Fisher 1-6 Charlton Athletic - We've got to have it as a game that we erase from my memory very quick, says Fisher manager Ajay Ashanike

Fisher 1 – 6 Charlton Athletic
Location	St Paul's Stadium, Salter Road, Rotherhithe, London SE16 6NT
Kickoff	05/11/2024 19:45

FISHER  1-6  CHARLTON ATHLETIC
London Senior Cup (Sponsored by Veo) Second Round
Tuesday 5 November 2024
Stephen McCartney reports from St Paul’s Stadium

FISHER manager Ajay Ashanike says he will erase their heavy London Senior Cup defeat from his memory but says his players enjoyed the occasion playing against Charlton Athletic’s under 21 side.

The Addicks have been crowned London Senior Cup winners for the past two seasons, having beaten Haringey Borough (4-3, after extra time) and Hendon (2-1) and they will travel to Isthmian League Premier Division side Wingate & Finchley in the last 16 of this season’s competition after Chris Lock’s side comfortably sealed victory in front of 310 fans at St Paul’s Stadium tonight.

Charlton Athletic scored with their first attempt on goal through 18-year-old striker Henry Rylah’s fifth goal of the season inside the opening eight minutes before nineteen-year-old left-back Toby Bower drove in a second.

Fisher striker Kesna Clarke, 21, notched his sixth goal of the season, winning and converting a penalty, to bring the part-timers back into the game inside the opening two minutes of the second half.

Bower scored his second of the night – and his fifth goal of the season – before winger Bradley Tagoe scored twice inside the final 13 minutes to send the holders comfortably through.

“Obviously it’s something that we knew might happen before the game. They train every day and you could see the quality was going to be there,” said Ashanike.

“One thing that we’re proud of is the character of the boys and the way we still created chances.  We could’ve sat in and lost 2-0 but then the boys wouldn’t be able to showcase themselves but we wanted them to showcase themselves, which they did.

“We gave it a good push in the first 30 minutes but after the first 30 minutes when their legs started to go and Charlton started moving the ball and they showed the level of being full-time against the part-time boys. It really showed after that.

“They came here with a really good game plan.  They moved the ball really, really well. The things that we want our boys to be doing, so it’s a lesson for all of us to take in. 

“They didn’t do nothing special today. It was just moving the ball and putting it in good areas, fight for seconds and they were sharper than us and they took their chances.

“I thought my boys did really well going forward. I can’t fault them.  We huffed and puffed. We wasn’t great but we went for it. We gave it a good go and if you open yourselves up like that, you are going to concede that many goals and it just shows the level they’re at and at the end of it we’ve got punished for it.”

There were 130 clubs separating 12^th placed Charlton Athletic in League One to third-placed Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division (ninth-tier) side Fisher, who operate without a playing budget.

This Charlton Athletic side, meanwhile, last tasted a victory on 20 September when they came away from Watford with a 3-2 win in the 11-club Professional Development League South and arrived in Rotherhithe on the back of five games without a win.

The Addicks are in second-place in the table with 21 points (six wins, three draws and three defeats), a point behind Cardiff City, who have a couple of games in hand.

There was not a gulf in class between the two sides during most of the first half and you could argue that Fisher were the better side during this period.

Fisher almost stunned their professional opponents, hitting the crossbar with four minutes and 33 seconds on the clock.

Attacking midfielder Tyron Mbuenimo floated in a right-footed free-kick from within the left-channel, the ball was flicked on by recalled winger Jacob Katonia and centre-half Mayvin Vigneswaran’s looping header struck the crossbar before goalkeeper Lennon MacLorg held the ball close to his goal-line as the recalled Richesse Mvioki tried to stab the ball over the goal-line.

“That would’ve been 1-0 to us and that might’ve changed the game plan a bit where if we go a goal up, then we could actually fight for something to sit back and just defend but it’s not to be.  But we’ve created chances against a full-time squad, which is good,” said Ashanike.

Charlton Athletic grabbed the lead, following their first attempt on goal, with seven minutes and 58 seconds on the clock.

No one in a Fisher shirt pressed Ibrihim Fullah in the middle before he played the ball out to winger Tagoe on the left, who got the better of Fisher right-back Jack Gibbons and fizzed in a low cross which was tucked home first time by Rylah with his right-foot from inside the six-yard box in the middle.

“I think when we hit the bar, it woke them up, to say, look this can go a different way to what the script is meant to be,” said Ashanike.

“They worked it to the other side and scored straight away. It was a good goal. It was a really worked goal. They went wide, crossed it really well and I don’t know who lost their man there but it was good movement from the striker. He was really good all night to be fair.”

