Fisher 2-0 Bearsted - I think there's enough quality in this squad that I haven't even thought about how many points I need to stay up because I'm not worried about not staying up, says Bearsted boss Kevin Stevens

Fisher 2 – 0 Bearsted
Location	St Paul's Stadium, Salter Road, Rotherhithe, London SE16 6NT
Kickoff	08/02/2025 15:00

FISHER  2-0  BEARSTED
Presence & Co Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division
Saturday 8 February 2025
Stephen McCartney reports from St Paul’s Stadium

BEARSTED manager Kevin Stevens says he has enough quality within his squad to not be thinking about being involved in a relegation dog-fight despite sitting in the bottom three and not turning up against promotion-chasing side Fisher.

Fisher leapfrogged over VCD Athletic into second place in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division table – seven points adrift of leaders Faversham Town – after sealing a comfortable 2-0 win.

Striker Kesna Clarke produced a sublime finish to give the hosts the lead with their first attack to notch his 12^th goal of the season.

Fellow attacker Courtney Barrington stroked home his eleventh goal of the season with nine minutes remaining, as Fisher found visiting goalkeeper Frankie Leonard in fine form after the interval.

“It’s always difficult, a difficult place to come.  They’re near the top, second, third, whatever they are and they work really hard, organised really well and we didn’t replicate that and made it easy for them, in my opinion, a lot easier for them,” said Stevens.

Fisher manager Ajay Ashanike added: “Really proud of the boys, really, really proud.  To come away with a clean sheet is really, really good, against a very good side.

“I keep saying it, they’re the best team we’ve played football wise all season.  They play the football in a really beautiful way, their rotation is really, really good and we’ve had to keep our shape, especially after the run that we’ve had.  Keeping our shape was really key today and we done really well with it.”

After holding Faversham Town to a goal-less draw on 11 January, Fisher were held to draws against Kennington (0-0) and Corinthian (2-2) before Whitstable Town claimed a 2-1 win here on Tuesday night.

Fisher were without Charles Yiadom-Konadu (dead leg), Salim Nassor (illness), Edward Sata (hamstring) and Mayvin Vigneswaran (hamstring), while winger Jake Lovell was forced off with a knee injury just before half-time.

Bearsted, meanwhile, won 2-1 at struggling Lordswood on 21 December, before losing to Rusthall (2-4) and Larkfield & New Hythe (1-4), before back-to-back wins over Glebe (5-2 in Kent Senior Trophy) and Holmesdale (5-2) before losing their way following an early tactical switch from Ashanike after 10 minutes.

Stevens revealed he was without five players for their trip to Rotherhithe, including Fraser Daniels (tibia stress fracture), Sam Flisher (hamstring) and Daniel Melvin, who rolled his ankle during a training session last Tuesday.

Bearsted started the game on a front foot and dominated proceedings for the opening 10 minutes.

Centre-half Ryan Blake pinged a long diagonal out of defence and left-winger Jason Banton cut inside and put in a cross with his right-foot into attacking midfielder Samuel Stace, who played the ball out to left-back James Nurden, who dinked a cross from within the left-channel, which was cleared out to holding midfielder Jack Palmby, who cracked a right-footed 25-yarder, which dipped over the crossbar with four minutes and 13 seconds on the clock.

Right-winger Dieko Falade drew a foul from then Fisher left-wing-back Omotumise Akanni and Falade stroked his left-footed free-kick over the four-man wall and Fisher goalkeeper Isaac Ogunseri plucked the ball out of the air with both hands and comfortably gathered at the second attempt (7:35), before dropping down and requesting treatment.

Wing-backs Jack Gibbons and Akanni swapped flanks and Fisher reverted from a back three to a back four, with Tyron Mbuenimo switching to right-back, having originally formed the back three beside Donald Macauley and Ange Djadja.

Ashanike explained: “We wanted to go three at the back because the press has not been great from Kesna (Clarke) the last few weeks but with two up there, they’ve just tried to pick us out of the wide side.

