s a top, top striker, we all know that. He’s scored so many goals in this league since I’ve been here for five years. He’s a terrific striker.

“We know how to nullify him. We pushed up the pitch, we squeezed up the pitch, killed the space between him and the keeper, didn’t let him get near the keeper and didn’t create chances and Jamie’s not alive.  That’s exactly what the back four done today, they squeezed the pitch up and made it difficult for him.

“We know he hasn’t got the legs or the power against the boys that we’ve got at the back and the boys came out on top.”

Fisher were denied a second goal in the 67^th minute, courtesy of Justin Lee’s raised left-hand.

Sata was inside the centre-circle and switched a free-kick out to Barrington on the left and he easily cut inside Paul Lee before feeding Jumo, who drilled a right-footed drive towards the roof of the net from 22-yards, only for Justin Lee to make a superb save.

Ashanike said: “He’s drilled that really, really well and it was a fantastic save from the keeper, absolute credit to him for tipping it over the bar. It was a really good save.”

Dillon added: “Again, they’ve broke on us and it’s one of them when you’re thinking they’ve got the upper edge and ultimately fantastic save to be fair. A crucial one. He’s done many over the course of the period.”

Jumo ran past a non-existent Glebe midfield before cutting in on to his right-foot and stroking a 25-yard drive towards the bottom near corner, which was comfortably saved by Justin Lee down on his knees and into his midriff.

Glebe were creating nothing. Philpot was isolated on his own and there was no surprise when he was thrown in the sin bin by referee Connor Wood (47:34), as Glebe finished the game with 10 players on the pitch.

“We said that. That we didn’t so much get the ball into the wide areas as much as we like to. We were just off it, we were off it,” admitted Dillon, who was asked about the sacking of winger Fred Obasa after he reported late for last Saturday’s 2-2 home draw against Sutton Athletic, which was Glebe's fourth draw on the trot coming into this game.

“Listen, that’s football isn’t it. You make decision for the group and ultimately we made a decision and I wish him all the best, so no hard feelings.”

When asked about winger Mead’s debut, the Glebe manager replied: “We’ve just signed the lad Harvey Mead, a new player came out of Stansfeld. That was Harvey’s first game with us, so he’s only just got to know the boys and there will be loads to come from him and once the lads get to know him then ultimately we’ll push to get as strong as we can.

“I’m pleased with Harvey. He doesn’t know the lads that well so at the moment he’s finding his feet, finding who does what. Listen, I’m pleased with him. He’s got a turn of pace, he’s nice and direct. We like that in a wide area so over the coming weeks let’s hope we can get him fully firing.”

Dillon’s substitutes failed to make any impact with left-winger Asanti Amoah failing to trouble Fisher’s debutant right-back Donald Macaulay when he came on along with central midfielder Matthew Self in the 58^th minute.

Ashanike said: “Young Donny has come in today from Holmesdale and absolutely hasn’t put a foot wrong, one of the best players that I’ve seen in this league.  It looks like he’s one of us straight away, which is good and credit to him as well. He’s done really, really well today, absolutely superb and now he’s given us a headache.”

Both sides won three corners-a-piece and Arif floated the ball in from the right, the ball was cleared out to Paul Lee, who steered his header across goal and past the far post.

Yiadom-Konadu played the ball out to 10-goal Barrington, who cut inside and curled his right-footed shot towards the bottom far corner.  The ball bounced right in front of a diving Justin Lee, who pushed the ball towards safety.

“The keeper is a really good keeper, we know that as well.  We’ve played against him so we know how good he can be but he’s pulled off a good save and that’s the job of a keeper to be pulling saves off like that,” added Ashanike.

Fisher doubled their lead just 35 seconds later, the goal coming with 35 minutes and 8 seconds on the clock.

Paul Lee opened the back door on the by-line and allowed Barrington to cut along the line and putting it on a plate for Akanni to take a touch with his right-foot before flicking his left-footed shot into the bottom left-hand corner from four-yards.

