Fisher 0-1 Faversham Town - We know we can play better than that but we've won 1-0 at Fisher, which is a difficult place, says Faversham Town boss Tommy Warrilow

Fisher 0 – 1 Faversham Town
Location	St Paul's Stadium, Salter Road, Rotherhithe, London SE16 6NT
Kickoff	24/08/2024 15:00

FISHER  0-1  FAVERSHAM TOWN
The Isuzu FA Vase First Qualifying Round
Saturday 24 August 2024
Stephen McCartney reports from St Paul’s Stadium

FAVERSHAM TOWN manager Tommy Warrilow has dismissed the claim that his side are one of the favourites to go far in The FA Vase this season after grinding out a win over winless Fisher at the first hurdle.

The Lilywhites have extended their unbeaten run to six games at the start of the season and booked a trip to Combined Counties League Premier Division South side Sheerwater on 21 September after Jake Lovell’s 30^th minute own goal settled this cagey First Qualifying Round tie at a wet St Paul’s.

Faversham Town went into this tie sitting in eighth-place in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division table with a 4-0 win over Glebe and two draws against Holmesdale (1-1) and Kennington (2-2).

Warrilow’s men came away from Hailsham with a 1-0 win over Bexhill United in The FA Cup and kept faith with the same starting 11 that sealed a 3-2 win at ten-man Isthmian League South East Division side Littlehampton Town last Sunday.

Fisher, meanwhile, are the only side in the ninth-tier division without a league point after losing to Punjab United (0-1), Lordswood (1-4) and Erith & Belvedere (1-2) and also exited The FA Cup at the first hurdle after losing 5-2 at home to much-fancied Redhill.

“It’s a 1-0 win, obviously I’m not going to disrespect Fisher, I think they do fantastic down here with what they do. It’s a difficult place to come and the most important thing is to get the result, which we’ve done,” said Warrilow, after winning his maiden FA Vase tie as a manager.

When asked why Fisher is a hard place to go to, Warrilow replied: “Because they’re just an honest, hardworking set of lads that Ajay has got to take the full plaudits for.  It’s never going to have an easy game against Fisher, no matter if you’re home or away.  They’ve been in all of the games they’ve been playing so far, and you can see that from today.

“The athleticism of their side is very, very good. They’ve got some brilliant individual footballers and yes, they’re going to cause teams problems.

“It was just a cagey game. Listen, it was always going to be cagey. They’re sat behind the ball. Like I said to the lads, a lot of teams are going to do that with us this year, hoping to hit us on counter-attacks and it’s not the first time and it’s not going to be the last time.”

Fisher boss Ajay Ashanike added: “Obviously gutted that we’re out of The Vase. It's a trophy that everyone at Step Five and Step Six wants to win or get to Wembley. A few of my mates played at Wembley last season, which is something you want to do as a manager and as a player but we’re playing against one of the best teams in the league and it showed that today.  We just can’t compete against the big teams yet but we’ll get there.”

A crowd of 173 witnessed a cagey game and centre-half Ben Gorham, who went to school in Bermondsey, was the last Faversham player to touch the ball following a corner that lead to the own goal that sealed their passage.

Warrilow is working with a 17 man squad and left out Bermondsey native Luke Rooney from his squad, while Ashanike has now used 27 players in their five League and Cup ties already this season.

Fisher brought back Michael Sarpong on a dual-registration spell from Isthmian League South East Division side Sevenoaks Town. 

Meanwhile, clubs are now allowed to play loan players in the competition this season, after Sammy Moore’s Faversham were thrown out last season after playing a loan player (Jefferson Aibangbee) in a 4-0 win at Horsham YMCA at this stage of the tournament.

Central midfielder Sarpong was forced off the pitch after a 20 minute cameo due to an ankle injury, while Fisher centre-half Mayvin Vigneswaran played on with a knock to his back, while attacking midfielder Diego Makesa was withdrawn due to a rib injury.

A game of little chances, Faversham Town’s left-back Bradley Simms looped six long throws into the Fisher penalty area and centre-half Callum Davies’ towering header sailed over the top of the near post after 238 seconds.