“We had to get back to 4-3-3, which helped us massively today. I think when we went back to our normal formation, I think it really helped us understand a lot.

“We had three at the back so obviously they started to play really good football, picking us out and their rotations were really good and when we went to four, I thought we managed the game really well and we could see everything in front of us and credit to the boys to take on the instructions very well.”

Stevens admitted: “First 10-15 minutes, I thought we started really well and Ajay gets their keeper to go down, which I’ve got no problem with that, changed their shape and do you know what, from them on I thought we struggled, which is a real shame really.

“We just lost our way. As soon as they changed their shape, we stopped doing what we needed to do. We spoke to the guys, they knew once they changed their shape, what we had to do, carry on doing the same things and we didn’t and that’s a letdown for me today really.”

Fisher grabbed the lead, following their first attempt on goal, timed at 24 minutes and 20 seconds on the clock, following a well-worked move.

Barrington played the ball into Clarke, who laid the ball off to Armani-Jordan Martin before Mbuenimo switched the play out to Flavio Jumo, who whipped in a great cross from within the right channel.

A sublime first touch from Clarke inside the box (as Bearsted centre-half Conrad Lee switched off) saw him sweep a clinical right-footed half-volley across Leonard to find the bottom far corner from 12-yards.

Ashanike said: “That was a good goal. That was one of the best goals I’ve seen this season!

“The first touch was amazing to get himself away from the defender and back to goal and absolutely rattled it into the bottom corner was really, really good from Kes, a real striker’s finish.

“That’s what we used to see (former Chelsea striker Didier) Drogba do when Drogba was younger. I’m really proud of him, a great touch and the cross was amazing as well.”

When asked about Clarke’s goalscoring tally, Ashanike replied: “He could’ve got more! Kess should be getting more but I’m really proud of him to get 12.  We haven’t had a striker that’s absolutely prolific like what’s he’s doing now.”

Stevens added: “Disappointing because it was a goal that they scored from transition, which is something we talk about and work on and do loads of Veo on and to concede a goal in transition is really poor for us.”

Ashanike felt his side should have increased their lead in the 29^th minute.

Lovell and Martin linked up well down the left before Lovell cut inside two Bearsted defenders before Barrington took a touch before lacking composure with a right-footed drive from 20-yards, which sailed over Leonard’s crossbar.

“Look, Courtney knows he should be doing better than that! He should be wrapping the ball. It should be a goal there but he’s picking his form up gradually, which we’re proud off.

“There’s no pressure on him. A lot of clubs know what we’re doing and they’re trying to stop us but I just ask them to keep trying to stop us because he will come good.”

Bearsted were playing crab football (backwards and sideways) and lacked the will to venture forward in an attempt to draw level during a flat and cagey first half performance from both sides.

Ashanike said: “It was cagey because both teams were testing each other out. I think both teams gave each other respect at first, no one threw the first punch and we managed to get the first goal with our only main chance in the first half.

“I don’t think they had a chance. I don’t think they had anything in the first half as well to be fair but it was a bit cagey. Everything was up in midfield. They kept the ball really well in the back, which we don’t mind.  The players in midfield will come alive and win it and it was just like the first round of a boxing match.”

Stevens added: “We said at half-time it’s a bit of a tactical affair, not a lot going on. We didn’t hurt them enough, that’s for sure and I thought our front three were very timid today in the first half, so it was a little bit disappointing, a bit toothless for us.

Both manager’s were asked about their half-time conversations with their players’.

Ashanike revealed: “It was a bit heated in the changing room.  Even though we were 1-0 up, I thought we could’ve done a lot more.

“When we beat them (1-0) at their place, I thought to myself ‘how did we win that game?’ and I couldn’t remember how we won that game because you’re driving away thinking ‘we got away with that, we’ve got a massive three points there.’

“I was proud of that.  Again, we were winning, I thought ‘yes, we got lucky there,’ but second half I thought we more than deserved to be winners.

