Beckenham Town 1-2 Fisher - Billy Hensman's got a fantastic future in front of him, says Martin Ford

Monday 06th May 2013

BECKENHAM TOWN 1-2 FISHER
Kent Hurlimann Football League
Bank Holiday Monday 6^th May 2013
Stephen McCartney reports from Eden Park Avenue

FISHER co-manager Martin Ford praised his injured goalkeeper Billy Hensman for making a string of outstanding saves after his side completed a smash-and-grab raid to claim the bragging rights over bitter rivals Beckenham Town.

Despite the 17-year-old keeper playing with a knee injury, Hensman prevented a dominant Beckenham Town side from racking up a cricket score during a one-sided first half that somehow finished all-square at the break.

Beckenham Town, who completed their Kent Hurlimann Football League campaign on 40 points from 32 games, finishing in a disappointing eleventh-place, opened the scoring in the 12^th minute through striker Damien Ramsamy, before it turned to be the Hensman one-man show.

But Fisher grabbed an unlikely equaliser when Danny Willis scored a quality strike from the outside of his right-foot to claw his side back from the dead seven minutes before half-time.

Fisher came out a completely different side during the second half and as their hosts tired in the scorching Bank Holiday Monday heat, Harvey Hanifan powered a winning header into the corner with six minutes left to snatch Fisher the three points to finish their campaign in the bottom-four with 28 points.

“I don’t think that we could’ve played any worse as we did first half,” admitted Ford afterwards.

“Young Billy Hensman, who played today, wasn’t even 50% fit, let alone anywhere near 100%. He was outstanding first half and kept us in it.

“Second half, as I said to the boys at half-time, we couldn’t play any worse and we came out with a bit more determination and changed our system and we got some fresh legs on. After 15 minutes of the second half I just felt we looked stronger as the game went on.”

Beckenham Town coach, Darren Anslow, also praised Fisher’s show-stopping keeper.

“To be fair to the boy, he made some outstanding saves,” he said. “We realised early doors that he couldn’t kick. We sort of tried to play on that and stopped them from playing out. We were winning a lot of first and second balls but in fairness to him he’s pulled off three, four, five saves. He’s handling was really good. Fair play to him. He’s had a great game.”

Reflecting on their fourteenth league defeat of the season, Anslow said: “It probably sums us up after the last five or six games with exception of the VCD game. Same at Erith & Belvedere, same here today. We’re creating chances but we’re just not finishing games off. If you want to be challenging and getting to cup finals that’s what you’ve got to do.

“I think the first half, in fairness to our young keeper Sam (Percival), both goalkeeper’s were young today, he’s made a decent save in the first half, but the reality is I don’t think it would be unfair to say we could’ve come in three or four one up and whether they could come back from that, I don’t know.

“Second half we probably didn’t create as many chances. We were still in the ascendancy. In fairness to them they stayed in the game, they defended well, got bodies behind the ball and we got sort of sucker-punched with five minutes to go.”

The Beckenham Town supporters in the sun-kissed crowd of 195 wondered just how they lost the game.

Ford continued his praise of heroic Hensman and said: “He’s had a knee injury now for the best part of five weeks because he’s involved in the Academy side and the youth side and the first team and their all pushing for bits and pieces. He’s had to play every game.

“Alex Hyde, who was cover, left us to play somewhere else. We’ve had to get Bill through five games a week and it’s really caught up with him now. The kid couldn’t even kick a ball today. He couldn’t even jump up out of his feet. He’s pulled off some fantastic one-on-one saves. The kid’s got a fantastic future in front of him.”

Beckenham Town created their first chance after only 87 seconds when left-back Byron Beard looped a throw into the penalty area for Alfie Nunn to send his header bouncing into Hensman’s gloves from fifteen-yards, which was to be one of the keeper’s comfortable saves.

Fisher’s first half defending, however, was woeful and Billy Walton lost possession to Ramsamy down the flank and the striker played the ball inside to Nunn, whose right-footed angled drive forced Hensman into making a low save to his right.

Beckenham Town’s deservedly opened the scoring when right-back Jamie Turner clipped a free-kick down the line, which sailed over Mark Lewis’ head, and Nunn took the ball on before cutting the ball back to Ramsamy, who swept a first time left-footed shot in of the foot of the near post and into the net.

Anslow was delighted with the start and said: “Great finish from Damien! I thought today that happened a few times that we got in behind them and pulled the ball back. A great finish for the goal. We got into that position three or four times and we didn’t really capitalise on that. It’s more than frustrating, especially when it’s four or five weeks.”

