Fisher - St Paul's Sports Ground

Fisher FC
St Paul's Sports Ground
Salter Road
Rotherhithe
London
SE16 5EF

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Ground: 134
Date: Saturday 5th March 2022
Fisher 1-2 Lordswood
Southern Counties East League Premier Division
Attendance: 159 (official)

Fisher - History

Fisher were founded in 2009 by members of the Fisher Supporters Club after the demise of Fisher Athletic, who took their name from Catholic martyr Saint John Fisher. The new club were placed in the Kent League and initially groundshared with Dulwich Hamlet (just as their predecessors did in their final few years) before moving into their current ground in 2016.

The new club struggled in their first few seasons in the Kent League (which changed name to the Southern Counties East League for the 2013/14 season), finishing bottom in the 2010/11 season and finishing in the bottom half in every other season until a second-from-bottom finish in the 2016/17 saw the club relegated to Division 1 of the Southern Counties East League.

This relegation rejuvenated the club as they finished 3rd to secure an immediate return to the Premier Division. Then, in their first season back at Premier Division level, they finished 3rd and missed out on the title by just six points. After that success, the manager resigned and the seasons since have seen the club return to mid-table in the Premier Division.

In the FA Cup, the club's best run saw them reach the 1st Qualifying Round last season as they beat Horsham YMCA and Tooting & Mitcham United before losing to Cray Wanderers. Their best FA Vase run came in the 2019/20 season when they beat Greenwich Borough in the 1st Round before losing to Glebe in the 2nd Round.

My Visit

Having tried and failed to go into London for football several times this season already, I was determined to get a couple of grounds ticked off in London this season, with one of those set to be Wealdstone at the end of the season (if they get their ground sorted out by then so they can have fans in again). As for the other date I'd head into London, after Athletic Newham's expulsion from the FA Vase last month I realised that the 5th of March would be the only other opportunity I'd have to head into London.

So, in trying to draw up a broad groundhopping plan for the rest of the season, I started to assess my options on the Futbology app in early February, drawing up a shortlist of eight grass options and two 3G options as a starting point. From there, my plan was to put some polls up on Twitter last week to narrow that down to a list of four grass options and then to decide on my first choice, but due to Storm Eunice I ended up doing all of that two weeks ago instead.

The first phase of polls had the following pairings: Erith & Belvedere against Sporting Club Thamesmead; Lewisham Borough against Newbury Forest (at Redbridge); Hanwell Town against Uxbridge; North Greenford United against Wembley. The winners of these four polls were Erith & Belvedere, Lewisham Borough, Hanwell Town and Wembley and I put those into a final poll as soon as the first one was done.

In the end, as I expected to be the case based on the results from the first round of polls, Hanwell Town won at an absolute landslide. I was satisfied with this outcome, as I'd already intended to go to Hanwell Town once this season (when they hosted Eastbourne Borough in the FA Cup back in September) but been unable to for reasons I cannot remember now. I also decided on Fisher as my first-choice 3G option, in case all four of those matches ended up being postponed.

Though that had been decided, I still had two weeks to wait and so I made sure to do my research on the routes required for each, the associated travel costs and the matchday costs themselves. I also made sure to buy my train tickets into London a week in advance to get the cheaper prices, before carrying out my research on Hanwell Town themselves yesterday in preparation for the blog.

Yesterday, I was dropped off at the train station at around 11:40am and got some cash out for this week and next week before collecting my train tickets. My train left fifteen minutes later and arrived at St. Pancras at around 1:15pm, giving me plenty of time to have lunch and read on the train. From there, I headed onto the Underground and got onto the Victoria line heading to Oxford Circus, where I intended to change to the Central line to get to Perivale.

However, I soon became aware of a problem: the PA was announcing that there were severe delays on the Central line. Initially, I thought I would just risk it and head to Hanwell anyway as I still had plenty of time before kick-off, but I didn't want to leave myself at risk of missing my train after the game due to the delays. This meant I had to reroute somewhere, but being on the move already seriously limited my options.

The only choice I could think of on the spot was to stay on the train I was on, but get off at Green Park instead and change to the Jubilee line to head to Canada Water and go to Fisher. Normally, I'd be unhappy with "wasting" a 3G option like this, but there are enough of those in London that it really doesn't matter. Eventually, I got off at Canada Water a few minutes before 2pm and arrived at the ground around 20 minutes later, having taken a more circuitous route than was really necessary as I kept making mistakes with following Google Maps.

After taking a photo of a sign on the outside of the ground, I headed through the turnstile and paid £8 for admission and £2 for a programme before doing my usual circuit of photos. Once this was done, I took a seat in the main stand to get out of the rain and remained there until a few minutes before the final whistle (as by that point it was almost 5pm due to all the stoppage time and I wanted to get out quickly to get back to the Tube, just to be sure I wouldn't miss my train).