“We controlled the game really well. The ball started to go out wide, wide players were popping inside and moving off. We had a lot of energy in the second half.

“For you to keep up with us for 90 minutes is a nightmare. We’re a really fit club, proper athletes and for 90 minutes they’ve got the quality to go with it and that’s really hard to play against. I wouldn’t want to play against my team right now!”

Stevens replied: “Some of it, I can’t say! Just be more patient on the ball, be brave on the ball. We’re a team that want to play, other teams know that, so they’ll come and press us.   We don’t mind that. We want teams to come and press us but after their goal went in we lost our way for probably, I don’t know, 10 or 15 minutes and then I thought we got a slight foothold in the game just before half-time.

“But we didn’t keep possession well enough, movement off the ball wasn’t well enough.  In transition we were slow to move as a unit, just all the things that we’ve been doing well in the last couple of games. We were way off it today for some reason.”

The 189 fans inside St Paul’s hoped for more excitement during the second half – and a dominant Fisher delivered.

Bearsted were caught in possession playing out from the back some 35-yards from goal when Blake rolled the ball towards Falade, who had his pocket picked by a pressing Gibbons, who fed Fisher substitute Jacob Katonia, who cut into the penalty area and his right-footed shot was comfortably saved by Leonard, low to his left inside the opening eight minutes.

Ashanike said: “Jacob should be finishing that. He’s got to open up fully and score that.

“Look, that is why we drew three games in a row because people don’t want to finish chances and that chance can come and bit you in the backside after but yes, we should be finishing chances like that.

“Those chances are what they put away in training, so when it comes to matchday, I expect them to despatch it.”

Stevens added: “Again, something we spoke about at half-time, getting on the ball and moving it quicker. Dieko is better than that. He’ll be better than that next week, I’m sure.

“Frankie, one of a few saves today. I thought Frankie was absolutely superb today for us.”

Leonard pulled off a fine double save in the 12^th minute as Fisher dominated proceedings.

A sloppy Blake gave the ball away with an inside pass which was intercepted by Akanni, before Katonia swept the ball out to Martin, whose fine through ball put Clarke through on goal.

Leonard smothered the shot and the ball came out to Katonia, whose left-footed shot from 18-yards was kept out by the busy Bearsted goalkeeper.

“Look, for a striker who wants to get 20 goals, one-v-one like that, he should be finishing,” insisted the Fisher manager.

“I don’t care who’s in goal. I know Frankie is a top keeper but we should be finishing that. The rebound comes and we allowed him to save it again, which doesn’t make sense.  You can’t have double saves at this level. We’ve got to be more hungry and more clinical up top and that’s what we’re going to be working on in training on Thursday.”

Stevens added: “Alan Rogers has come in as our goalkeeper coach and since Alan’s come in (from Snodland Town), Frankie has stepped it up and started performing really well.”

Martin floated a deep corner towards the back post where Djadja came up from the back and steered a free-header sailing over the Bearsted crossbar at the half-way point.

Bearsted captain Blake was guilty of more sloppy defending when he lost the ball to a pressing Barrington, who drove forward with the ball and Leonard spread himself and smothered the shot low to his left in a one-v-one situation.

A clearly frustrated Ashanike added: “That’s a good massive chance. I thought we should be passing that through across goal and get a tap-in but because of the confidence that we’ve got, their indecisive in what we were doing but when we were winning, winning, winning and winning, that’s a goal for us like five or six weeks ago, but we’ve got to take it and say at least we’re creating the chances, so well done to them.”

Bearsted put in a very disappointing performance on the banks of the River Thames and 12-goal targetman Connor French started to throw his weight about and should have done better following the away side’s fifth corner in the 70^th minute.

Impressive central midfielder Robbie Roberts swung the ball in from the left and the ball bounced off French’s head, which arrowed across keeper Ogunseri and past the far post.

“Frenchie has come in and all off a sudden gave them a different thing to think about,” said Stevens.

