Fisher 1 Lordswood 2

Southern Counties East Premier Division, Saturday 5th March

The first weekend of March saw me head south of the river for a Southern Counties East Premier Division tussle at St Pauls in Rotherhithe which saw a superb second half volley from Zak Jakubowski help Lordswood to a first win in over four months at the expense of Fisher on a chilly South London afternoon.

After putting out a tweet on Friday evening suggesting that I was looking for a game on 3/4G due to the amount if rain that was and had fallen over the past 48 hours, several clubs responded.  Fisher boss AJ was one of those to invite me to St Pauls, and after much deliberation I accepted his invite and made my way to South London, or Rotherhithe to be exact.

I got to Rotherhithe at midday so I could try out The Mayflower Pub, which is two minutes walk from Rotherhithe station right on the river, it had been recommended to me by a couple of people and I was not to be disappointed, the Steak and Ale pie was marvellous and I definitely recommend it if your planning to visit the area, it has some lovely views, as I snapped below...

The staff were very friendly, and with heaters outside it wasn't to bad, even on a typical March day in the UK!!! It's very cosy inside too, a marvellous pub which should be visited if you do plan to go to a Fisher game at any point, I'll certainly be heading back there if I do!!!

After my lunch I headed up towards St Paul's Sports Ground but stopped off on route to take a peek at where Fisher's old ground, the Surrey Docks Stadium, once stood, now called Mayflower Park. Fisher Athletic used to play here and some of the old terrace still remains, Athletic went bust in 2009 and Fisher were formed not long afterwards and remain till this day, below are some snaps of what remains of the old ground anyway...

It's a shame I never got to visit this ground when it was in use, but it's nice that some of the old ground still remains till this day, even if small, but certainly an historic piece of land for every Fisher fan I am sure, so it was nice to go and take a look.

Anyway, after that I carried on my merry way to Fisher's current home, this was my second visit to St Pauls, and when I had visited back in October 2020, I had been impressed with the set up there, and this time was no exception, it’s a well-run club and a decent facility to visit too, and many thanks to AJ who had kindly put my name down on the gate, so that saved me some money, thank you.

Of course, that made me want the home side to win as kind gestures like these certainly win your support, and Fisher, in 13^th spot, had lost three straight before the new year, but since January 3^rd they had won three, drawn three, and lost just once, and last time out they held second placed Sheppey United to a 2-2 draw at St Pauls, which was a very good effort as Sheppey had won twenty four of their twenty eight games up till that point as they battle Chatham Town in a two horse race for the title.

Lordswood, who were the visitors in this one, have had a terrible season so far, having only won two games all season, with their last win coming way back on October 30^th, and since then have lost all but two of their fifteen games since, and had lost twenty one of their twenty-seven outings overall and were bottom of the pile, two points behind second bottom Tower Hamlets and seven points from safety too.

So surely this would be a home win? Fisher could have jumped up three places to tenth with a win in this one, whereas a first win in over four months for Lordswood could see them climb off the bottom of the table, and it was also worth noting that the visitors were much changed recently after a change of stewardship and some new personal in the side, and they had certainly looked more competitive in recent games even if the results had not shown that.

Early on it seemed that Lordswood would take control of the contest after they edged ahead on twelve minutes, Grant Brown's wonderful long range effort was superbly tipped onto the crossbar by home keeper Tommy Taylor, but the ball was then recycled back into the box and saw Nat Murray fire home from close range, an the visitors had grabbed the early advantage.

This advantage though was wiped out just before the half hour mark, visiting keeper George Bentley tried to play centre half outside his box and ended up losing the ball to Fisher forward Julio Da Mata, and he found his teammate Vincent Follea around thirty yards from goal, and he duly drilled a lovely effort into the net vaccated by Bentley from that distance, and it meant a very fast paced competitive first period ended all square, it had certainly been an enjoyable watch thus far.

The hosts had started slow in the first period before building some momentum after they levelled, and they carried that momentum in the early exchanges of the second period, thumping one such effort against the post, and also forcing Bentley into a decent stop too, but for all of Fisher's attacking play, they could not find a second goal, and then midway through the second period, the inevitable happened. 

Lordswood attacked down the left and Josh Reid got the ball on that side before producing a wonderful cross into the mixer, and he found striker Jakubowski perfectly to volley a first time finish past Taylor and into the hosts net and see them restore the lead, a lead they were not to relinquish as it turned out.

The visitors thereafter had to withstand a lot of pressure to hold onto that lead though, Fisher struck the woodwork again, and Bentley made another brilliant stop to preserve his sides lead, Fisher's frustrations were clear, and whilst their full back Temi Oladejo received lengthy treatment as the game entered stoppage time, Luke Thomas said too much to the referee and was duly sin binned, meaning the hosts would end the game with ten men.

There was still plenty of stoppage time to come though, almost ten minutes in fact, but the visitors held on to record a first victory in months, a victory that also took them off the foot of the division too, so a good day and maybe some building blocks onto better things for them after an horrendous campaign to date.

It just was not Fishers day today ultimately, they had enough chances to win the game, but fair play to Lordswood who battled gamely for a huge win and a massive three points, so well played to them for achieving this, I certainly enjoyed my day, and also the game too, it was a very entertaining encounter played in cold and at times soggy conditions.

Full time Fisher 1 Lordswood 2

So what else happened in the division today, let's find out...

Results

Crowborough Athletic 4-1 Rusthall

Erith & Belvedere 0-3 Sheppey United

Fisher 1-2 Lordswood

Glebe 0-0 Chatham Town

Hollands & Blair 0-1 Erith Town

Holmesdale 2-1 K Sports

Kennington 5-2 Bearsted

Tower Hamlets 1-3 Welling Town

Tunbridge Wells 4-0 Deal Town

And this is what those results did to the table....

League leaders Chatham Town dropped points in their goalless draw with third placed Glebe, Sheppey took full advantage to go level at the top after they netted victory at sixth placed Erith & Belvedere, and as mentioned Lordswood's first win in over four months sees them climb off the foot of the table after Tower Hamlets lost at home to Welling Town. Wood also close the gap to safety to just four points too after third bottom Rusthall were well beaten at Crowborough Athletic. It's probably between Rusthall, Lordswood and Tower Hamlets for relegation, whereas the top two, Chatham Town and Sheppey United, look pretty secure for promotion to the Isthmian League, it's just who will take the title now.

Anyway a good day it was, I might be blogging from Norway this time next week, but we will see, stay tuned.....