The home side produced a well-worked move in the 12^th minute when Makesa played a diagonal pass towards right-winger Lovell, who rolled the ball back from within the right channel towards right-back Jack Gibbons, who took a touch before whipping in a cross which he tried to catch out visiting goalkeeper Jacob Russell, who stepped to his left to gather, after leaving a massive gap at his near-post.

Both manager’s were asked about their game plan today.

Ashanike said: “The game plan was to make sure we’re as horrible as we can for them, don’t leave ourselves open and stay compact.  We knew that their full-backs are their threats and we just had to nullify that from the word go.

“I thought we done really well over the 90. We stopped the crosses coming in. We put a lot of tackles in, obviously they did the same thing, but their quality showed.”

Warrilow simply added: “Just to get a result! Full stop.  It’s The Vase, just to win, get into the next round.  We’ve got another game Monday in the league. That’s my next focus now, so yes, listen this is an old adjective or whatever people say, but today was about getting into the next round of The Vase.

“Everyone knows what the Vase is all about. We’re no different, so we came here today and the job was just to get a result.”

Faversham Town’s two full-backs Simms and Tariq Ossai were high, while holding midfielder Sam Hasler pinged numerous long balls with his left-foot, often dropping in to make it a back three alongside Gorham and skipper Davies.

The game sprung into life with Faversham Town fizzing in a shot at goal after 25 uninspiring minutes.

Simms launched his third long throw in from the right channel.  Fisher centre-half Ange Djadja cleared his lines with a header, the ball was cracked left-footed by Billy Bennett, which deflected past the far post from 16-yards.

“I don’t remember Jacob (Russell) making a save,” said Warrilow.

“I thought we played some good stuff in the first half.  We’ve had a goal chalked off for offside, which I don’t know if it was or if it wasn’t.

“But listen, I don’t care.  The most important thing is we win and we’re in the next round of The Vase.”

Impressive Fisher right-back Jack Gibbons often set off some breakaways and encouraged his team-mates and he put the ball into the Faversham penalty area in the 27^th minute, the ball deflected off Davies and goalkeeper Jacob Russell reacted well to push the ball over his crossbar.

Ashanike said: “Jack’s done really well since he’s come back from uni. He’s come in really matured especially going up north, really made him into a man and we can see the benefit of him going up north to play as well.  The boys are learning from him as well. He’s still young and he’s still got to do a lot for him.”

Warrilow added: “That’s what I mean, it was scrappy, wasn’t it?  It wasn’t really a chance. It was just a ball in that Callum sort of shanked a little bit, but Jacob’s just pushed it over, so you’re scratching for things.

“Listen, you get games like this. For me, it’s about, like I said, the most important thing is the result.”

Ashanike added: “It was (cagey). That’s exactly what we wanted. If we tried to play the way we are comfortable to play, that opens up a lot of space for them and they’ll find pockets and they will punish us.  That’s how much quality they have in that team so as long as we kept it very, very ugly and very tight, I believe we can nick something.

“We had chances where we could’ve gone forward and done something better but obviously the lack of quality we had going forward was killing us today.”

Ashanike, meanwhile, was asked how he attracts players to the club when he doesn’t have a playing budget.

“I work hard! Sunday football, showcase, watching You Tube videos. It’s crazy, it’s crazy. You’ve just got to work hard when you’ve got no budget you just can’t go and grab and plan what you want.”

And when asked about coming up against one of the biggest names in Kent football management in Warrilow, the Aveley-based Ashanike replied: “Do you know what, those types of gaffers have got, People still forget I’m only 35 and when you face up against an experienced gaffer whose been there and just see how they do things, it’s really, really mind blowing. I was looking forward to sharing a dug-out with Tommy and see how we got on.”

Ossai threw the ball to an often unpressed Hasler, who drilled a low left-footed drive from 35-yards, which forced Fisher goalkeeper Isaac Ogunseri to dive low to his right and use a strong right-hand to push the ball behind for a corner.

Faversham Town sealed the deal following the resulting corner, their second of four corners, timed at 29 minutes and 7 seconds on the clock.

Hasler floated the ball in with his left-foot from the left towards a crowd of players, the ball was flicked on and Gorham’s towering header looped over a crowd of players and clipped the underside of the crossbar, as the ball was heading towards the top far corner.

The ball bounced off the head off Lovell, standing on his own beside the left-hand post and found the top left-hand corner.

“It summed the game up, I think,” admitted Warrilow.

