The was no cup magic under the lights at Champion Hill this time. Photograph: Jacopo Maino
Fisher battled hard against Corinthian but were unable to make the breakthrough against a well-drilled defence, and bowed out of the Macron Premier Division Cup.
Corinthian arrived at Champion Hill with a 2-0 lead from the first leg, and were content to hold what they had. They were able to do so successfully as the Fish worked their socks off but for little reward.
Corinthian in fact had the ball in the net inside six minutes, but the goal was ruled out as a flying boot caught George Beavan in the build up. Fisher then forced two saves from Corinthian keeper Dan Bygrave as Danny Tipple fired in a free kick, and Peter Afolayan neatly controlled the ball and smashed a right-footed drive.
The visitors were then extremely lucky to keep eleven men on the pitch as Ben Wilson’s studs-up lunge on Frankie Warren was deemed only worthy of a yellow card. The crowd were expecting a red as Warren was left in agony by the challenge, but Wilson got the benefit of the doubt. Fortunately Warren recovered and went on to have an excellent game in midfield.
Jamie Humphris nearly rounded keeper Bygrave on 30 minutes after excellent work from Afolayan, but he just wasn’t able to keep control of the ball. Chan Quan went on a brilliant run, beating two men, but his shot was fired wide. It was good stuff from the Fish, but quality where it mattered was lacking and Corinthian began to sense that they would be able to keep the home team at bay.
It was more of the same after half time, as Fisher pushed forward and dominated possession and territory. But despite the pressure, Fisher were unable to fashion any clear-cut chances and as time began to run out it was Corinthian who had the better opportunities to score. Joe Hagan kept them out with some fine stops, and Fisher worked right up until the final whistle.
In the end though, Fisher’s hard work and commitment were not enough to break down Corinthian who went deservedly through to the semi-finals. The Fish are left to concentrate on securing a place towards the top of the league, starting with a tough trip to Tunbridge Wells on Saturday.
Fisher: Hagan, Monan, Tipple, Warren, Beavan, Walton, Quan (Jarrett-Elliott 65), Wadmore (Wilson-Joseph 76), Afolayan, Humphris, Hubbard (Sisson 46)
Subs: Helps, Hensman
Attendance: 110
The fattest centre forward I’ve ever seen played in the 4-1-4-1 system for Corinthian. They stopped Fish from playing their style but then Fish did not really change to help themselves. Final ball was lacking for the Fish and as most of their players are short and quick, anything thrown up in the air was gobbled up. The Asian player for the fish I liked, ran everywhere and really wanted the ball when going forward showed a good attitude.
Really though, they need personnel in the right positions to play the style they needed to play.
Valiant but not good enough.
Posted by Honesty | January 24, 2012, 8:14 amAgreed – Corinthian were far too comfortable for my liking and definately have our number at the moment. We ran out of ideas all too soon. I’m still a big fan of Pete who was at the heart of all our best moments but he needs support. We didn’t feed our wingers enough and played too many square balls. We missed Turners creativity. Once again we looked alright at the back and Bevan is proving a shrewd signing. Anyway detailed report below with lots of ‘says it how it is’ quotes from the gaffer.
http://www.kentishfootball.co.uk/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7555&Itemid=40
Posted by Joe | January 24, 2012, 8:59 amCertainly no shortage of effort on and off the pitch, but all a bit anxious in the box really. Corinthian did a professional job (you be the judge as to whether the gamesmanship, time wasting and all the rest of it is appropriate in a Step 5 tournament), but we’ve got to use the frequent good positions we get ourselves in better.
And yes, Lee Barnett is a porker, but it’s his goals that made the difference in this tie.
I didn’t think the game was as bad as Stevey Mac says it was – given the context it always had the “if we can get one” promise.
Nice touch at the end with the players again recognising the support in the shed.
Posted by fishertim | January 24, 2012, 9:42 amIt is sad that everything bad about the Premier League has infiltrated even this level of football.
7/8 years ago when I first got into non league football I found it so refreshing to see each team line up 4-4-2 and go out to win the game. Games were honest affairs – players got up straight away from challenges and only stayed down if they were actually hurt. Now too many teams are playing negative formations, going down like a sack of sh*t feigning injury if any side find themselves in advantageous positions with the ball,also too many over-bearing appeals – I could go on. This win at all costs attitude leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
I don’t wish Corinthian any luck in the next round – I hope they get absolutely battered !
Posted by Joe | January 24, 2012, 10:03 am“I don’t wish Corinthian any luck in the next round – I hope they get absolutely battered !”
I always thought that Fish was battered!
Posted by a j | January 25, 2012, 8:23 amFor the most part we dominated the possession and actually created a fair number of openings, if not so many clear cut chances, but again we just could not take them. We don’t have much aerial threat up front, so more low whipped in crosses would have been good to see, but perhaps credit is due to Corinthian for closing down our wide play. Peter looked lively and hit a few on target, but perhaps should have looked for other options a couple of times in the second half. Much of the game had the feeling of ‘if one goes in we’ll do this’ though , and we were very unlucky with the 1 on 1 created last in the first half, the (un)lucky deflection saving Corinthian.
The improvement in defence of late should be noted, and perhaps deserves more praise than is being given, although of course fans are always going to be distracted by such a drought up front. There was a lot of great effort out there again last night, and full marks to Frankie for not losing it with the bloke who made the high, studs up tackle which brought only a yellow from the ref and a chorus of disapproval from the groundhopper section, who in spite of their neutrality, rightly demanded a red.
Of course Corinthian only needed to defend on the night, but they only created a couple of decent chances when we started to push more frantically second half (well, except for the studs up lunge at the keeper in that early goal mouth scramble, ruled out much to the chagrin of one Corinthian fellow, who claimed ‘anything goes’ if there’s a goal at the end of it! – though to be fair he did retract that…).
Men of the match were the boys in the shed though – the singing section is improving all the time and making quite an impression it seems – I actually heard the Chan Quan song on both sides of the pitch at one point last night, which was amazing!
Posted by JEV | January 24, 2012, 2:51 pmMuch of what I was going to post has already been said, I do think we miss Danny Hunt Peter and he were a real handful earlier on in the season, just like they were at GB last last season.
Posted by Dave | January 24, 2012, 5:01 pmDisapointing result, can’t fault the work rate, just no end result.Once again the defence stood firm,
but we need to create more, and take any chances we do create.Playing the ball on the deck is
one answer,there’s no point playing high ball’s up to our front players, as obviously we dont have
the strikers to accomodate playing that way.Here’s to concentrating on the league.Come On The
Fish..
Posted by Mark Smith | January 25, 2012, 1:40 pm