Katonia played Fisher’s first corner short to left-back Edward Sata, whose cross took a deflection and dropped to Clarke at the far post and his speculative overhead kick from 12-yard sailed over the goalkeeper and cleared the top of the far post.

Ashanike said: “It’s half-a-chance. We got into good areas. If this was Saturday, he probably has half-a-yard to take it round and score but at least we got half-a-chance again.

“But we should be doing a lot better in that position. When we get into positions like that, we can’t be wasting the chances that we’re creating but it’s something that we’re going to learn from.”

Fisher left-winger, Halim Bakre – who was one of four changes to the side that claimed a 1-0 win at Bearsted at the weekend – went on a 40-yard run and crossed the half-way line but lacked composure by trying to score from 35-yards but his right-footed shot rolled into the gloves of visiting goalkeeper Maclorg.

Ashanike revealed that he was without Charles Yiadom-Konadu (knee), Armani-Jordan Martin (away) and Salim Nassor (paternity leave) for this game.

Fisher were competing and matching their higher-level opponents and they linked up well down the right with Katonia, Gibbons and Mvioki before the ball was worked into Katonia inside the box, who swept his shot towards goal, only for it to bounce off Charlton centre-half Mason Hunter and was comfortably gathered by Maclorg in the 22^nd minute.

Charlton Athletic were not creating much and holding midfielder Harvey Kedwell unleashed a left-footed half-volley from 30-yards, which whistled past the foot of the right-hand post.

“Do you know what? They didn’t tear us open.  I thought we was in the game until we made that mistake for the second goal but we were in the game and we were camped in their half than they was in ours,” said Ashanike.

“It just shows that the level, the patience that they had off the ball was really, really good. They weren’t panicking, they were just picking really good areas to tackle and getting the ball moving, which is good to see.”

Charlton Athletic finished the half on the front foot, grabbing a second goal with 39 minutes and 40 seconds on the clock.

The Addicks linked up well within the right-channel with Jacob Safa and Kai Enslin before winger Enslin flicked the ball into the path of Bower, who drilled a clinical first-time left-footed drive past the diving goalkeeper to find the back of the net from 22-yards.

“We had a chance to clear the ball from Abs (Abdoulaye Ly Athie), an absolute schoolboy error there.  He tried to dribble past someone in our own half. It’s not something we work on, it’s not something we promote at this club but he thought to himself to say he wants to do that tonight of all nights and he got caught out and we got punished,” said Ashanike.

“I’m really, really proud of that he got punished in this kind of game. Sometimes you need to learn. When you tell them to do something and they don’t want to do it, but they’ve got to learn the hard way and I’m glad it happened in this sort of game, so we learn for it and it will never happen again on Saturday.”

It was almost a flattering third goal just 127 seconds later when Enslin played another ball in from the right to right-back Ollie Hobden, who swept his first-time shot across the rooted goalkeeper and flashing past the far post.

“It’s a good shot as well.  If you look at the game, we sat there as a management team and we said, ‘they’ve worked on that and they’ve worked on this’, and it’s one of the things that we’ve actually spotted that they’ve actually worked on.

“But if you’ve got the boys in 24-7 like that, you’re going to show glimpses of what they work on and it showed there and he’s unlucky not to hit the bottom corner.”

Fisher right-back Gibbons claimed he won the ball but was penalised for a foul on Tagoe and Bower whipped in the resulting free-kick from 30-yards towards a crowd of players where substitute right-back Brown steered his header over the crossbar with his first touch.

Fisher left-back Sata was booked for a challenge on Enslin and Bower drilled his left-footed free-kick over the wall and over the crossbar with the last kick of the first half.

“It was draining to play against a team like that at that level, really, really draining,” admitted Ashanike, when asked about his thoughts at the break.

“When you haven’t got the ball, you’re working hard and there’s no time to rest.  Richesse (Mvioki) must’ve done about 12k today on the pitch and that’s how much they move the ball really well.

“I told them just to carry on doing what they were doing, express themselves a bit more. It’s a showcase for most of them to try to put themselves in the shop window again.

“We’ve got a lot of boys that have come off an Academy level as well in our squad that we want to promote and try to get them back to that level.  I told them just to go and enjoy yourselves and enjoy the occasion.”

Fisher came out with all guns blazing and Katonia played the ball into the box and Charlton Atheltic centre-half Tate Elliott tripped Clarke and New Zealand born referee Robert Maris pointed to the spot (47 seconds).

Goalkeeper Maclorg dived to his left and stuck out his left hand but failed to save Clarke’s right-footed penalty, which nestled inside the bottom right-hand corner, as Fisher pulled a goal back, with one minute and 41 seconds on the clock.