Ashanike said: “Today is all about getting the ball and open the back door and just passing it through, instead of crossing it.

“It’s never going to work against those two (Glebe) players, they’re not mobile enough to get round us.

“We took it to the by-line and cut it back and that’s the kind of goal that we need to score today and we did really well with it.”

Dillon added: “Fantastic player the 11 (Barrington). Very difficult to defend right from word dot. He’s given Paul a hell of a run today and at times Paul done really well with him.

“There’s always going to be that opportunity that he was going to create something and he did.”

Katonia was released in behind Glebe substitute centre-half Marcus Travers but the busy Justin Lee made a comfortable low save to his left.

Fisher notched their third goal with 46:43 on the clock, hitting Glebe on the counter-attack.

The Lightening quick substitute Halim Bakre did ever so well to keep his black goggles on his head as he burst past a couple of Glebe players inside the Glebe half before putting it on a plate for Katonia to flick his left-footed shot across the keeper and into the back of the net from a couple of yards at the far post, as Akanni’s hooked pass released Bakre, who started his break from a few yards from the half-way line.

Ashanike said: “Again, the goal looks the same (as our second one) doesn’t it?

“What Halim done is absolutely genius. What I said to Halim, Halim has got a strength that we need in this team for us to go forward  just pace, it’s raw pace, is absolutely frightening.

“Imagine coming on for the last 10 minutes and you have got to play against that but obviously we need more from him and he has to show us more and that’s the kind of stuff that I need and know that he can do.

“He’s been patient and he’s delivered it for us today, which is a credit to him as well.  To find the will to pass the ball because if that was me I would’ve shot but to find the will to pass the ball for somebody else to score when we’re 2-0 up, that’s credit to him and that’s a mature performance from Halim.”

Dillon added: “I felt like that was the softest one. They broke on us and when you’re in that moment, it’s just about keeping disciplined, keeping shape but they broke and fair play they’ve punished us and taken their chance.”

Dillon revealed that Wood is close to returning from his groin injury.

“Sam Wood is on the verge of just getting back in and around it. Sam’s been struggling with his groin, so he’s been quite a while but he’s really focused hard to try to put himself right and we’re now at the stage where he’s 99 per cent right and ready to get back involved.”

Dillon, meanwhile, demands a reaction when Chipie Sian’s Punjab United visit Foxbury Avenue next Saturday.

“We spoke about how well we’ve done to now and it’s now a learning curve. We take the negatives from today and we turn them into positives and we look forward to Punjab next week.

“Listen, we’re pushing to try to get into that (play-off) bracket and we won’t stop doing that. We have, like we’ve said a few times over recent weeks, just taken a little bit of a foot of the gas but we’ll look at today, go away from it and we’ll pick a side to go and compete against Punjab.

“My aim is to get into that bracket.  We won’t stop. We’ll do everything in my power to try to get there. We’ve been on a great run, which really helped us but ideally we’d like to have nicked a few more points along the way.

“It didn’t go how we wanted it today. It is football. You’ve got to bounce back and ultimately that’s what we’ll look to do.”

Fisher’s performance today proves that they are the real deal when it comes to the race for the play-offs, as VCD Athletic (Danny Joy and Ross Baker) and Tommy Warrilow’s Faversham Town battle it out for the league title.

“I’m buzzing for a clean-sheet, we need a clean-sheet.  That back four has worked really, really well in the last few games and they’ve been so unlucky not to get a clean-sheet. If they carry on with the performance they did today, know where to play the ball, know when to play, I think there’s going to be a lot of clean-sheets this second half of the season,” said Ashanike, who was asked what pleased him the most of today’s match.

“The bouncebackability. The belief in the boys. Last week we were really, really down as a collective and they’ve come in today full of spirit. We haven’t trained but the boys have done their own runs on Tuesday and Thursday when no one asked them and that shows the determination of where these boys want to get to and what level they want to get to.

