Tunbridge Wells 0-2 Fisher - It's a big target to have on your back and they've got to flourish through it and got to believe they are the team to beat this season, says Fisher boss Ajay Ashanike

Tunbridge Wells 0 – 2 Fisher
Location	Culverden Stadium, Culverden Down, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN4 9SG
Kickoff	26/07/2025 15:00

TUNBRIDGE WELLS  0-2  FISHER
Presence & Co Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division
Saturday 26 July 2025
Stephen McCartney reports from Culverden Stadium

FISHER manager Ajay Ashanike says his players have a big target on their backs and remain focused to have another shot at promotion from the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division this season.

There was to be no hangover from Fisher’s heartbreaking 2-1 Play-Off Final defeat at VCD Athletic on Monday 5 May, as two late goals inside the final 13 minutes sealed an opening day victory at ninth-placed finishers Tunbridge Wells.

Former Glebe striker Kelvin Bakare came off the bench to open his goalscoring account for his new side, just 93 seconds before fellow debutant striker Chibueze Echem swept home to seal the points at Culverden Stadium.

Tunbridge Wells were without Matt Black (holiday), Jacob Feasey (knee), Ryan Hine (knee), Harry Rowland (quad) and Kazzeem Richards (holiday) and the loss of centre-half Ryan Coltress and right-back Joshua Macarthur Nolan due to cramp proved costly for the hosts.

“We’ve just picked off where we left off last season,” said Ashanike, who operates without a budget.

“We’ve done really well in pre-season and to come away from home against a very good side – this is going to be a place where people are going to struggle to win games – and to come here with a clean sheet and a win is something I’m proud off today.”

When asked why Culverden Stadium is such a touch place to come to and pick up three points, the Fisher manager replied: “They understand the pitch and they play on the pitch every single time so they understand the pitch.

“I think it took us about 70 minutes to get into it, to understand where we can play, where we can’t play. As soon as we mastered that, we was really good.

“Credit to them, they gave us a good game for 70 minutes so you can’t really complain when you go away and win 2-0 and they could’ve went a goal up as well but especially the back four, I thought they’ve done really well today.”

The first half had your typical opening day feel to the game with both sides keen not to make a mistake in front of a crowd of 263 inside Culverden Stadium.

“First half, I think everyone was like a boxing match. Like I keep saying to them, the first five rounds is just checking out what the other person can do,” admitted Ashanike.

“Second half, I thought we came out stronger, we was a lot fitter than them and it showed for 90 minutes.”

Tunbridge Wells manager Steve Ives said: “I personally felt it was a very tight, competitive game for 70-odd minutes.

“We had to make two enforced changes to our defence, which is never something you do out of choice and I think just while the unit was sort of bedding in and getting up to the speed of the game, they capitalised twice very quickly, which in my honest opinion gives them a little bit of a flattering scoreline.

“I think based on chances I think we were pretty even. They’ve obviously taken two and I know Bents made one good save in the first half but Reg(an Corke) has gone through and hit the bar, which incidentally should’ve been a straight red for their player and we should’ve had the free-kick.

“Lucas (Murrain) has had one that he just hasn’t quite connected with and Tommy Penfold from a corner where he’s had a good contact and it just went over the bar, so I actually thought it was more even than 2-0.”

Tunbridge Wells went close to grabbing the lead inside the opening 10 minutes, following their first of two corners.

Rory Ward delivered an in-swinging corner from the right, the ball was hooked on by debutant winger D’Armando Lawrence and the ball fell to holding midfielder Christian Lawal, whose shot on the turn deflected just past the foot of the far post.

Ives said: “It’s on target. There were a couple of times when they threw their bodies at stuff.  I generally feel like throughout the game, actual goal action, I don’t think there was a lot to choose.”

Midfielder Ward played the ball inside to Lawal, whose pass was flicked first time by debutant striker Lucas Murrain, but the former Crowborough Athletic and Steyning Town striker was living off scraps, with dominant Fisher centre-half Donald Macaulay keeping him in his pocket throughout the contest.

“The Play-Off Final really hurt but we’ve moved on. We’ve dusted ourselves off and moved on.  I think we was really good today and I’m so proud of them,” added Ashanike.