As I hadn't expected to end up at this match, I'd not had a chance to look at the league table until I checked in on the Futbology app before kick-off (hence why my photo of the table is from the programme and not my usual source), but I was aware that Lordswood were in danger of relegation this season. In truth, I really wasn't expecting too much from this match, but I hoped to see Lordswood put up a good fight at least.

Lordswood made a strong start to proceedings and took the lead in the 12th minute through Nat Murray: a shot from the edge of the box was pushed onto the crossbar by Fisher keeper Tommy Taylor before dropping back into the box to another attacker, who squared it to Murray for an easy tap-in at the far post.

Having established an early lead, Lordswood settled into a pattern of trying to play out from the back and started to invite pressure onto themselves in the process. It took a while for Fisher to convert this pressure into serious chances, but in the 23rd minute they should have equalised when a cross eluded Lordswood keeper George Bentley and left an attacker with a free header at the far post. Somehow, the header hit another player on the line and bounced down off the crossbar before eventually being pounced on by Bentley.

Four minutes later, Fisher found an equaliser when Julio Da Mata beat Bentley to a loose ball outside the box and passed to Vincent Follea for an easy finish from range into the empty net. Much of the rest of the half saw Fisher pin Lordswood back in their own half in search of a second goal, but they struggled to break through a stubborn defensive line. On the stroke of half-time, Bentley made up for his earlier mistake by getting down low to push a powerful shot from 30 yards past the post.

Fisher started the second half on the front foot, but continued to be frustrated by their struggles to threaten the Lordswood goal. They did go close to a second goal in the 52nd minute when a Collea shot hit the post, but it was Lordswood who eventually took the lead once more in the 68th minute: on a rare counter-attack, Zak Jakubowski hit an excellent left-footed volley into the net from just outside the box.

Fisher came close to equalising straight from the kick-off when Darnelle Bailey-King ran down the right wing and turned past a defender as he broke into the box before shooting low and forcing another good save out of Bentley. Two minutes later, they were denied by the woodwork once more when Fidan Fejzi curled a shot into the post. Then, in the 73rd minute, Bentley kept Lordswood in the lead with another fantastic save to deny Manny Shoderu's volleyed effort.

The match became very stop-start after this as Lordswood did everything they could to hold onto their lead, eventually managing to frustrate Fisher and hold on for their first win in over four months, although Shoderu came very close to an equaliser in the 88th minute with another shot into the woodwork from just inside the box.

This was a bit of a scrappy match throughout but it was still reasonably entertaining in spells. Other than the first twenty minutes, Fisher were dominant but were constantly denied by either the woodwork (I feel like I've never seen a team hit the woodwork so much in one match before) or the excellent goalkeeping of George Bentley, though at times I thought they were guilty of overplaying or making the wrong decisions in the final third. For their part, Lordswood scored with virtually their only two chances and then did very well to hold on, having to really dig deep at times to relieve the pressure and secure just their third win of the season.

While this was not my intended destination at the start of the day, I still enjoyed this groundhop well enough, not least because it was plain to see that Fisher are a club very much rooted in the community; it's a rarity to attend a Step 5 game where the fans generate a genuine atmosphere, but Fisher managed it even though the result went against them.

It was almost 5pm by the time the full-time whistle blew and I made a quick exit through the turnstile when it did. This time, I made sure to follow Google Maps more carefully and ended up taking a far simpler route back to Canada Water than the one I had taken to the ground. Progress on the Tube was quick as well despite it being busy and this meant I ended up back at St. Pancras with half an hour to spare before my train left.

The problem with heading back to Peterborough from St. Pancras instead of King's Cross is that it takes well over an hour, with this meaning I was set to arrive back at Peterborough station by 7:35pm. With this being likely to be while my mum was having dinner, she booked a taxi for me to get home instead.

As a result, I wasn't back in the house until just after 8pm, not helped by the driver getting lost due to Google Maps taking him the wrong way. I then had a shower and dinner before sorting out my photos and match report (rather than the other way around as I usually do), meaning I didn't finish the latter until almost 10pm before relaxing for the evening.

Next week, I'll be taking another long trip up north to pay a visit to Horden Community Welfare before their stand is knocked down at the end of the season. Hopefully the weather holds out for that, but I have a couple of back-ups in place if things do go awry with the weather.

The Ground

St Paul's Sports Ground is a fairly basic new build (having opened in 2016) that is set in a pleasantly rural area of south London. There are just two areas of cover at the ground, both of which are the standard Arena structures: on the near side is a 150-seater Arena stand and behind the near goal is an Arena terrace which provides cover for around 200 people. The clubhouse is positioned on the near side next to the main stand and provides hot drinks and snacks in terms of matchday refreshments, with no hot food being available.

The rest of the ground is open hard standing enclosed by wooden fencing, though this is very compact behind the far goal and on the far side. This means that a complete circuit of the ground is impossible, as the hard standing on the far side only extends as far as each dugout due to space constraints. Nearby Canary Wharf provides an interesting backdrop behind the far goal.

Photos