Perhaps I set my heights a little too high, admits struggling Fisher boss Steve Firkins

FISHER boss Steve Firkins says he will axe uncommitted players as he comes to terms with a mid-table finish.
The Fish go into their last eleven Kent Hurlimann Football League games of the season sitting in a disappointing ninth place in the table with eight wins four draws and seven defeats, although they are only five points adrift of third-placed Canterbury City.

Despite being a vast improvement on last season when Gary Lisney’s side finished at the foot of the table, Firkins and his assistant Billy Walton predicted a top three finish when they brought their entire Greenwich Borough squad with them to Champion Hill when taking over the reins in the summer.

Firkins, who was speaking after their home goal-less draw with Corinthian on Monday night, which saw them exit the Macron Kent League Cup Quarter-Finals 2-0 on aggregate, demands better from his side.

“I don’t know how I can motivate myself at the moment because I am very down and very disappointed,” he said.

“We’ve got to see what character we’ve got in that changing room now to see out the rest of the season.

“Obviously it was always going to be a big ask for us to come in and do well, perhaps I set my heights a little bit too high. 

“What I can say was I wanted to build a top three team.  I thought we could do that this season but obviously we’re not good enough. 

“The players that I’ve got here are maybe not as good we thought they were and we have to look to restructure for next season.  That’s what we’re looking to do. I think this is what we have to do this season, that’s the challenge to the players if they want to play for this club, their work-rate, commitment, not just to be here on a Saturday, sometimes a lot of them can’t make training through work and that’s unfortunate but it shows.”

Firkins highlighted their 3-1 defeat away to Holmesdale on 19 November last year as the start of their downturn.

Since their defeat at Oakley Road, Fisher have claimed two wins in their last eight games and Firkins admitted his side haven’t recovered.

He said:  “I think over the last two months we’ve been very, very poor.  I’m going back to the defeat against Holmesdale.  They beat us at their place 3-1 and for some reason I don’t think we’ve recovered from that.  It’s been disappointing since the Holmesdale game.  We ain’t been able to turn it round.”

Firkins takes his side to Tunbridge Wells on Saturday and Martin Larkin’s side are smarting from their devastating FA Carlsberg Vase Fourth Round exit at the hands of St Ives Town last weekend.

The Wells were guilty of missing some decent chances in front of 404 fans at Culverden Stadium and Stuart Cobb snatched victory for the Cambridgeshire outfit by scoring the only goal of the game in the last eight minutes.

Unbeaten Herne Bay are thirteen points clear of Erith Town at the top of the table and have twelve games left to play.  Although his side are twenty points adrift of Simon Halsey’s side (and still have to face Herne Bay twice), Larkin hasn’t given up.

He said: “We’ve got some big games now.  We’ve got fifteen league games left.  We know where we want to finish. 

“If we play like (we did against St Ives) week in week out, we’ll win 90% of those games.  We just have to get the lads up, lifted and get the attitude right and move forward.”

Visit Tunbridge Wells’ website: www.tunbridgewellsfc.co.uk  

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

Tunbridge Wells  v  Fisher
Kent Hurlimann Football League
Saturday 28^th January 2012
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Culverden Stadium, Culverden Down, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN4 9SG