“It was a bit of a scrappy game. It’s nice for us to scorer from a set-piece.  Obviously, we won the first phase and the second phase of the ball, so that’s the pleasing thing.  Whether it’s on its way in or whatever, I don’t know but listen, 1-0, go home and forget about it and go again Monday.”

Ashanike added: “There’s not much Jake can do with that. It’s hit the bar and it’s hit him and it’s gone in.

“I’m shouting on the touchline when the ball’s dead, we didn’t stay alive in there and they’ve punished us.  That one second of quality for 90 minutes and they’ve scored it, and they’ve won the game 1-0.

“If we switch on we (would’ve) taken them to penalties today.  It’s a lottery and anyone can win it.”

Both sides tented to keep narrow with their width often coming from full-backs and Kieron Campbell found himself in a central position and fed the ball along the deck to Faversham striker Tashi-Jay Kwayie but he was denied by Ogunseri’s outstretched left leg in a one-on-one situation but the game’s best chance was to be cut out by Pasquale Acierno’s offside flag in the 34^th minute.

Davies pumped a long ball out of Faversham’s defence, Fisher goalkeeper Ogunseri found himself in no-man’s land and lost the ball to Kwayie on the by-line and he cut inside before teeing up Campbell, whose drilled right-footed shot from 35-yards deflected over the crossbar.

Both manager’s were asked their thoughts at the break.

Ashanike said: “More of the same.  Look, as a collective from 1-11 they were absolutely superb. They took the game plan really well and when you’re not giving people like Billy (Bennett) and Kieron (Campbell) spaces to hurt you, they can’t hurt you and that’s what we’ve done for almost 90 minutes.

“I think they’ve had two shots on target from open play in the whole 90 minutes. That’s good for a team like that and we’ve done really well.

“We changed our system a bit to try to go and hurt them. We were 1-0 down, we changed our tactics a bit.  We had two up top and I thought it really worked. It stretched them a bit more. It allowed us to get forward a bit more and the ball wasn’t in our half as much as it was bit I believed they matched it and they got hold of the game again, as soon as they matched it.”

Warrilow added: “It was just a bit flat. We have to be a bit more inventive because like I said teams will sit off us and we’ve got to get better movement, so I’ve got some good players in there.

“I just thought we were a little bit, not lethargic but we lacked a little bit of inventiveness.”

Ashanike switched formation to four, a narrow midfield three, Courtney Barrington behind a front two of Lovell and Alvin Reji.

But it was Faversham Town that created the first chance of the second half when Nathan Wood fed Kwayie in behind Vigneswaran, the ball sat up for the former Phoenix Sports striker to hit a right-footed half-volley across the keeper and harmlessly past the far post from 18-yards.

Fisher midfielder Billy Brown delivered a long throw in line with the 18-yard line but striker Reji knocked his header straight into the hands of Russell for a comfortable catch at the near-post.

Warrilow showed his strength-in-depth when he brought on double-strikers Stefan Payne (37 goals last season) and Daniel Thomson, replacing Kwayie and Frannie Collin for the last 21 minutes.

“We’ve got a game Monday so I said at half-time I might freshen it up,” explained Warrilow.

“Fran (Collin) and Tash (Kwayie) are different types of players to Paynie and Tommo, so I just thought I’d change it like-for-like.

“We went with three at the back and put (Matthew) Newman in there to try to push Bradley (Simms) and Tariq (Ossai) up and I think it helped us a little but we’ve kept a clean-sheet and all I keep saying that because that’s all that matters today.”

When asked about Sarpong’s injury status, Ashanike revealed: “He’s done his ankle straight away. As soon as he came in that was the injury he had before he came to us from Sevenoaks but he’s had a little knock on it again.  We’re going to asses it and see where he is because I need everyone for Monday. It’s a massive blow when you sign someone like that and they train on Thursday.  The lift that he gave the boys.

“I wanted to start him today, but I just wanted to be fair to the boys in our squad that have been working hard with us.  The opportunity to play against a massive team like this.

“We’re not going to have Michael for long. He’s only on (dual-reg) for a couple of weeks and he’s going to go back to his club again. He’s only on (dual-reg) to get match fitness.”

Ashanike felt it was “game over” when Warrilow brought on the likes of Payne and Thompson.

