It's a club that should be playing at a higher level so we want to get back up but at the same time we know there’s some very good sides in here and it’s not going to be easy, says Fisher boss Dean Harrison

FISHER manager Dean Harrison says he is looking to bounce back at the first attempt.

The club lost its Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division status at the end of last season, which was also their first season back in Rotherhithe.

Harrison revealed that the club must pay Millwall Community Trust £20,000 per season to hire St Paul’s Stadium. 

Fisher are beginning to find their feet in the First Division and recorded their second highest ever win yesterday, humiliating Lydd Town 9-1.

Lydd Town were one place below Fisher before kick-off but they were torn apart by Fisher on the artificial pitch.

As a result of winning three in a row, Fisher have climbed up three places into fourth-place in the table with 26 points from 14 games.  They are now 14 points adrift of league leaders K Sports, who are two in front of Punjab United, the big-spenders in the division.

“Like I said, it’s been coming. We’ve won our last three now, we won last week at Sporting Club Thamesmead with 10 men for an hour. We beat Snodland here 3-0 the week before,” recalled Harrison.

“We feel on our day, especially at home on this pitch, we can really move the ball and get at people. It’s just all about being clinical.”

Harrison is keen to catch the top-two and secure a place back in the top-flight.  A club of this size and history should not be playing in the tenth-tier of English football.

“What have we got? Two games in hand on K Sports, that takes us to eight. We’ve got to play them twice. It’s all to play for,” said Harrison, who previously revealed his playing budget is £300 per week.

“I said to the boys the other week, as long as we’re in that top five or six around Christmas and we’re competing, there’s a long way to go.  There’s a second half of the season. We’ve got to push on but we have to take it game by game and just keep picking up points.

“The size of this club, we felt disappointed that we were relegated last year, down to no disrespect, due to no fault of our own.  We didn’t come in until December and the damage was done.

“But it’s a club that should be playing at a higher level so we want to get back up but at the same time we know there’s some very good sides in here and it’s not going to be easy.

“It’s taken a little bit of time to adapt and find our feet and hopefully we’re doing that now.

“We kept the core of the squad from last year, which we wanted to keep and at the start when maybe a few of them thought it was going to be a little bit easier than it was.

“They came in, you drop down a level and they think they’re playing below where they should, but they’ve got to realise it’s a tough league, it’s a really tough league as we’re finding out.

“Now we’re starting to adapt to it and work that little bit harder and respect our opponents and also find our own identity as a team, which is really important and I think we’ve started to find that now.”

Fisher welcome Corinthian-Casuals to St Paul’s Stadium in the London Senior Trophy Second Round next Saturday.

Fisher will not be playing the first team of the Bostik South club, who will be using the competition to field reserve or younger members of their squad.

“We’ll probably make a few changes, give a few boys a run out,” revealed Harrison.

“We know it’s a long season, football is a squad game, no one wins anything with 11 players, so I want to get a few of the boys out and give them a good run-out, make sure they’re fit when we need to call upon them.”

Seven days later (2 December), Harrison takes his side to Foxbury Avenue in Chislehurst to take on Stansfeld, who originate from Bermondsey.

“My old club, won the League there in 2010 as assistant manager, number two there, so that will be interesting,” said Harrison.

“We know what they’re like as a club. That will be a good game, I would imagine.  It will be a battle, a big battle. We’re looking forward to it. We don’t fear anyone, we’re not afraid of anyone.

“We want to go back up. Fisher are a big club and we want to get promotion. It’s down to us, it’s down to the lads, down to everyone being into it together.  There’s a long way to go, so we’ve just got to keep chipping away. It’s a marathon not a sprint and teams at the top have got to have patches sometimes where they drop some points.”

Visit Fisher’s website: www.fisherfc.org

Fisher  v  Corinthian-Casuals Res
London Senior Trophy Second Round
Saturday 25^th November 2017
Kick Off 3:00pm
at St Paul’s Stadium, Salter Road, Rotherhithe, London SE16 5EF