Fisher Athletic F.C. were a semi-professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club from South East London, which last played in the

Conference South The National League South, formerly Conference South, is one of the second divisions of the National League in England, immediately below the top division National League. Along with National League North, it is in the second level of the N ...

, which is one of the two leagues that form the sixth tier of the

English football league system The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in England, with five teams from Wales, one from Guernsey, one from Jersey and one from the Isl ...

. The

Bermondsey Bermondsey () is a district in southeast London, part of the London Borough of Southwark, England, southeast of Charing Cross. To the west of Bermondsey lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe and Deptford, to the south Walworth and Peckham, a ...

-based club ground-shared at Champion Hill Stadium, the home of

Dulwich Hamlet Dulwich Hamlet Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in East Dulwich in south-east London, England. They are currently members of and play at Champion Hill. History The club was formed in 1893, by Lorraine 'Pa' Wilson. T ...

. They were

wound up Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end in Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and many other countries. The assets and property of the company are redistrib ...

by the High Court, after failing to repay their debts, on 13 May 2009. However, it was announced on 29 May that a new club,

Fisher F.C. Fisher Football Club is a football club based in Rotherhithe, Southwark, England. The club was established in 2009 after Fisher Athletic folded. Affiliated to the London Football Association, they are currently members of the and play at t ...

, had been formed. The new club was elected to the Kent League for the 2009–10 season.

History

The club was founded in 1908 by Michael Culiton, headmaster at Dockland School, to provide sporting facilities for underprivileged youths of

. The club was named after the

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

martyr Saint 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 was fellow " dockers"

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...

, but as the two teams rarely met in a competitive match there was no strong rivalry.

were often considered the team's closest rivals, despite the former groundshare. The team competed in various district leagues before moving in 1961 to the

Parthenon League The Parthenon League was a football league covering Greater London and the surrounding area. History The league was formed in 1951 with 11 clubs, nine of which had come from the Middlesex Senior League.Mitcham Mitcham is an area within the London Borough of Merton in South London, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross. Originally a village in the county of Surrey, today it is mainly a residential suburb, and includes Mitcham Common. It ha ...

, joining the Western Section of the Kent Amateur League for the 1967–68 season. Fisher were elected to the

Spartan League The Spartan League was a football league in England covering London and adjacent counties. Established in 1907, it merged with the South Midlands League in 1997 to form the Spartan South Midlands League. History The Spartan League was establish ...

in 1975 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 The Southern League is a men's football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from the South and Midlands of England. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and eight of the English foot ...

. 1984–85 saw Fisher reach the first round of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

, losing 1–0 to

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

. In 1986–87, they won the Southern League title and were promoted to the

Football Conference The National League (named Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons) is an association football league in England consisting of three divisions, the National League, National League North, and National League South. It was called the ...

. The following year brought another run to the first round of the

where the 'Fish' again lost 1–0, their nemesis this time being

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been c ...

. Fisher's success came to an end in 1990–91 when they finished bottom of the Conference and dropped back to the

. 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.

Final seasons

The 1999–2000 season saw the club win the Southern League Eastern Division. However Fisher's success was short-lived, as after just one season in the

they were relegated back into the Eastern Division, where in the following season they finished 6th. The following two season saw mid-table finishes, with

Wayne Burnett Wayne Burnett (born 4 September 1971) is an English football coach and former footballer who is manager of Tottenham Hotspur under-23's team. As a player Burnett was a midfielder from 1989 until 2004 notably playing in the Football League for ...

taking over the managerial hotseat in February 2004. Off the field planning permission was 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 The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 tea ...

Premier Division for the 2005–06 season. Wayne Burnett resigned as manager for personal reasons on 21 November 2005. Under

Justin Edinburgh Justin Charles Edinburgh (18 December 1969 – 8 June 2019) was an English professional football manager and player who played as a left back. He notably played in the Premier League for Tottenham Hotspur, where he made 213 league appearance ...

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 3–0 in the play-off final to win promotion to

. The 2006–07 season saw the club finish in 10th place in the Conference South under Edinburgh.

returned to the club in the summer of 2007, and assembled a supremely talented squad. The Fish played superb attacking football in 2007–08, but ended up finishing 4th, and losing to Hampton & Richmond Borough in the play-offs, the side they had beaten to win promotion two years before. The summer of 2008 saw a player exodus, with six of the previous season's squad moving to

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

clubs. The club's financial difficulties came to a head in the 2008–09 season, as massive debts were found to be piling up. The club stopped paying players in November 2008, then a winding-up order for unpaid income tax issued by the High Court was, on 13 March 2009, adjourned for 49 days until 22 April, and then adjourned for a further 21 days to 13 May 2009. On 18 February 2009, the club claimed to have made history when turnstile operator Donna Powell became one of the first females to manage a male football club in Britain, having raised £250 for the ailing club, although she was unable to prevent Fisher losing 2–1 to Eastleigh. However, she was not actually a manager in the true sense of the term, just a publicity stunt, as

Dave Mehmet David Nedjate Mehmet (born 2 December 1960) is an English former professional footballer. His clubs included Millwall, Charlton Athletic, and Gillingham, where he made over 130 Football League appearances. He went on to play for a large numb ...

was never actually relieved of the position.