“When you bring on quality like that, it just shows you what strength they’ve got in that squad  - how can you compete against someone like that every single week?!

“Having that might be a blessing for the gaffer but you can’t get those players unless you’re a good manager and that’s what people need to realise because people go ‘they’ve got this money, they’ve got that money’ you can have all the best players and if it doesn’t click, it doesn’t click as a manager.

“But I think he’s (Warrilow) done really well. He’s done really well with the squad. They’re drilled really well and even in stages you can see how they’ve managed the game.

“I don’t believe you have to beat a team five or six nil every week to show how good they are.  You can see how good and quality they had in their team, even though they’ve beaten us 1-0.  The level they showed on the pitch at every single stage, showed.”

Faversham Town were to be denied a second goal by the 19-year-old former Dorking Wanderers goalkeeper Ogunseri.

Simms’ long throw from the left was allowed to bounce on the edge of the Fisher box, Thompson laid the ball off for Bennett, who wheeled away in celebration after hitting a right-footed drive towards the bottom left-hand corner from 20-yards, only for the goalkeeper to use a strong right hand to make a big save (34:16).

“We had a good chance second half. I think Bill should hit that with laces, not the side-foot but the one thing the boys have done today, they’ve given their all again. They’ve worked hard up and down defensively,” added Warrilow.

Ashanike said: “Isaac is a big fella. He should be making saves like that and we’re expecting him to make saves like that.  It was a top drawer save.  I thought it was going to the left, he came back to the right.  Billy thought he scored because normally that is a goal for him.

“Isaac is a top keeper, he (was) playing for Dorking Wanderers Reserves last season and he’s had a lot of experience playing and training with ex-pros so that save is something we’re expecting him to be making anyway.”

Fisher had a bit of a late go, creating a couple of headed chances.

Left-back Edward Sata reached the channel before feeding Barrington on the left and he floated the ball into the penalty area where holding midfielder Tyron Mbuenimo looped his header over the top of the right-hand post (34:51).

“These are half-chances. It wasn’t a clear header but if we flip the switch and it was them going into that header, they test the keeper, so that’s the quality that we’re talking about.  The last bit of quality that we need to get back to what Fisher is about,” admitted Ashanike.

Gibbons should have capped off an impressive performance by snatching the equaliser to force a penalty shoot-out (38:29).

Substitute midfielder Armani-Jordan floated in a great corner from the left where an unmarked Gibbons guided his downward header across Russell and agonisingly past the far post from 12-yards.

“I thought we had scored! I thought we scored there. He’s bypassed everyone, he’s guided it really well. I don’t think he could do any more than that. It just whistled past that back post but that’s just that luck that we need and right now we could do with a bit of luck.”

Faversham Town professionally ran the clock down for the seven minutes and 42 seconds of stoppage time, as Fisher (whose players are not paid) didn’t have the quality needed to cause an upset.

Warrilow admitted: “We know we can play better than that but we’ve won 1-0 at Fisher. It’s a difficult place to come, so we’ll just move away from that and we’ll concentrate now on the Whitstable game.”

Both sides have local derbies on Bank Holiday Monday, 26 August (15:00), with Fisher hosting Stansfeld, while Warrilow takes his side to play Jamie Coyle’s Whitstable Town.

Bottom-four side Stansfeld have picked up just one point from their first four league games and Billy Shinners’ men lost 3-1 at home to now second-placed side Holmesdale in the only league game played in the division today.

“Monday’s derby, everyone knows what it’s about. We have to dust ourselves off and make sure we’ve got everyone available for that game because if everyone’s available we’re a very good side,” said Ashanike.

“It will be a good game. It will be end-to-end. I think Stansfeld will be up for it because it’s a local derby and anything can happen.  I can’t remember how many times I’ve lost to them. It’s a game that everyone looks forward to, especially for the fans. It’s a big day for the fans.

“I’m not panicking. I know my ambition is to stay in the league and that’s the first thing on my mind. How many points do we need to stay in the league?

“Our league is not easy. It’s really, really brutal and I think this is one of the best Step Five league’s that you can ever be in. 

“I’m not concerned (with our current league position). I have faith in the boys. It's a brand new squad. I’m getting to know some of the boys. It’s going to take a bit of time but it’s not going to be long!”