Ford said: “We got caught the wrong side. Mark Lewis has held his hands up afterwards. He was slightly ball watching but a great knock down the line. He got in behind us. It was a great finish! I can’t complain about that one really. Maybe if we could’ve got our centre half over a little bit quicker to shut the cross down but fair play. We had to pick ourselves up after that and we went the other way. It could’ve been four, five, six!”

Another looped throw from skipper Beard was met by Frankie Warren’s free-header and Hensman stuck out his right arm to push the ball around the top of the post.

Fisher had to wait until the 19^th minute to create their first opportunity, which produced a great save from Beckenham Town’s goalkeeper.

Sam Percival, the club’s programme editor and photographer, should have got his camera out and taken photographs of the action in front of him because he had nothing to do up until this point.

Right-back Adam Wadmore, who was later forced off with a knee injury, played the ball inside to Richie Monan, who released Willis down the right, who whipped in a low cross and Sam Ryan ghosted in and his driven shot was blocked by Percival’s foot as he dived to his right.

Hensman was called into action again when Wilkes’ corner from the right came out to the edge of the box to Gio Fullone, who exchanged a one-two with Nunn before he stroked a right-footed drive from 20-yards, which forced Hensman to dive to his right to beat the shot away.

Another corner from Wilkes was met by a free glancing header from Louis Sprossen, which was cleared off the line.

Hensman made a world-class save in the 28^th minute when Turner floated over a cross from the right and striker Nunn powered a towering header towards the top corner but Hensman dived to his left and stuck out his right hand to push the ball over for a corner.

Hensman was relieved when Nunn stroked a right-footed free-kick narrowly over the crossbar from 26-yards.

The lively Ramsamy exchanged a one-two with Fullone to reach the by-line before he cut the ball back to Wilkes, who swept a first time shot which was saved by Hensman at the near post.

Fisher failed to pick up the unmarked Jordan Clark inside the box when he swept a right-footed volley just over, after another free-kick into the area by Turner.

However, despite all of Beckenham’s dominance and chances, Fisher grabbed an unlikely equaliser in the 38^th minute.

Central midfielder Jason Mabbs released winger Hanifan with a fine left-footed pass and the winger played the ball over to Willis, who produced a quality finish with the outside of his right-boot flashing across Percival to crash the ball into the bottom far corner of the net.

Ford praised his versatile goalscorer and said: “That’s what Dan does. Dan’s one of those players that can play anywhere in the side. He’s been playing centre half, centre midfield, in front of the back four and right-back. Dan’s just one of those footballers that wants to put a pair of boots on and just go and play.

“A fantastic finish and as Dan said maybe on another pitch that would’ve bobbled away from him or whatever but on the carpet down here he’s just hit it with the outside of the foot. It was a great strike!

“We needed it. We was down. We couldn’t play. We was looking for excuses. Everyone looked like they wanted to blame everybody else and the goal maybe picked us up just before half-time.”

Anslow added: “It’s a decent finish. They’ve hung in the game and they’ve probably got their goalkeeper to thank for still being in it.

“In fairness to Martin and Bill (Walton), they’re a lot more organised than they were a few weeks ago, even though they haven’t really been beaten out of sight this season. From the beginning they’ve been in games and they just showed a bit of spirit. They kept in the game and they nicked an equaliser and when you’re playing a game and you should be five or five up and you let a team back in, I suppose for three or four minutes you’ve got to get back.”

Fisher’s central defender Walton was having a nightmare during the first half and he was defending too deep when Turner clipped the ball over the top of the Fisher defence and kept Warren onside before the Beckenham midfielder’s right-footed angled drive was pushed away by the diving Hensman.

Another cross from Wilkes, who was Beckenham’s best player before he was forced off with a knee injury, was met by Malik Forfana’s free-header, but the central defender was denied by Hensman.

Ford was clearly upset with his side’s body language during the first half and admitted afterwards: “We wasn’t at the races. We kept getting done with the long ball over the top and we rectified it a little bit by changing the shape of the side and made it little bit hard for them.

“I was saying with ten minutes to go, I just wanted to get those boys in the changing room. We needed a pick-me-up. We needed to re-organise. We needed players to realise what jobs they were doing but they wasn’t. They were strolling around blaming everyone else. We went to 4-4-2, gave everyone a job to do and it worked. Sometimes it does, sometimes it don’t!”

