Lisney tells big-spending Croydon Athletic: Do NOT under-estimate us!

Sunday 28th March 2010

FISHER boss Gary Lisney says his underdogs are ready to send Ryman League Division One South leaders Croydon Athletic crashing out of the London Senior Cup on Wednesday night, writes Stephen McCartney.

Croydon Athletic have showed a complete lack of respect towards Fisher, as they haven’t even listed the game on their first-team fixture list on their official club website, in what is a first team fixture for all clubs.

That will be all the ammunition that Lisney will need to motivate his players ahead of the quarter-final clash at Champion Hill - but the Bulmers Cider Kent League club have an even bigger motivation as the winners will travel to Blue Square Premier giants AFC Wimbledon in the semi-finals, which will surely help the finances.

The Fish treat the London Senior Cup as their FA Cup as the Champion Hill based club were re-formed too late to register for any FA competitions, but they were invited by the London Football Association to enter the competition as they only had the Kent League Cup to play for.

The unpaid side have saved their better performances for the London Senior Cup as routine wins over Kingsbury London Tigers and Haringey Borough were followed by shocking Cray Wanderers in the last round.

Ian Jenkins named a full-strength squad for the game - apart from a youth-team player at right-back - and thought they were heading through, courtesy of Leigh Bremner and George Porter scoring in extra time.

Colin Luckett also missed a penalty, but Cray defender Mark Willy scored an own-goal before defender Lloyd Boateng smashed home a last-gasp leveller and Fisher went on to win 4-3 on penalties.

With such a big prize awaiting the winners, Lisney will issue a rallying cry to his squad to pull off another shock win over a Croydon Athletic side that are topping the Ryman League Division One South table and are spending big-money in the process.

“David and Goliath! I don’t know what their wage bill is but good luck to them!” Lisney told www.kentishfootball.co.uk, ahead of their biggest game of the season.

“We’ve been there before as a football club (as Fisher Athletic) and as long as you can sustain it then good luck to them.

“But at the end of the day we’ll come into that game, it’s 90 minutes, 11-versus-11 and if the ball bounces right in your favour a couple of times, who knows?”

The Fisher boss has told supporters not to leave Champion Hill early - as his side has a habit of scoring late goals - just ask Cray Wanderers and Erith Town!

“Don’t leave until the end because our lot won’t give up until the end. We’ll keep going until the final whistle,” added Lisney.

It would be fair to say that Ryman League clubs treat County Cup competitions as a chance to give bench warmers a game - or to give younger players a chance to impress.

But Lisney said: “I know (Croydon Athletic manager) Tim O’Shea very well, he used to coach with me when I was working down at Millwall and I consider him a good footballing friend, so he won’t take us lightly.

“We’d be more than happy for Croydon to send down their under 16s, we’ll play them,” he added.

“But knowing Tim as I do, it’s a quarter-final, it’s a big game to get in the semi-final for the winners, so I’m sure they’ll give it every respect and I’m sure they will give our players due respect.”

Performing on the bigger stage can assist players to even greater things.

An example of this has to be Chris Smalling, who, whilst on the books for Ryman Premier League side Maidstone United, was spotted whilst playing for England Schoolboys and Fulham snapped him up before selling him to Manchester United.

Michael Scott, an eighteen-year-old, has been offered a six-week trial for League Two outfit Barnet, whilst on trial for England Schoolboys and playing for Kent Schools and Ryman One South side Chatham Town.

And on an lesser scale, striker Marcus Cassius was sold by Erith Town to Blue Square South side Bromley for a reported £3,000 - after scoring 44 goals for the Kent League club last season, which included a quick-fire hat-trick in a 3-0 win at AFC Wimbledon in the London Senior Cup.

“I’ve said to my players, ‘who wants to play in front of two thousand fans?” said Lisney.

“I don’t know what they’re going to get (for the semi-final tie), but I say to them every week, you never know whose watching. There’s every chance to go and impress - but we’ve got to get there first!”

With Fisher Athletic winning the London Senior Cup five times in the past, Lisney wants his side to create history and go all the way this season.

He said: “We’d like to keep that going, of course we would! There’s a lot of players who haven’t been apart of a Fisher Cup winning side - they’d like to be!

“Once your name’s down on the history books of the club people can’t change that. There’s a lot of young players who’d love to see their name on a Cup under the Fisher name.”

Meanwhile, the Fisher board have resisted raising admission prices for this game, so they will remain at £5 (adults), £3 (concessions) and £1 (under 16s).

www.kentishfootball.co.uk will be covering this game.

Visit Fisher’s website: www.fisherfc.co.uk

Fisher v Croydon Athletic

London Senior Cup Quarter-Final

Wednesday 31st March 2010

Kick Off 7:45pm

At Champion Hill Stadium, Dog Kennel Hill, Edgar Kail Way, East Dulwich, London SE22 8BD