“Frenchie and Jesse Darko, when they both came on, I thought they had a good impact and Robbie Roberts was one of our better players for us today as well.  He’s been really good, the last few games Robbie, so pleased with him.”

French offered more of a threat in the central striker role than Nathan Light, who started the game.

“I don’t understand why he doesn’t start games? If they want to do well, the big man has got to start,” offered Ashanike.

“He’s a handful for any defenders in this league. It doesn’t matter who’s playing at the back, you know you’re in a game.

“He came on against us in the last game and he gave us a headache and we thought he was starting today but to see him on the bench, I was really, really happy to see him on the bench and he’s come on again and he’s given us a massive headache.  His hold up play is amazing and I don’t see anyone at this level better than him at what he does. He’s a really, really good player.”

Bearsted looked more of a threat during this time with four attacking substitutes on the pitch with Eniola Hassan (left) and Jesse Darko (right) operating on the flanks, Billy Lewins behind French in the middle.

Fisher were to be denied by the underside of the crossbar in the 79^th minute when Martin stroked his right-footed free-kick over the five-man wall from 25-yards and Leonard was beaten but the ball bounced down before being hooked towards safety from within a crowd of players.

Praising his number eight’s impressive display, Ashanike said: “Armani’s absolutely class. Today we’ve rested Charles (Yiadom-Konadu), we’ve rested Salim (Nassor) today and no disrespect to them but we needed them to rest.

“When Armani’s missing, I’m really, really not comfortable with it. Every time he plays, you see what he brings to the table. On another day, he scores that, a really good free kick.

Stevens admitted: “It’s one of those isn’t it? As he hit it, we thought it was in. Frankie’s not getting nowhere near that. I don’t think any keeper’s getting anywhere near that in the world, so we got lucky, hit the underside of the bar and came back out and didn’t go in.”

Gibbons threw the ball in from the left before Clarke played in attacking midfielder Katonia, who placed his right-footed drive just past the left-hand post, before Fisher sealed the deal with their second goal, timed at 35 minutes and 15 seconds on the clock.

The impressive Martin fed Barrington within the final third, Barrington easily cut inside substitute centre-half Sam Sharp before clinically driving his right-footed shot past the diving Leonard from 20-yards to give Fisher a deserved two-goal victory.

“Massive praise for Tyron because they was on a break. They’ve crossed the ball and Ty’s headed it out and we broke at them but really, really good by Ty at the back for us because they could’ve scored there,” said Ashanike.

“Armani’s passing range, he’s intelligent, he’s really, really good and to find a pass like that and no one else finds a pass like that and finish a game off with Courtney, who is lacking a lot of confidence, proud of him.

“Courtney’s scored 11 goals but still lacking in confidence. He knows he should be getting more and he knows that we’ve got 10 games to go. How many is he going to get now?”

Stevens added: “Disappointing thing for us again, it’s on the edge of our box, we’ve lost the ball in transition, bang, off they go. We haven’t locked it in, stopped them, runners not getting back, so it’s poor from our boys today, really poor.”

Bearsted then started to increase their intensity but it proved to be too little too late.

Darko played the ball along the deck and in behind Mbuenimo to release Hassan, but Ogunseri rushed off his line and used his finger-tips to ensure the ball flashed behind his near-post and behind for Bearsted’s sixth flag-kick.

Stevens said: “I think maybe he should’ve got his shot off a little bit sooner but I thought Frenchie and Jesse came on and caused them problems all off a sudden, definitely the last 5-10 minutes anyway.”

Bearsted missed a glorious chance at the death (48:55) when Nurden put the ball into the box, the ball was knocked down by Lewis and Darko went to pieces inside the box, took too long to get his shot away and Orgunseri made the block to maintain his clean-sheet.

Stevens said: “As it dropped to Jesse, I mean you put your money on Jesse knocking that in the back of the net. I think everyone sort of jumped up and put their hands on their head when it didn’t go in – but listen, Jesse’s been good. He normally puts that away nine times out of 10.”