When asked what he felt during the break, Anslow replied, “I thought half-time for us it’s just a case of doing what we’re doing. We’re creating chances. Hopefully one will fall and we’d stick it in the back of the net but it just wasn’t to be!”

Anslow admitted his side should have racked up a cricket score by the half-time interval.

“You don’t like to say that but it’s probably a fair reflection,” he said.

“We could’ve been out of sight really but the mood at half-time was we’ve given them a goal back. We discussed what we felt our faults were for the goal in terms of defensively as a unit. We dealt with that straight away and we had to keep on doing what we were doing and we’ll get something here, but they kept in the game.”

Ford was clearly upset by his side’s poor first half performance, but he revealed how he turned it around.

It appeared that a totally different eleven players took to the field in black and white striped shirts, such was the turnaround in Fisher’s performance and attitude during a much better second half.

Ford said: “I was so relieved to get them in at half-time one-all. It was just a question of firing into them really just to tell them how important the game was and try and get us back out. We couldn’t play any worse.”

Ford admitted his side needed the hairdryer treatment, which contained plenty of swear words!

“They needed it today,” he insisted. “The lads looked like they just didn’t turn up in the first half, whether it was the hype around the game or what I don’t know because I’m not used to these Beckenham-Fisher derbies! I’m used to other derbies.

“I just said to them at half-time we’re just embarrassing ourselves in front of a decent crowd today.

“We’ve come so far, we’ve dug ourselves out of the bottom of the league when we joined here, got ourselves up to fourth-from-bottom and we were letting ourselves down today.

“I just said we needed to go out and play a little bit better second half and try to make the fans start singing, which we got. We came out, we started much better first 10 minutes and I thought the game was starting to tick our way.”

Beckenham Town did create a decent chance inside the opening seven minutes when Clark’s free-kick was knocked down by his central defensive partner Forfana and Ramsamy’s low right-footed volley only just missed the foot of the right-hand post.

The turning point seemed to be when Wilkes was forced off through injury and Fisher were given an easier time, followed by Beckenham Town manager Jason Huntley being asked to leave the technical area for something that he said to assistant referee Orville Bentley.

“I think what I’m lead to believe, he’s had a previous knee injury and that’s a reoccurrence of that,” Anslow said of Wilkes’ injury.

“He’s dangerous. The thing with Alex he’s very quick and I don’t think he realises how quick he is. Really at times you want him knocking the ball past that last defender. At times he checks and comes back. He’s scored a lot of goals for us this season. He’s a decent player. If you lose someone like Alex it can change the game but in fairness to us today that was a strong bench. If you look at the players on our bench there was a lot of experience today so you expect players to be able to step in.”

Halfway through the second half, Turner hit an over-hit free-kick from the right by-line, which was retrieved by striker Nunn, who cut the ball back to Forfana who leaned back and sent his right-footed angled drive high over the Fisher bar.

Sprossen whipped in a cross from the right and Ramsamy nipped in front of his marker before steering his right-footed shot into the foot of the side netting.

A lay-off from Ramsamy down the left teed up a chance for Nunn, who stroked his right-footed shot into Hensman’s arms, before Sprossen played in Ramsamy, who was denied by Hensman’s feet.

But Fisher went agonisingly close to grabbing a winner in the final eighteen minutes.

Lewis, who was pushed further forward after the introduction of substitute left-back Jake Palladino, linked up well with Monan and Willis, who rode Sprossen’s challenge inside the box, and the loose ball fell to Lewis who swept his angled left-footed shot across Percival and the ball rolled just wide of the far post.

“We played a lot of youngsters down at Greenwich Borough and today we went with the most experienced side that we had signed on,” explained Ford.

“We brought the youngsters on. The young left back who came on Jake Palladino and I think he had 20 touches of the ball and never gave it away once and what Mark Lewis done today, what we wasn’t doing down the left-hand side was we wasn’t running at people. The system that we play dominates that the two wide players get forward to support the centre forward and Mark done that second half.

“He plays with his heart and he throws himself in there and he just changed the game a little bit because we were a little bit more direct and we kept him on the back foot and they couldn’t play out and that’s the most important thing.”

Nunn’s diagonal pass was picked up by Ramsamy, who cut in from the left before cracking a right-footed drive from 20-yards, which was saved low down by man-of-the-match Hensman.

Despite out-playing Fisher for 75 minutes, Beckenham tired in the heat and Fisher went for the kill.

Anslow explained why that was the case.