Fisher produced a well-worked move which resulted in Tunbridge Wells’ goalkeeper George Bentley making a comfortable low save in the 16^th minute.

Left-back Edward Sata threw the ball to Echem, who stabbed the ball from inside the box into central striker Kesna Clarke and his right-footed shot on the turn from 16-yards, was comfortably gobbled up low to his left by the keeper.

“Kes needs to get his shooting boots on quickly. He hasn’t scored enough goals in pre-season and he knows that.  I think the last goal was in the Semi-Final against Whitstable last season but he keeps getting a chance. As long as he’s in the right place, one of them will fall.  As soon as he scores the first one, he’ll be unstoppable after that,” insisted the Fisher manager.

Fisher went route-one when Sata launched a long ball over the top and Charles Yiadom-Konadu cracked a rasping left-footed half-volley screaming towards the roof of the net, forcing Bentley to use two outstretched gloves to palm over the crossbar in the 17^th minute.

Ives is delighted to have kept Bentley at the club this summer, especially revealing post-match that he is operating with a reduced budget this season.

He said: “100%! It’s important for us. Sometimes I think when people understand on social media that we’ve got a few issues off the pitch, we get managers starting to look at our players and try their luck. There were a couple of our players playing for Fisher today, a couple of them not involved as well but that’s life, that’s football.

“Bents had opportunities to go Step Four, he decided to stay here. He’s got quite a good affinity with the fans and with the group, so it’s good.

“It was a very tight game in my opinion. We were going up the hill, which sometimes makes a difference. I can’t actually remember other than sort of ricochets, I can’t remember us having a chance in the first half. There was not a lot in it was there?”

Ashanike said: “That was a great pass from Ed. I think he pinged it really well. Charles knew exactly where it was going to drop. Maybe he should’ve shot across the keeper more and not give him a chance with the height where he was. 

“I think the keeper should be making a good save anyway, so credit to him. He did make the save but we should be 1-0 up there.”

Tunbridge Wells weren’t defending Fisher’s throw-ins at all with Sata’s ball in, flicked on at the near-post by Echem and comfortably being caught by Bentley in goal, as Nolan switched off defensively, not for the first time.

Fisher went direct again with Macaulay hitting a long ball forward towards the edge of the box.

Coltress pinned Clarke in an edge-of-the-box tussle but Clarke managed to turn and get his shot away from 22-yards, which was comfortably saved by Bentley, smothering low to his right as the first half stalemate drew to a close.

Ashanike said: “The kid done really well, the number five (Coltress) done really well. I thought they were really strong at the back. They gave our two strikers, who a lot of teams at this level are not able to handle but they’ve done really well.  They competed really well, which is credit to them. They’ve worked really hard, they’ve recruited really well, you can tell.”

Both managers were asked their thoughts at the interval, as a cagey first half came to a close.

Ives said: “We talked about one tactical thing. Jonesy, who played for us last season, he was drifting around and we just talked about how we wanted to try to deal with that.
 

“Other than that, it was really about some of the ideas that we’ve tried to implement in possession, just referencing the moving patterns.

“I felt some of our quality on the ball wasn’t good enough in the first half. I thought we gave the ball away unforced a bit too much. No one’s doing it on purpose but you’re trying to ask them to be a little bit more accountable for that and then just work the patterns that we’ve sort of trained.”

Ashanike added: “I thought first half we were a bit leggy.  We played teams in pre-season against the hardest teams, so we’ve done a lot of running.  Thursday’s session took a lot out of us as well and it showed on the pitch today, so it’s something that we’ve got to work on, on the training ground and have a look at but just more of the same, get the ball out wide. We changed the system a bit. We got joy from it after we changed the system. I thought we kept the ball really well.”

Tunbridge Wells put in a vastly-improved second half performance, kicking down the slope.

The Wells hit Fisher on the counter-attack with Macarthur Nolan linking up well with right-winger Regan Corke before Nolan cut along the 18-yard line and his scuffed poor left-footed drive towards goal was comfortably gathered by Fisher’s returning goalkeeper Samuel Amedu.

“He didn’t quite get hold of it did he but I guess he’s coming inside, probably on his weaker side, onto his left but it was a shot on target,” said Ives.