Ashanike was full of praise for his former Dorking Wanderers goalie.

“I’ve said to everyone, if you’ve got a solid keeper in goal, you’ve got half a chance of winning football matches and Isaac is a nine out of 10 every single game.

“I think he’s had one bad game since he’s come in against Erith Town on his debut, apart from that, he’s been going from strength-to-strength-to-strength and really, really happy days that he’s with us.”

Stevens read his underperforming side the riot act out on the pitch after the final whistle and demands better performances and results as they go in search to climb the league table.

When asked what was missing today, Stevens replied: “I think the application. It’s a tough place to come. It’s always tough up here. Ajay sets them up well whether they’re top of the league, bottom of the league. I think it’s a really hard place to come.

“I don’t think we were mentally prepared for it as well as we should’ve been, which I’ll be talking to the boys about, which I have talked to the boys about already.  For the standards we set, we were way off it. Shape was nowhere near what we expect.  To lose two goals in transition is really poor because we work on that big time.

“Some senior players, I thought, didn’t step up today who you expect to step up, so yes, just a bit off it unfortunately.

“We’ve got five injuries and all five of them probably will be pushing to get in the starting 11 but I’ve got no complaints about that.  There’s no excuse there. We had a team out today who I expected to get a result.”

Faversham Town – who were held to a goal-less draw at Glebe – remain at the summit, having picked up 57 points from their 25 of 38 games.

Fisher (15 wins, five draws and eight defeats) are now in second-place with 50 points, while VCD Athletic (48 points from 22 games), Punjab United (44 points from 26 games) and Larkfield & New Hythe (43 points from 28 games) are still in the play-off zone.

However, notice should be taken of Rusthall (seventh-place, 37 points from 23 games) and Whitstable Town (tenth-place, 34 points from 23 games) who look certain of making a dash for the play-offs.

The Fish are without a game until their trip to basement side Lydd Town on Saturday 22 February.

“We’ve got a massive 10 games to go and they’ve got to stay focused,” said Ashanike, who was asked what pleased him about his side today.

“The performance. The gritty side of the game. It’s not always going to be pretty and they’ve started to understand that now.

“It wasn’t pretty against Whitstable and now they’re ready for the challenge. Not everyone is going to come and play against us and now they understand that.

“A lot of teams are now fighting for their lives at the bottom and we’ve got a lot of them to play against and they’re going to be the hardest game.

“It’s easy to play against the Faversham’s and them lot. It’s when you play against teams at the bottom of the league that they just want to get a point and try to frustrate you, that’s what we need to be watching out for and they’ve done really well with it.

“Look, the table’s not giving respect to everyone. You’ve seen Bearsted play today and they should not be where they are in the league, 100% not and that’s for Lydd as well.  Lydd should not be where they are with some of the boys they have.

“I think Stefan Payne is still there and the type of names like that should not be at the bottom of the league.

“On their day they can turn over any team but we have to go there, stay composed and do our jobs really.

“Delighted with what we’ve done this season. The first objective was to top what we did last season (fourteenth with 48 points from 40 games). Obviously, I wasn’t (here) in the middle of it but to finish it off. I wanted to beat what we did last season and we’ve topped what we’ve done over the last five seasons so far.

“These boys have done really, really well and I’m really, really proud of them.

“It’s just a big 10 games to go and just see where it takes us. The injuries are mounting up but the boys that are coming in are really, really doing really, really well and this is the time for people like Halim Bakre to shine. People like Jacob Katonia to come and shine.

“We’ve got a good healthy squad and we’ve just brought Aundre Wholas-Spencer in from Romford so we’re looking ok. We just have to manage it and just keep going.

“We’ve got a massive 10 games to go, massive 10 games to go and if we just stay focused we’ll be ok – but the boys have to understand that every game from now on is a cup final and we have to be bang up for it.”