“Part of the team-talk was to go back to basics and go back to what we do in non-league and get the ball forward and make it a bit ugly for them,” added Ashanike.

“The first time we made it ugly for them and not try to play their game because we got sucked into playing their game because our boys have come from Academy level and they think they can play the same way that they play but we need to remember where we are now.  We play the non-league way and we’ve got a penalty from it and we slot it away. It was a good penalty from Kesna.

“Kesna was at Tooting & Mitcham. He’s someone who we’ve been watching for a few years’ back. He fell out of love with football and just didn’t want to play no more and then he went to Forest Hill Park with my mate Darrell Queeley last season.

“When Darrell resigned from managing Forest Hill, he told me to speak to Kesna. He came in for pre-season and done really well and since then he’s not stopped scoring.  The boy scores goals, the boy can score goals. If you create him chances, he will score and he’s scored in the last three games in a row, so yes, the boy score goals!”

Fisher started to believe in themselves more and had momentum and Brown was knocked off the ball by a hungry Katonia – who latched onto a long ball out of Fisher’s defence by centre-half Ange Djadja.

Katonia took a touch, cut the ball onto his right-foot and curled his shot over the top of the far post from 25-yards.

“Jacob’s lacking a lot of fitness and we thought we give him the minutes in this kind of game would help him get back up to speed,” explained Ashanike.

“I think what we wanted, we got out of the game to be fair. It was a good work-out for the boys that aren’t fit.”

However, Charlton Athletic’s clinical left-back Bower killed off the home side by scoring a third goal with 12 minutes and 5 seconds on the clock.

The impressive Enslin played the ball in from the right into the centre to Fullah, who rolled the ball to Bower, who took a couple of touches before placing his left-footed drive across the diving keeper to find the bottom far corner from 15-yards.

“The first 12-15 minutes of that second half took a lot out of us because we gave it a lot,” admitted the Fisher manager.

“They could see, they were patient. Even though they’ve conceded the penalty, they were patient and they just got us at the right time. It was like a boxing match and they started to jab us all the way through and we couldn’t cope with it.”

When asked when his side started to run out of steam, Ashanike replied: “I feel like we ran out of steam after 45 minutes, I’ll be honest with you, I think after half-time.

“It was really hard because I said to Luke (With, my assistant manager), chasing that kind of speed of the ball and they’re not even letting you get too close to them and by the time you’ve got close to them, they’ve already moved it.

“It was really, really hard. It’s not easy to try to close up and the way we play, we go full on with you. We match it and we want to play at the same pace for 90 minutes and we couldn’t do it today. We couldn’t handle the way they moved the ball today.”

Charlton Athletic headed in a fourth goal with 19 minutes and 34 seconds on the clock, following their third of four corners.

Kedwell floated the ball in from the right and Brown glanced his header across keeper Ogunseri to find the far corner to open his goalscoring account for the season.

“That is very disappointing for me because in non-league, we’re known for competing in the ugly side of the game and set-pieces are the ugly side of the game,” said Ashanike.

“We can’t be conceding set-pieces against an under 21 side, no disrespect to them. I expect them to boss the game in open play but I expect us to be more dominant in set-pieces but we wasn’t dominating on that occasion.”

Clinical Charlton Athletic produced a well-worked move to score their fifth goal, timed at 31 minutes and 24 seconds on the clock.

Kedwell switched a diagonal out to the right to Enslin, who brought the ball under control, before feeding Brown, who put the ball into the box and a composed Tagoe skipped past the diving Ogunseri before sweeping the ball into the empty goal.

“He showed a lot of good composure for a young man, really, really good composure,” added Ashanike.

“Charlton are known for having good, good forward players and that shows there. To put someone like Isaac on the floor, to them slot it, take a lot of (confidence) and the boy’s done it and he done it casually as well.”

The Addicks swapped goalkeepers in the 81^st minute with 17-year-old Jude Sadler coming on for 19-year-old MacLorg and Fisher’s substitute right-winger Diego Makesa put the ball in from the right for Mbuenimo, who cracked a half-volley past the right-hand post from 25-yards.

Charlton Athletic scored their sixth goal of the game with 39 minutes and 40 seconds on the clock.

Elliott played the ball out of defence and two subs, Brown and striker Emmanuel Sol-Loza linked up before Tagoe clinically stroked a low right-footed drive across the diving keeper to find the bottom far corner of the goal from 15-yards.

“You can tell that they work on finishing. They’re finishing all of their goals, look totally the same. All their goals, all the finishing, side-netting, really, really good. Really, really class act from them and you can tell why they’ve won it for the last two years, so you can tell why they’re winning it.”

