Southern Counties East League Premier Division
Honey Lane, Otham
Admission including Programme: £8.00
Attendance: 227
At the conclusion of the morning game at Staplehurst, a convoy of groundhoppers in their cars hurriedly made their way seven miles northwards to Honey Lane for this game one step up, in the Premier Division. Fortunately, again there was plenty of parking available, in a wooded area immediately outside of the ground.
Entrance to the ground is through an improvised arch, adorned with a welcome sign, and fixture board to one side, with admission paid for, along with a programme included, at a wooden hut, allowing access through a metal turnstile. Just beyond the turnstile, an impressive array of club merchandise was on offer at a portable shop unit, whilst to the right of the entrance, there are several open air wooden picnic tables. Behind these are a couple of green portakabins, with further connected large green portakabins located towards the corner flag, housing the changing rooms and a decent sized clubhouse, with hot food also available. Beyond the picnic tables there are a couple of modern metallic stands, one all-seater and one for standing. Hard standing stretches around the ground, with the opposite length lined by a short hedge, diving the main pitch from junior ones. One end closest to the clubhouse has a practice area behind it, whilst the other has farmland close behind the perimeter fence. In a remote location, this is a smart and pleasantly rural ground to enjoy, peaceful and with green surroundings.
Bearsted have made a steady start to their season, coming into this game in 13th place, following three wins and three draws from their opening ten league games. Quite surprisingly, Fisher have made a poor start to their, and were at the foot of the table, picking up just one win and two draws from their opening eight league games.
With the bright sunshine continuing into the afternoon, Fisher made a decent start to this game despite their lowly position in the table, but Bearsted opened the scoring in 17 minutes, when Jon Rogers swung a free kick in from the right, and a virtually unmarked Ollie Freeman headed the ball emphatically into the top right corner.
Fisher started the second half strongly, forcing an excellent save followed by a good block on 49 minutes, but they did equalise on 51 minutes when the ball was passed out to Luke Thomas on the right wing, who passed first time into the path of Jacob Katonia, a quick turn in the box sent a defender onto his backside, and Katonia guided the ball low past the keeper. But parity was to only last a couple of minutes, when Bearsted went back in front when a quick passing move from deep inside their own half ended with the ball being pinged out to the right wing to Jordan Ababio, who took a touch before sending in a low tantalising cross from the right across the penalty area., for Freeman to tap home at the far post. The game became a little scrappy, and the game seemed to be meandering towards a narrow home victory, but in the second minute of added on time, Fisher came oh so close to grabbing a much needed share of the points when Darnelle Bailey-King ran onto a ball over the top, sprinted into the penalty area and dinked the ball past the keeper, only to see the ball bounce back off the post, and the follow up goalbound shot was cleared acrobatically by a defender. Defeat was indeed slightly harsh on Fisher, who remained three points adrift of safety, while Bearsted rose to 13th by the end of the weekend.
Video footage of the goals can be viewed by clicking here
Extended video highlights can be viewed by clicking here
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