Fisher Athletic F.C.
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| Fisher Athletic | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Fisher Athletic Football Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname(s) | The Fish, The School, The Tribe,
The Martyrs |
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| Founded | 1908 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | Usually: Surrey Docks Stadium, Rotherhithe Temporarily: Champion Hill Dulwich |
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| Capacity | 8000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chairman | Eren Muduroglu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Manager | Sami Muduroglu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| League | Conference South | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2005-06 | Isthmian League Premier Division, 3rd | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Fisher Athletic F.C. are a semi-professional football club from south London. The club's traditional home is the Surrey Docks Stadium in Rotherhithe, but home games are currently being played at the ground of Dulwich Hamlet F.C. while the Surrey Docks stadium is redeveloped. It has been mooted though, that 'The Fish' may move into the Millenium Dome after the 2012 Olympics.[citation needed]
The club was founded in 1908 by Michael Culiton, headmaster at Dockland School, to provide sporting facilities for underprivileged youths of Bermondsey. The club was named after the martyr, John Fisher. They are thus one of the few sports clubs in the world to take their name from a person. The club's closest neighbour is fellow 'dockers' Millwall, but as the two teams rarely meet in a competitive match, there is no strong rivalry. Dulwich Hamlet are often considered the team's most closest rivals, despite the current groundshare.
The team competed in various district leagues before moving to the Parthenon League where they stayed until 1965. At this point the club folded and reformed, this time based in Mitcham, joining the West Kent League for the 1966-67 season.
Fisher were elected to the Spartan League in 1974 and won back-to-back championships in 1980-81 and 1981-82. The latter season coincided with a move to their present home, the purpose built stadium at Surrey Docks.
Fisher were elected to the Southern League's Southern Division for the 1982-83 season and won the championship at the first attempt, earning promotion to the Southern League Premier Division. 1984-85 saw Fisher reach the first round of the FA Cup, losing 1-0 to Bristol City F.C.
In 1986-87 they won the Southern League title and were promoted to the Football Conference. The following year brought another run to the first round of the FA Cup where the 'Fish' again lost 1-0, their nemesis this time being Bristol Rovers F.C.
Fisher's success came to an end in 1990-91 when they finished bottom of the Conference and dropped back to the Southern League Premier Division. The following season brought a second successive relegation, to the Southern League Southern Division, where they remained until the turn of the millennium, generally finishing in mid-table.
Meanwhile, during the 1997-8 season a new limited company was formed and the club was rewarded with a long-term lease on their stadium.
The 1999-2000 season saw the arrival of Alan Walker as manager. Walker assembled a fine squad of players to launch a serious challenge for promotion from the new Southern League Eastern Division. Promotion was secured two weeks before the end of the campaign, but the battle to go up as champions was left to the final day of the season however, when Fisher beat Newport IOW 2-0 to be crowned Eastern Division Champions.
Fisher's success was short-lived, as after just one season in the Southern League Premier Division they were relegated back into the Eastern Division. This was despite the arrival mid-season of the ex-Millwall F.C. manager Keith "Rhino" Stevens.
Season 2001-2 saw a good run in the FA Cup, reaching the 4th Qualifying Round before losing 3-1 at home to Forest Green Rovers F.C. The Quarter Final of the London Senior Cup was lost to local rivals Dulwich Hamlet F.C. and the club reached the 3rd round of the FA Trophy before losing 5-0 to Barnet F.C. The semi-final of the Kent Senior Cup was also reached before a home-defeat against eventual winners Gravesend & Northfleet F.C.
Sadly losing league games that should have been won saw the club finish in 6th place, 23 points behind the promoted clubs.
During the close season, Stevens left the club to concentrate on business affairs, and former Director of Football Bob Davies took over as Manager. He departed in October 2003 to be replaced by non-league scoring legend Gary Abbott. Regrettably Abbott's talent for scoring did not extend to management and he quickly departed.
In February 2004 Wayne Burnett came in to take over team affairs. Off the field planning permission has been granted for a major redevelopment of the Surrey Docks Stadium and new chairman Sami Muduroglu signalled his intentions with a raft of top signings to push Fisher back towards the heady heights of the Conference and this paid instant dividends in 2004-5 with the Southern League Division One East title and the London Senior Cup. The 'Fish' were promoted to the Isthmian League Premier Division for the 2005-06 season.
Wayne Burnett resigned as manager for personal reasons on November 21, 2005. On January 6, 2006, Justin Edinburgh was appointed Fisher manager. Fisher finished third in the Isthmian League Premier Division that season, in addition to winning the Isthmian League Cup and London Senior Cup, and beat Hampton & Richmond Borough F.C. 3-0 in the play-off final to win promotion to Conference South.
The Fish also have a boxing department, which is one of the largest boys boxing clubs in the UK.
[edit] External link
| Conference South 2006/07 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Basingstoke Town | Bedford Town | Bishop's Stortford | Bognor Regis Town | Braintree Town | Cambridge City | Dorchester Town | Eastbourne Borough | Eastleigh | Farnborough Town | Fisher Athletic | Havant & Waterlooville | Hayes | Histon | Lewes | Newport County | Salisbury City | Sutton United | Thurrock | Welling United | Weston-super-Mare | Yeading edit |
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