Meanwhile, the bottom seven contains Hollands & Blair (26 points from 27 games), Stansfeld (26 points from 26 games), Snodland Town (24 points from 24 games) and Bearsted (seven wins, two draws and 12 defeats, 23 points from 21 games).

Lordswood (20 points from 24 games) and Lydd Town (13 points from 24 games) are trapped within the relegation zone.

Stevens, meanwhile, takes his side to VCD Athletic on Tuesday night, before welcoming Michael Phillips’ Larkfield & New Hythe side to Honey Lane next Saturday in the Kent Senior Trophy Semi-Finals.

Stevens said: “It will be a tough one.  VCD are playing well, they’re on a good run.  They’ve obviously got Ollie Freeman, who banged in goals for us and he’s banging in goals for them, so he’ll be a tough to take.  Listen, they’ve got some good players. I think they try to play football in a way that I like, so hopefully we’re back at it and it will be a good game.

“Hopefully by then (Saturday), we should definitely have two or three back competing for places, so hopefully we can go out and put in a much better performance in on Tuesday night in preparation of trying to win a Semi-Final on Saturday.”

Stevens, meanwhile, dismissed the suggestion that his side are in a relegation dog-fight – after finishing a personal best of seventh-place with 72 points from 40 games last season.

“Table doesn’t lie. I think we’ve got a much better squad than that. I think probably one of the best squads in the league personally but I think the quality within the squad, I think we’ve probably got four, five, six, seven games in hand over some teams.

“I think if we was there and we only had one game in hand, I’d be slightly worried but listen, if it was only one or two, I’d be a little bit more looking over my shoulder but I think that there’s enough quality in this squad – although we didn’t show it today.

“Credit to Fisher because at the end of the day, I think other teams make you not turn up, so I think credit to them. They deserve their win but hopefully the quality in the squad will be better than what people watched today and we’ll be alright, I’m sure of that.

“I haven’t even thought about how many (points) I need to stay up because I’m not worried about not staying up, so I haven’t even looked at it.  This lot, they’ll get enough points for sure, no doubt about that. I’m not concerned at all.”

Bearsted have 17 league games to cram into the final 11 weeks of the season.

“Hopefully, we’ve got players coming back. I’m hoping to get a player over the line to add to the squad from next Saturday. With three or four coming back, hopefully a new player coming in. I think it gives us 22-23 players,” revealed the Bearsted manager.

“It’s going to be a tough ask. It always is when you’re going Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday for seven weeks I think it is but hopefully get those points on the board that I’ve just said I’m not worried about and we’ll be alright, we’ll be alright.
 

“I get frustrated because it’s a good squad with some real quality and it’s frustrating when they don’t go out and play how you expect them to play. I don’t mind missing shots, giving the ball away. I mind not getting our shape right, not transitioning properly and all those things we work on and our quality.

“If you get that sort of stuff right then you win games of football and that’s what Fisher done well today and that’s why they won a game of football.”

Fisher: Isaac Ogunseri, Jack Gibbons, Omotumise Akanni (Halim Bakre 72), Ange Djadja, Tyron Mbuenimo, Donald Macauley, Armani-Jordan Martin, Flavio Jumo, Kesna Clarke, Courtney Barrington, Jake Lovell (Jacob Katonia 42).
Subs: Aundre Wholas-Spencer, Diego Makesa, Daniel Flemming

Goals: Kesna Clarke 25, Courtney Barrington 81

Booked: Jacob Katonia 76, Flavio Jumo 87

Bearsted: Frankie Leonard, Dennis Ahbudume, James Nurden, Jack Palmby, Ryan Blake (Sam Sharp 72), Conrad Lee, Jason Banton (Jesse Darko 56), Robbie Roberts, Nathan Light (Connor French 56), Samuel Stace (Billy Lewins 72), Dieko Falade (Eniola Hassan 62).

Booked: James Nurden 45

Attendance: 189
Referee: Mr Darren Kempson
Assistants: Mr Alexis Stachinni & Mr Michael Dye