Another substitute, Phoenix Valentine hit a first-time shot which was comfortably gathered by Ogunseri, before spirited Fisher went close to scoring a second goal (43:13).

Sata played the ball out of defence and substitute lone striker Teddy Jones superbly turned his marker before cutting onto his right-foot to crack a stunning right-footed drive, which screamed across the diving Sadler and only just cleared the top of the far post from 25-yards.

“Teddy’s been waiting patiently since he’s lost his shirt to Kesna, who just can’t stop scoring, but he’s come in and he had a point to prove tonight and he was so unlucky to not hit the back of the net. I thought that was actually going top corner,” added Ashanike.

When asked how his goalkeeper was feeling, after conceding six goals tonight, Ashanike replied: “He’s alright! Like I said to the boys after, we’ve got to have it like a pre-season vibe. We’ve got to have it as a game that we erase from my memory very quick. We’ve enjoyed the occasion.

“We didn’t really create the atmosphere around the game in our camp because there’s levels in this game and we knew that our main focus is our league and the cup games that we can handle.

“These sort of games, you have to appreciate the level of opposition that you’re playing against and I’m a real person and I’ll be very stupid enough to say ‘we’re going to go and beat them, we’re going to do this.’

“We know our level and we know when we can compete and when we don’t need to complete. I thought they done really well for themselves tonight but they’ve just got too much for us honestly.

“Our fans’ have been absolutely brilliant from the start of the season, even when we went through a bad patch, they were really supporting us. It will be good to get three hundred every week – we appreciate all of the support that you give us – and you’re always our 12^th man.”

Fisher welcome in-form Jimmy Anderson’s Rusthall here on Saturday.

VCD Athletic remain at the summit with 36 points from their 15 games, while the four play-off places contain Faversham Town (33 points from 14 games), Fisher (28 points from 16 games), Punjab United (28 points from 15 games) and Corinthian (24 points from 14 games).

Rusthall come here on the back of a six match unbeaten run and in fifteenth-place in the pecking order, having picked up 16 points from their 15 games.

“We played Rusthall and we beat them 3-0 at their place (on 31 August) but they’re a different side now,” admitted Ashanike, whose side had won their last four games before tonight, keeping three clean sheets in the process.

“They’ve got Yassin Fares, they’ve got Louie Clarke back (from an ACL injury), so they look more of an attacking force now and we need to be cautious but we play differently when it comes to a League game. Our mentality is different when it comes to a league game so I expect us to come out and our league mentality will be back.

“Our league position at the moment means nothing to us. Right now, what matters is to pick up three points every single week.

“I’m more focused and more determined to do really well this year. You’ve got a different Ajay this year. I’ve just got more focus and I’m not going to take nothing but 100 per cent attitude, 100 per cent commitment and I’m seeing a difference from my team as well now that I have changed.

“They’re buying into what I want to do. They’re buying into my way of playing. Sometimes, it doesn’t have to be pretty. The last three games has not been pretty but we’ve won them.”

When asked about mounting a serious play-off push this season, the Fisher manager replied: “Everyone’s asking me that! For a club like Fisher, I think to do better than what we did last season is my aim, just to do better than (finishing fourteenth).  It sounds cliché but anything else is a profit or a bonus for us. It’s just looking forward to what this season will bring for us.”

Fisher: Isaac Ogunseri, Jack Gibbons, Edward Sata, Abdoulaye Ly Athie, Ange Djadja, Mayvin Vigneswaran, Halim Bakre (Diego Makesa 65), Richesse Mvioki, Kesna Clarke (Teddy Jones 70), Tyron Mbuenimo, Jacob Katonia (Toluwa Junaid 65).
Subs: Courtney Barrington, Jake Lovell

Goal: Kesna Clarke 47 (penalty)

Booked: Edward Sata 45

Charlton Athletic: Lennon MacLorg (Jude Sadler 81), Ollie Hobden (Ethan Brown 45), Toby Bower, Harvey Kedwell, Tate Elliott, Mason Hunter, Bradley Tagoe, Jacob Safa, Henry Rylah (Emmanuel Sol-Loza 70), Ibrihim Fullah, Kai Enslin (Phoenix Valentine 81).
Sub: Alan Mwahba

Goals: Henry Rylah 8, Toby Bower 40, 58, Ethan Brown 65, Bradley Tagoe 77, 86

Booked: Kai Enslin 31, Ethan Brown 62

Attendance: 310
Referee: Mr Robert Maris
Assistants: Mr Damian Jaskiewicz & Mr Alfie Howden
Observer:  Mr Deryll David