“The keeper’s smothered it, certainly comfortably.  It was one of the things we talked about was where we could get our full-back and winger combinations going a little bit more because they stood us quite well in pre-season.”

Ashanike added: “Regan’s a good player, someone we spoke about before the game started. We had to watch out for him and he’s going to be a good player for them this season but that was a great save from Sam.

“Sam’s missed out all last season and he’s come in this season as number one and he’s just got to show us, that club will massively help hm but that’s a great save from the young man, who’s not played in ages.”

When asked about his goalkeeping situation with goalkeeper Tommy Taylor also in the match-day squad, Ashanike replied: “Both of them are top keepers, they both know what I want is both of them pushing each other. It doesn’t matter who I play. I can wake up and decide Tom’s going to start. We’re going to get the same work from Tom and the same work from Sam but as a collective, they’ve just got to push each other to the last minute and for us to do well we need two of them to be fully on it and we should be alright.

“We’ve got two number one’s between both of them and we’ve got to complete and see and Sam’s got the shirt now and Tom’s just got to fight and keep his head down and just work hard.”

This was the home side’s best spell of the entire game and centre-half Tommy Penfold hit a long ball forward to release Lawrence charging down the left and the former Bexley winger cut into the box but lacked composure and Amedu got down low to his right to comfortably gather.

“I think the movement’s good from D’Armando. He’s done all the right things. I think he’s scuffed the shot a little bit but it will come,” said Ives.

“D’Armando’s making his debut for us. I thought he was a handful. He was up against a very good right-back in Jack Gibbons. I think he gave him a difficult time and it would’ve been nice if he scored but it wasn’t a goalscoring shot was it to be honest.

“He came from the Kent County League. We always try to keep our eyes and ears open on the lower leagues and speak to people who we know there.

“His brother was also at Bexley last year, both highly recommended to us. His brother has had an operation so he isn’t available at the minute but D’Armando’s come and he’s been at every single training session, which is sometimes something that you’re a little bit concerned about when players are stepping up whether they’ve got the commitment but he has had the commitment and he’s been an absolute breath of fresh air and I think he will be a problem.”

Penfold launched another long ball forward to release Corke in behind Fisher’s left-back Sata but his rasping right-footed drive pinged against the crossbar, as Corke aimed for the top left-hand corner from 18-yards in the 56^th minute.

Ives admitted he wanted more from the referee Thomas Reed.

“I felt that Regan was fouled and that impeded his balance. The linesman (Steven Page) agreed but he said the advantage was we have the shot. I said the advantage for us would be their player gets a straight red-card and we get to play against 10 men for 35 minutes, so I’m not going to cry about it but I do think that was a potential turning point.”

Ashanike admitted: “We’ve got away with that, we’ve got away with massive murder there because there’s no way he should be running through Ed like that.

“Sam’s come out and it’s hit absolute top bins but our luck, it hit the post.  That gave us a wake-up call. We could actually lose the game from one point. We could’ve come away with no points and the boys done really well and they went on to do what they did.

“I thought that was the momentum shift.  They were deflated straight away from that and we just picked up from there and we just took control of the game after that.”

While Ashanike reported no injuries during the game, Ives admitted he was concerned with the lack of fitness from Coltress (treated in the 63^rd and 69^th minute) and Nolan (69^th and 76^th minute) before both were hooked and it’s very rare for a centre-half to wimp out of a battle.

“Do you know what, I haven’t spoken to either of them about it. I believe they’re both (suffering from) cramp, which is disappointing because it would imply we’re either not as fit as we think we are or dehydration, which is kind of not looking after yourself.

“It is the first time we’ve been on the pitch. That shouldn’t make any difference at all though, so I’ll speak to them and just make sure I’m correct but if it is cramp I’m a little bit disappointed because I feel like I wanted to be fitter.”

It proved to fall in Fisher’s hands as they finished the game the stronger of the two sides and went on to claim their opening three points of the new season.

Fisher grabbed the lead with 32 minutes and 4 seconds on the clock.

Substitute Nasereledene Crespo played a low cross from within the right-channel into fellow sub Lorenzo Duncan, before Echem took a touch inside the box and clinically stroked his left-footed shot across Bentley to find the bottom far corner.