“We’re still sitting third going into the second half of the season and I’m not letting off. We’re not letting off and we’re going to keep going until the end. We’re going to keep battling and we’re going to make this place hell for other teams to come and play.

“I’m really happy. We are so far off where I expect us to be. These boys are proving me wrong every single game and we’ve got to keep on going. If we can mirror the same performance that we put in the first half of the season then who knows where it came take us?

“We’ve just got to keep focussed and do what we’re doing and have to respect for nobody and go to anywhere and get three points.

“I think you know me by now. We don’t put any pressure on ourselves. We just keep going and see where it takes us at the end of the season.

“When the predictions came out, Fisher was going to finish fourteenth. We’re smiling about it. Our target at the start of the season was 40 points. To get it very quick was really, really good and we’ve just got to keep going and see where it takes us.”

VCD Athletic remain at the summit in this ninth-tier division with 45 points from their 20 (of 38) league games.

Faversham Town remain in second-place with 43 points from 18 games and are joined in the play-off zone by Fisher (41 points from 22 games), Larkfield & New Hythe (35 points from 22 games) and Punjab United (34 points from 20 games).

The rest of the top 10 include Holmesdale (33 points from 24 games), Corinthian (30 points from 19 games), Glebe (30 points from 20 games), Erith & Belvedere (29 points from 21 games) and Rusthall (28 points from 20 games).

Fisher host Danny Lye’s Larkfield & New Hythe here next Saturday in another vital six-pointer clash.

“We went there and we drew two-all. I thought we dominated the game at their place and some decisions went against us. We managed to claw ourselves back from 2-0 down to get 2-2. This time we’ll be ready for them and we’ll be waiting for them,” said Ashanike.

“I went to the board and I said ‘what’s the expectation?’  It’s nothing! I was told to ‘just go and play and enjoy football and just entertain the crowd’ and that’s all we’re doing.  We just want to entertain and see where it takes us.

“If it takes us to where it takes us, we’ll be happy with it but for now we’re just going to enjoy every moment of it.

“This is a fantastic great club with good people around it.  I’m working extra hard this year, just for the fans and the board and for everyone connected with Fisher.

“When we were absolutely bad on the pitch, the fans were still there watching us, they were still coming to away games. They were still cheering the boys up. All these good times we’re having now, it’s for them, it’s for them and that’s in our team talk.

“Real people pay real money to come and watch us and we have to appreciate that. Not many clubs at Step Five get this type of turn out every single week. Fisher is a massive club, a sleeping giant club and we’re about to wake it up this season, we’re about to wake it up!”

Fisher: Isaac Ogunseri, Donald Macaulay, Edward Sata, Salim Nassor (Daniel Irving 90), Ange Djadja, Mayvin Vigneswaran, Courtney Barrington (Daniel Flemming 90), Flavio Jumo, Kesna Clarke (Jacob Katonia 72), Charles Yiadom-Konadu (Halim Bakre 82), Jake Lovell (Omotunmise Akanni 66).

Goals: Charles Yiadom-Konadu 53, Omotunmise Akanni 81, Jacob Katonia 90

Booked: Charles Yiadom-Konadu 55, Flavio Jumo 63, Jacob Katonia 87

Glebe: Justin Lee, Paul Lee, Kelvin Bakare, Femi Ogunbiyi, James Fitchett, Robert Gillman (Marcus Travers 75), Joshua Jackson (Asanti Amoah 58), Alex Arif (Zak Loveridge 75), Jamie Philpot, Reggie Rye (Matthew Self 58), Harvey Mead (Louis Duckering 88).

Booked: Robert Gillman 23

Temporary Dismissal: Jamie Philpot 90

Attendance: 254
Referee: Mr Connor Wood
Assistants: Mr Alexis Stacchini & Mr Martin Quinn