A tale of two halves.
Fisher FC arrived at the Crowborough Community Stadium with the reputation of a side that can score goals, play an attacking fast paced style but struggle to keep a clean sheet, hence the reason they were next to bottom in the table.
From their previous thirteen league games they had scored eighteen goals and conceded thirty-three, which seemed to back up what people had said about them and what had been witnessed by their opponents in previous games this season.
Therefore, it seemed that the fans at yesterday's game would be in for seeing an exciting match, full of goal-mouth excitement and plenty of neat passing and movement, especially since the Crows put six goals past Deal Town the previous Saturday.
To be fair that's how the match started with the pace and movement of McLeod-Bentley, Williams and Roche causing the defence of the Crows plenty of problems whilst Treleaven, Carrington and Attwood were doing the same at the other end to the Fisher defence.
The first attacking effort of the match saw Attwood brought down by Wason some thirty five yards out when it looked like he may be clear through on goal, a challenge which brought a yellow card for the tall central defender after only 2 minutes, unfortunately, the resulting free kick was wasted as it sailed beyond the far post and out for a goal kick.
Only 2 minutes later though it was 1-0 to the Fish, Williams breaking through and composing himself before slotting the ball past the rather exposed Ellis in the Crows goal and the visitors were leading.
The attacking intent of both teams was evident as the play switched from one end to the other, Treleaven having a couple of good efforts at goal and the visitors still looked a threat whenever they had the ball either in midfield or up front.
After 12 minutes Wason committed another foul, this time on Walder, which many thought was more deserving of a caution than his first tackle did, however, the match referee decided that a stiff talking to, with their captain in attendance, was suffice on this occasion and therefore, Wason escaped any further punishment.
For the next 20 minutes it was very much nip and tuck as both sides looked to make that incisive incision, just like a cosmetic surgeon, to either increase their lead or to draw level. The Crows cause wasn't helped in the 26th minute when Treleaven seemed to suffer a groin injury which resulted in him having to be replaced by Clarke in the 31st minute.
However, the next decisive action arrived only a minute later, Turner chesting the ball down and planting a volley past the despairing dive of the Fisher 'keeper, Wadman, from around eight yards out for 1-1.
Still the match remained very even and end to end although clear cut chances were few and far between, mainly due to the final ball not being good enough, the forwards just going too early and getting caught offside or defenders putting their body on the line to deflect the ball away from the respective goal.
Half time was reached with the score at 1-1 and most of the supporters who headed off to get their respective tipple or a bite to eat must have been thinking that this game could still go either way but more goals would definitely be scored, it was just a question of which side would score the most and the next goal was going to be very important.
The Crows hadn't been at their best but credit to Fisher for the way they had played and the style in which they did it. Their cause wasn't helped when Jabbie, one of their experienced defenders, had to be replaced by Eweka due to an injury picked up just before the break and this seemed to unsettle their defence for a while.
Crows then had to make a substitution of their own in the 49th minute, Carey who had taken a knock in the first half, was replaced by new signing Philip Appiah who slotted in as a direct replacement for our captain, Walder taking over the armband.
Gradually the Crows started to get on top and the Fisher forwards became less of a threat as their passing became less accurate, their movement became less effective and our players had more time on the ball.
Eventually, the pressure paid off, a neat move saw our new captain, Walder, finishing the move with a scuffed shot that sent the 'keeper one way whilst the ball went in the other side of the net for 2-1 in the 54th minute. He was rightly mobbed by his teammates as it was his first goal for the club since joining us in the summer.
Tom Boddy picked up a yellow card in the 58th minute for pulling the shirt of the Fisher forward as he went passed him but the free kick was eventually cleared.
The Crows then made it 3-1 as Clarke turned the clock back some ten years as he turned his marker one way and then the other with some tricky foot work before planting the ball past Wadman, in the 62nd minute, much to the delight of all Crow fans.
In the 67th minute 3-1 became 4-1 as Attwood found Carrington on the edge of the area and he blasted the ball to the right hand side of the Fisher stopper, high in to the net, giving Wadman no chance to even get anywhere near it.
It then became visible that some of the Fisher players were becoming disheartened with the game and their effort, concentration and work rate dropped by some degree. Not something you could say about their small band of travelling supporters who sang their hearts out whilst trying to lift their team.
With the game seemingly won, Carrington, who had played well during the whole match, was replaced by Pearson in the 81st minute, whilst in the 82nd minute, Roche went off to be replaced by Adesina for Fisher.
Appiah picked up a yellow card for a foul in the 85th minute and in the 86th minute he put Pearson clean through only for Wadman to bring Pearson down inside the area for a penalty, an action that brought the stopper a yellow card. Up stepped Attwood to take the penalty and it flew past Wadman's right hand like a tracer built to make it 5-1 to the Crows.
Only one minute later it became 6-1, Attwood who always works hard for the team, challenged Wadman for a ball passed back to him from the kick off and unhappily for the goalie, his clearance ricocheted off Attwood and crossed the line and in to the net, sometimes you just know it's not your day.
So at full time it was 6-1 to the Crows and not many people would've bet that it would be the final score at half time, harsh may be on the visitors but you have to take your chances when they come along, something we've been doing better than us at the moment and it also has to be remembered that we have the second best defensive record in the league, only Canterbury City have a better record than us, having played one game more, whilst others who have the same goals against have played one, two or three games less than we have.
I'm not a great lover of stats but they do speak for themselves sometimes, we had 12 shots against their 4, we had 8 corners to their 4, we were caught offside 4 times as opposed to their 7 and both sides gave away 14 free kicks each during the 90 minutes. Both sides had 2 yellow cards each as well.
Overall, a deserved win for the Crows, even if the win was by a larger margin than expected. There was some notable performances from the Crows, Attwood, Carrington, Turner and Walder spring to mind, however, my Man of the Match went to Sam Crabb for his overall defensive and attacking performance throughout the 90 minutes.
Now it's on to Seaford Town away on Tuesday night in the SCFA Parafix RUR Charity Cup and a 7:30pm kick off. By the way, if you want to read an alternative view of this game and previous matches played by the Crows this season, then why not take a look at crowsunofficial.wordpress.com, I'm sure you'll enjoy the read from one of our loyal band of supporters.