Droylsden Droylsden is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, east of Manchester city centre and west of Ashton-under-Lyne, with a population at the 2011 Census of 22,689. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, in the ...

had become the first British men's football club to play matches under a female manager following a disagreement between manager Dave Pace and the Manchester F.A. in 2000. This result came during a run of sixteen consecutive league defeats between 19 November and 9 March, which saw the club eventually relegated on 28 March.

Fisher reformed

Following a meeting in

on the evening of 28 May, a supporters trust was formed to take control of all forthcoming club matters, with 42 founding members. Chairman, Martin Eede and club president,

Barry Albin-Dyer Barry George Albin-Dyer OBE (2 February 1951 – 6 June 2015) was an undertaker whose firm F.A. Albin and Sons were known for their work repatriating the bodies of servicemen killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The firm also arranged many high-profi ...

continue their roles, with several new faces taking more established roles in the running of the club. This meeting announced AFC Fisher as the working title, before finally deciding on

The club continued to play their home games at the

Champion Hill Champion Hill is a football stadium in East Dulwich in the London Borough of Southwark. It is the home ground of Dulwich Hamlet. History Dulwich Hamlet began playing at the ground in 1912. 'The Hill' was formerly one of the largest amateur grou ...

Stadium, and began be playing in the Kent League.

Stadium

The club's traditional home was the 5,300-capacity Surrey Docks Stadium in

Rotherhithe Rotherhithe () is a district of south-east London, England, and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is on a peninsula on the south bank of the Thames, facing Wapping, Shadwell and Limehouse on the north bank, as well as the Isle of Dogs ...

, in the

London Borough of Southwark The London Borough of Southwark ( ) in South London forms part of Inner London and is connected by bridges across the River Thames to the City of London and London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas ...

, but home games were played at the ground of

while the Surrey Docks Stadium was redeveloped. The Surrey Docks Stadium is located in the heart of South London's Docklands area, just down the road from the

Surrey Quays Surrey Quays is a largely residential area of Rotherhithe in south-east London, occupied until 1970 by the Surrey Commercial Docks. Previously known as Surrey Docks, the area was renamed following the construction of the Surrey Quays shopping ce ...

shopping mall and a short distance from

The Den The Den (previously The New Den) is a football stadium in New Cross, south-east London, and the home of Millwall Football Club. The Den is adjacent to the South London railway originating at , and a quarter of a mile from the Old Den, which it ...

in nearby

. The club had plans to redevelop the ground to bring it up to

standards by the start of the 2009–10 season. In November 2007 the club announced that it would prefer to move to a new 10,000-seat stadium on the site of the athletics track in

Southwark Park Southwark Park is located in Rotherhithe, in central South East London, England, and is managed by the London Borough of Southwark. It first opened in 1869 by the Metropolitan Board of Works as one of its first parks. It was designed by Alexander ...

, but that the rebuilding of Surrey Docks Stadium remained a possibility.Olympic Dream – A £35 Million Stadium
''

Southwark News ''Southwark News'' is a weekly local newspaper based in Southwark, south London, England. It is the only independent, paid-for newspaper in London. The newspaper is owned and run by Southwark Newspaper Limited, based in Bermondsey. ''Southwark N ...

'', 15 November 2007.

Honours

London Senior Cup The London Senior Cup is the County Senior Cup of the London FA. The London Senior Cup was first won by Upton Park in 1882. Although the leading professional sides in London no longer compete, the Cup has been won in the past by the likes of Ar ...

** Winners 1984–85, 1987–88, 1988–89, 2004–05, 2005–06

References

External links

Match report from 2010/11 season
*{{fchd , id=FISHERA , name=Fisher Athletic Defunct football clubs in England Defunct football clubs in London National League (English football) clubs Sport in the London Borough of Southwark Association football clubs established in 1908 Association football clubs disestablished in 2009 Parthenon League Southern Football League clubs Isthmian League 1908 establishments in England 2009 disestablishments in England