He said: “In fairness we’ve not had due to weather and training restrictions, we really haven’t had the boys together as a unit since November and you can’t do that. We’re turning up and just playing and at this level of football you’ve got to train. You have to be a team. You have got to be a club. You’ve got to turn up and play and that’s something that we need to change really.”

Ford added: “I just felt towards the end that we just looked a lot fitter than them. I just felt our fitness came through in the heat today. They started dropping off us and once they drop off us then we might cause them problems.”

Substitute Danny Akers issued Beckenham a warning when he delivered a free-kick towards the far post and a stretching Walton ghosted in and somehow volleyed wide of the post from one-yard out.

Fisher felt they had scored the winner with only ten minutes to go but the goal was disallowed.

Mabbs swept in a free-kick into the penalty area and Lewis powered a bullet header into the top left-hand corner from fifteen-yards, but referee Ryan Whitaker disallowed the goal for a foul.

Ford said: “I probably wouldn’t be having a go at him at full-time if it was a draw. I just said to him (referee) what was his thoughts and he (referee) said there was a push from our nine, Danny Willis on one of their players. No-one saw it. Danny said he didn’t push anyone!”

Anslow added: “It’s a decent header, a decent finish. From where I was I heard the whistle go when he went up for the header.”

But two eighteen-year-olds played their part in Fisher stealing the victory four minutes later.

Akers was given time and space on the right to whip in a cross into the penalty area and the ball glanced off Clark before Hanifan thumped his header across Percival to find the far corner from 12-yards.

Ford revealed: “Danny (Akers) was a tough call for me today. Danny’s been outstanding since I’ve been at Fisher Football Club. He’s got a great future in front of him as a young lad. He was gutted to be left out because this is his old club Beckenham Town, but I just felt that Danny might come on second half and give us some fresh energy. He hits great diagonals from the half-way line.

“We started with Adam Wadmore first half today because we felt Adam would defend a little bit better. We expected them to come at us earlier on.”

Wadmore cast a frustrated figure towards his team-mates during the first half and Ford added: “Adam really needs to rest up. He’s got a sore knee. He wanted to play today, another one of his old clubs so I gave him a start. I think the adrenalin got a little bit better of him in the second half and he hit a couple of sloppy passes down the line.”

Anslow was disappointed with the manner that Fisher grabbed the winner.

The full-time Cray Wanderers Academy coach said: “They probably even scored the winner against the run of play!

“When the move started I think we probably had a chance to clear it earlier and we didn’t’ clear our lines and we tried to play. We got caught, the ball was played out and to be fair to Akers it’s a decent deliver and he’s (Hanifan) got in front of the defender and he’s finished well. It’s a decent goal from their point of view.

“I wasn’t here at the start of the season but I believe there was a similar finish at their place but the other way around where Beckenham nicked it in the last couple of minutes so maybe they feel that it’s probably evened itself out today.”

Shell-shocked Beckenham Town created a trio of late chances to restore parity.

Sprossen cut the ball back to Ramsamy, who curled his left-footed shot around the far post.

Hensman deserved a slice of luck when his clearance ricochet off the advancing Sprossen and the ball bounced wide – after Lewis played a ball back to him.

And Turner pumped a long ball straight through the middle to put through Warren, but he dinked the ball into the ground and this took the sting out of the shot and Hensman dived to his left to hold on to the ball.

Beckenham Town: Sam Percival, Jamie Turner, Byron Beard (Elstrom Die 74), Malik Forfana, Jordan Clark, Alex Wilkes (Jake Britnell 51), Frankie Warren, Louis Sprossen, Damian Ramsamy, Alfie Nunn, Gio Fullone (Danny Tipple 54).
Sub: Nathan Paul

Goal: Damian Ramsamy 12

Booked: Damian Ramsamy 18, Jake Britnell 58, Frankie Warren 86

Sent Off: Jason Huntley 60 (manager)

Fisher: Billy Hensman, Adam Wadmore (Danny Akers 70), Mark Lewis, Billy Walton, Ben Frempah, Sam Ryan (Bryan Zepo 76), Richie Monan, Jason Mabbs, Danny Willis, Sam Friskey (Jake Palladino 55), Harvey Hanifan.
Subs: Paul Turner, Benga Ogonseye

Goals: Danny Willis 38, Harvey Hanifan 84

Booked: Adam Wadmore 30, Billy Walton 42, Jason Mabbs 61, Jake Palladiono 66

Attendance: 195
Referee: Mr Ryan Whitaker (Bexleyheath)
Assistants: Mr Orville Bentley (Lewisham, London SE13) & Mr Martin Cook (Sidcup)