Kentish Football 
More Kent League clubs will go amateur as crowds don't warrant wage bills, warns Fisher boss
Wednesday 15th December 2010
FISHER manager Gary Lisney warns more Kent League sides will be forced to turn amateur due to the shortage of money, writes Stephen McCartney.
The Fish ended a run of seven straight defeats with a morale boosting 2-1 win away to arch-rivals Beckenham Town on Monday night, courtesy of two goals from diminutive eighteen-year-old central midfielder Halusi Mastafa.
Fisher travel to Erith & Belvedere on Saturday sitting in eleventh place in the Safety Net Associates Kent League table with a record of four wins and two draws from 13 league outings.
Erith & Belvedere suffered their fifth league defeat of the season last night, going down 2-1 to Hythe Town, and Micky Collins’ side had Paul Gross red-carded for picking up two yellows.
The Deres are third-from-bottom in the table with three wins and one draw from nine games and Lisney, who was speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk said: “I think it’s a little bit too early to judge really. They’ve had pretty decent Cup runs and they haven’t played that many league games so their league position is probably a little bit false.
“We played them down at our place a few weeks ago and it was a fairly even game to be fair. I’m expecting a fairly even game and a difficult game on Saturday, should it be on.
“But hopefully after Monday night my players will turn up on Saturday full of confidence, full of beans and hoping to put in a similar performance.”
Reflecting on their campaign to date, Lisney added: “We’ve been really hot and cold to be fair. We’ve had a little bit of a transition period getting some players in.”
Fisher are in their second season after coming out of the ashes of Fisher Athletic, who were wound up over an unpaid tax bill in April 2009.
“We had a squad last year that we sort of pulled together to see the season out,” reflected Lisney.
“Some of them weren’t quite what we wanted ultimately and we’ve worked really hard to get a few more bodies in with the type of player I’m looking for and it will take a bit of time for people to gel in, bed in and to understand what we want and what we expect and what we’re looking for.
“Saturday (losing to basement side Sporting Bengal) you could argue we were a million miles away and gone backwards and against Beckenham you could argue that I can see where we’re going and we are making progress.”
When asked what the club need to be challenging for Kent League honours, the Fisher boss replied, “That’s a very difficult question to be fair. Football’s generally is going in the direction of a non-paying budget and more and more teams will end up in that situation and that will probably even things out a little bit.
“Having said that I think the League is more competitive this year than last frankly and I think it’s a better league than it was last.
“I don’t buy into the concept that no-ones paying no money as I certainly know teams are. I think more and more teams will have to go down that road simply because the attendances don’t warrant wage bills. It’s nice if you’ve got a benefactor or a sponsor.
“I think more and more teams will end up without a budget so I think the levels will iron out a little bit. It will probably take another couple of seasons yet and the teams that do have a budget will always be stronger than the teams that don’t.”
Lisney is keen on improving his side for the rest of the season.
He said: “Rest of the season we’ll continue to build. We’ve got no grand designs to think we’re going to be shooting up the league but if we can continue to improve and continue to work on getting players in we will do so because I generally believe we are going in the right direction, albeit a little bit slower I want but beggers can’t be choosers unfortunately.”
Visit Fisher’s website: www.fisherfc.co.uk
Erith & Belvedere v Fisher
Safety Net Associates Kent League
Saturday 18th December 2010
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Park View Road, Welling, Kent DA16 1SY
Red Dragon I.T. Ltd