“I did say to them before the start, the subs were going to come on and win the game for us and they’ve come on and won the game for us today,” said Ashanike.

“I thought Lorenzo done really well on the right side, flicking the ball for Chibueze and Chibueze has worked absolutely brilliantly today and he’s worked his socks off the big fella up top and to get a goal, to be awarded is something that he should be proud off because he done really well.”

Ives said: “I think it came from a throw in and we talked about how we weren’t happy with our defensive set-up from throw-ins at half-time. We spoke about it, so the guy’s done well and it’s difficult. He’s got a style about him. He’s quite difficult but for me it was too easy.

“I generally felt, I don’t know, I don’t think he had any right to score from there. He’s done well, so I’m not trying to sound bitter and twisted but I think we had opportunities to stop him and I don’t think people in my team possibly have to look at their defending there.”

Coltress’ replacement at the heart of Tunbridge Wells’ defence, Edward Dyer, was at fault for Fisher’s match clinching goal, just 93 seconds later.

Duncan’s sublime first time pass from the halfway line took Dyer out of the game. Clarke laid the ball off for Bakare to sweep his right-footed shot past the diving Bentley to find the bottom right-hand corner, to silence the home fans.

“Lorenzo’s apart of it again, a great pass.  We’ve been looking all game but Jack (Gibbons) wasn’t really getting there but we got there. He’s done that run really well when he got the left-back (Muiz Alaka) out of position, where we wanted him to be.

“Kelvin’s took an absolute great touch to get it across his body and to slide it with his right-foot, that’s a good way to win a game!”

Ives added: “Kelvin’s a good player. I remember him from Glebe last year. I think if I had the resources, he would’ve been someone we’d like to have spoken to but I raised an eyebrow a little bit when I said he didn’t start but that just shows the strength of squad that Ajay’s got this season, fair play to him there.

“At the end of the game we spoke about three things.  Number one, I felt like a bit disappointed with our lack of fitness. Number two, I don’t think we were clinical enough in front of goal when we’ve had three good chances and we haven’t converted any of them and number three, if you let a goal in the one thing you don’t do is open up that wide.

“It’s no reflection on the guys that came on but in an ideal world you don’t make two changes to your back line in the space of five minutes particularly when they’re both enforced.

“The big one for us was you don’t make changes to your back line unless you have to and secondly because they’re injuries, it’s not even like we’ve been able to give the boys that are coming on loads of information.

“It’s clearly not ideal but there’s no point crying about it. It’s no ones fault. It’s certainly not Fisher’s fault and they’ve capitalised on the situation and done what they’ve had to do. Fair play to them. I thought their subs improved them.”

A third goal would have taken Fisher to the summit but relegated Hythe Town’s 3-0 win at Corinthian as Ira Jackson’s men top after one game, with Fisher having to settle for second-place, while Tunbridge Wells are second-from-bottom in the pecking order after 90 minutes of football.

Fisher produced a well-worked move in the 88^th minute.  Bakare floated in a cross from the left, the ball was knocked down by an unmarked Tom Jones (playing against his old club, having moved to Fisher to be closer to his Poplar residence) and Bentley dived to his right to thwart Clarke scoring with a low drive.

“If this was like last season when Kesna was on fire, he scores that. He’s just lacking confidence up top right now, to put the ball in the back of the net,” admitted Ashanike, who has a habit of finding rough diamonds and moulding them into a competitive team in this tough ninth-tier division.

“At least he’s getting into the right position where he’s effective and on another day he scores that – but we should be proud. It doesn’t matter who scores for us, what’s the scoreline after the game? That’s all that matters to us.”

Ives added: “I was more worried about us.  We’ve gone 2-0 down, we’re taking a bit more risks, we’re leaving players up all the time. I personally didn’t feel they were two goals better than us, so I was kind of pushing for a strong finish.  I think it’s good habits and I felt to at least pull one back would’ve been a fair reflection but ultimately we lose, we lose.”

Tunbridge Wells kept plugging away but they need to find other players that can find the back of the net because they can’t always rely on Corke to find the goals.

