We're expecting a tough game against East Preston, warns Fisher boss Steve Firkins

FISHER boss Steve Firkins admits he doesn’t know anything about their FA Cup opponents on Saturday.


The Fish welcome Sussex County League side East Preston to Champion Hill in an Extra Preliminary Round tie worth a useful £1,000 to the winner in prize money, which will come in useful to the Kent Hurlimann Football League club especially as they pay Dulwich Hamlet £300 in rent each game.

East Preston, which is situated near Littlehampton, West Sussex, won their opening game 7-0 on Saturday, with an away win over Hailsham Town, courtesy of goals from Joe Shelley (2), Shaun Charles, Jordan Clark, Matt Axell, Joe Stokes and Billy Rayner.

When asked what he knows about the Sussex County League Division One (top-flight) side, Firkins, 55, replied, “Absolutely nothing at all!  I don’t even know where East Preston is!  Sussex somewhere?

“The thing is I think they’ve got promoted last year, so I’ve been told.  We’re expecting a tough game.  Every game is going to be tough for us. We’re a new side, quite a young side.  It is a bit of a learning curve for us, but like I said we will try to play football and try and get the ball down as much as possible.  If teams don’t let us do that we have to find another way around it.

“It is all part of our learning at the moment.”

Early leaders, East Preston, are at home to Shoreham tonight.

“I think every team would like a good Cup run, especially the FA Cup.  We’ve got to prepare ourselves for Saturday.

“We’ll train tonight and Thursday and go through a few passages of play and try and lift ourselves for Saturday. 

“We don’t know nothing about East Preston other than they got promoted last year so they’ll be keen to come here and do well.”

Fisher opened their campaign with a 1-1 draw at Tunbridge Wells before going down to a 1-0 defeat to Erith Town last night.

The Dockers clinched the points in front of 91 fans at Champion Hill after Harry Montgomery was fouled in the box by right-back Danny Taylor, who collected his second yellow card and substitute midfielder, Marcos Perona, 31, converted the 76^th minute penalty to win the game for Tony Russell’s side.

Firkins revealed Stefan Dixon will slot into the side during Taylor’s pending suspension.

He said: “We’ve got Stefan Dixon, he’s missed one match (through suspension).  I didn’t include him last night because it was a little bit harsh on the lad but to be fair it was hard to change the squad because we played really well on Saturday, plus he’s only just come back off holiday.  He’s only had one training session since he’s come back.  Obviously he’ll be in the next couple of games.”

But Firkins has taken the positives out of their opening two league games of the new campaign.

He said: “My players showed us, hopefully we can compete against the bigger clubs.

“I’ve got a good group there, they’ll all work for eachother.  That’s all you can ask for as a manager.”

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

Fisher  v  East Preston
The FA Cup (with Budweiser) Extra Preliminary Round
Saturday 11th August 2012
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Champion Hill Stadium, Edgar Kail Way, Dog Kennel Hill, East Dulwich, London SE22 8BD

Article published: 13:00 – Tuesday 7 August 2012