Whitstable Town, meanwhile, came away from Corinthian-Casuals with a 4-1 win in The FA Vase and are in eleventh-place with four points from three games.  Faversham Town are now in ninth-place on five points.

“We’ve let a couple of goals in, in the last couple of minutes so at least this time we’ve kept a clean-sheet so that’s a positive to build on but listen we know we can play a lot better than that,” admitted Warrilow.

“But I’m not going to disrespect Fisher because they’ve got a game plan and they’ve got to play to their strengths and we’ve just got to concentrate on ourselves so I don’t see why everyone thinks we’re going to come here and roll teams over. One, it’s disrespectful and two it doesn’t happen at this level.

“From the outside looking in, what’s the word I’m looking for?  Like I keep saying to people, it won’t matter if we win here today, we’re supposed to win here. If we lose today here, it’s a massive upset and we’re going to get that the whole season.”

When asked how he will deal with the expectation and the title-winning favourites tag, Warrilow replied: “You don’t. You just get on with it!  I said to the boys, that’s where you want to be in teams like that because you are favourites going into every game.

“You’re going to get a lot of stick because you’re going to get no recognition for winning games of football because of the stigma around the football club, so you’ve got to have good character and you’ve got to manage that and me as a manger I don’t mind that because this is probably the first club I’ve been at where I’ve managed where we should be favourites and we should be doing well.

“I don’t want to lose what the expectations are here so I don’t mind that. I said to the boys you’ve got to embrace that and grow with it as well because we’ve won here today 1-0 and you’re going to get is ‘it’s only 1-0’ and I just think it’s disrespectful for the sides we play against.”

Faversham Town should be one of the favourites to have a long run in The FA Vase this season – but Warrilow is having none of it!

“See what I mean, why’s that then?  You say that and I’m like who else is in it? There’s some big teams in it.

“Listen, we’re going to get that. We were playing Bexhill in The FA Cup and I was speaking to someone who said ‘we should roll them!’ and I said ‘Why? What do you know about Bexhill?’ He went ‘nothing’ and I said ‘why should we roll them?’ and we both started laughing and that’s what I’m saying about favourites and we probably are but hand on heart I don’t know half the teams that are in this Vase at the moment.  I’ve not really looked at it.

“You said who we’re playing in the next round and I’ve not really looked because I was concentrating on beating Fisher.  It’s a shock that we’re away, we’re away all the time. It’s just one of those things. I just don’t take nothing for granted.

“Sheerwater is another toughie. Listen, I know nothing about them.  Obviously, I will do prior to playing them btu my thoughts aren’t with them at all. My thoughts now are on Whitstable on Monday.

“To me there’s no point going there (Whitstable) and winning and jumping up and down or going there and losing and getting two under.  You’ve just got to deal with it.

“They’re obviously picking up momentum.  We know Whitstable are a very good side on paper, so it’s hopefully going to be a big crowd there and it’s a good day but we know we have to perform a little bit better than what we did today but today was just about grinding out a result and battling away, so I think they’ll be two different games.”

Fisher: Isaac Ogunseri, Jack Gibbons, Edward Sata, Tyron Mbuenimo, Ange Djadja, Mayvin Vigneswaran, Courtney Barrington (Jehovany Kinzonzi 86), Billy Brown (Armani-Jordan Martin 68), Alvin Reji (Teddy Jones 60), Diego Makesa (Michael Sarpong 46, Ayuub Ali 75)), Jake Lovell.

Faversham Town: Jacob Russell, Tariq Ossai, Bradley Simms, Sam Hasler, Callum Davies, Ben Gorham, Kieron Campbell (Matthew Newman 69), Billy Bennett, Tashi-Jay Kwayie (Stefan Payne 69), Frannie Collin (Daniel Thompson 69), Nathan Wood (Henry Muggeridge 77).
Sub: Johan Caney-Bryan

Goal: Jake Lovell 30 (own goal)

Attendance: 173
Referee: Mr Robert Alderton
Assistants: Mr Pasquale Acierno & Mr Jake Hinckson

*Apologies, following publication, Fisher secretary confirmed that Michael Sarpong is on dual-registration terms with Sevenoaks Town and that goalkeeper Isaac Ogunseri departed Dorking Wanderers in the summer.  The match report has been updated.