Ward clipped a free-kick from within the left channel beside the by-line and Penfold found a pocket of space at the near post to sky his first-time effort over the crossbar inside stoppage time, as Ashanike was delighted with the clean sheet.

He said: “I think that’s our third clean sheet in a row now (including pre-season.)  It’s something that we need to build on.  It’s something that we’ll be looking closely this year is how many clean sheets can we keep? As a back line they should be really proud of ourselves there with Connor Darwish going into centre-half, he was brilliant as well but overall, as a collective, I think they’ve done really well, absolutely really well for us.

“We’ve got a target on our back. Everyone’s looking at us. They’ve questioned us from the pain last season and we know that and we’ve just got to be ready. Once we’re ready for every battle that’s in front of us, then they can do whatever they want.

“Like I said to the boys that were here last season, you can do everything you want if you stay focussed and the commitment level from them. If everyone’s available for every single game, if we can have that performance every game but it’s when you lose that focus that’s when they’re going to get punished.

“But they’ve got a target on their back and it’s a big target to have on your back and they’ve got to flourish through it and they’ve got to believe they are the team to beat this season.”

Both sides are in FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round action next Saturday, with Tunbridge Wells hosting their league rivals Holmesdale and Fisher welcome Camberley Town to St Paul’s.

Ives said: “It was a benchmark of where we’re at. I felt like 75 minutes it was an even game. Five minutes, we can moan about the subs all we like but five minutes they’ve won the game but other than that it was a close game.

“We can take some encouragement from it but we’ve got to get fitter and we’ve got to take our chances.

“I think if we’re going toe-to-toe with one of the promotion favourites and we’ve still got a few players still to come back in, everyone says it but 100% I’m targeting the play-offs.  Will there be five sides better than us? We’ll find out won’t we.

“I think we played Holmesdale the last game of last season. It had a very much last game of the season feel to it. We beat them 5-1. I’m sure they’ll be far from happy about that.

“I see their recruitment and they’ve signed some proven players, so it will be another tough game and anything can happen can’t it.

“It’s The FA Cup, it’s not the number one priority but it’s good for the fans, it’s good for the club. If we can put some money into the kitty and any game of football we want to win, so it’s got to be a 50-50 one.”

Looking ahead to Fisher’s FA Cup tie, Ashanike said: “We’ve got a target. Two years’ ago, we played a lot of games (eight, reaching the Second Qualifying Round Replay) in the FA Cup. Why can’t we do the same thing again? Why can’t we be the team that can shock a lot of people in The FA Cup?

“It’s a day for the boys to enjoy themselves and I want them to enjoy themselves. It’s a massive occasion to play in a massive Cup like that, so we’re all going to look forward to it.

“We’re all going to have a good day out so whatever the scoreline is, as long as the boys enjoy it and the fans enjoy it, that’s all that matters to us.

“We should have home advantage playing on 3G, so some of the boys that couldn’t perform really well today should be able to perform better on 3G.

“As a collective we could be able to win. I don’t know their result today but we should be going in there with confidence of what we’ve done the last few games.”

Tunbridge Wells: George Bentley, Joshua Macarthur Nolan (Nathan Moseley 77), Muiz Alaka, Christian Lawal, Ryan Coltress (Edward Dyer 72), Tommy Penfold, D’Armando Lawrence (Matthew Dunmall 84), Rory Ward, Lucas Murrain (Hayden Marshall 84), Rhys Bartlett (Jonathan Shea 65), Regan Corke.

Booked: D’Armando Lawrence 66

Fisher: Samuel Amedu, Jack Gibbons (Lorenzo Duncan 61), Edward Sata, Flavio Jumo, Donald Macauley, Connor Darwish, Jacob Katonia (Kelvin Bakare 53), Charles Yiadom-Konadu (Nasereldene Crespo 58), Kesna Clarke, Chibueze Echem (Stephan Richards-Kingson 90), Tom Jones.
Sub: Tommy Taylor

Goals: Chibueze Echem 77, Kelvin Bakare 79

Attendance: 263
Referee: Mr Thomas Reed
Assistants: Mr Steven Page & Mr Owen Jenner
Referee’s Coaches: Mr Stephen Bennett & Mr Darren Blunden