Punjab United’s FA Vase bubble was well and truly burst on Tuesday night as Fisher exacted revenge for the weekend’s defeat by hammering the Gravesend side 5-1 just 72 hours after Punjab’s 2-0 win in the last sixteen of the Vase leaving manager Chipie Sian frustrated.

Whilst on Saturday, the Punjab boss had nothing but praise for his side after they reached the last eight for the very first time, this was definitely ninety minutes too far and the performance left the manager fuming.  

Despite taking an early lead through Jack Hopkins, Fisher were ahead at the break through Sha’mor Lawson and Armani-Jordan Martin.

The game then turned in a sixty second spell early in the second period – Chris Edwards and the Punjab side were convinced that a ball driven in from the right had been fumbled into the net by keeper Isaac Ogunseri. But when the referee wouldn’t give the “goal”, Fisher took full advantage and broke for Tom Jones to clip the ball home.

Jones and Lorenzo Duncan then added gloss to the Fisher win, but when we spoke to the Punjab boss after the game, he was still fuming at what he was convinced was a mistake from the officials. 

He told us, “The official was poor as we thought the ball was three yards over the line and when given, it’s 2-2 and game on – we were in the game then!”

“And then in the build-up to the third goal, there’s a push on one of our players that everyone saw except the referee!”

“They were embarrassing – I don’t moan about officials, but they were embarrassing… they stopped, everyone stopped, and you clearly saw from the reaction of their players that the ball was in.”

“Then on top of it all we get a player sin binned for sixteen minutes when we were trying to substitute him!” 

“Sometimes nights like this happen!” the Punjab boss went on, “You have to give them some credit, but we were poor, really poor!”

“I said in the changing room before the game that we were fantastic on Saturday, and we dominated the whole game. They were challenged to do the same tonight and come here and get three points.”

“We started well and then conceded two very poor goals; it was as simple as that!” 

“The boys were great on Saturday, but it doesn’t give them any excuse for that performance tonight – we do not play like that!”

“Thing is, I could see and I knew from the first five minutes tonight that we weren’t competing in the fifty/fifty balls and that’s not my team – I was disgusted!”

“Saturday, we won every first tackle, we were on it from the start, they couldn’t get up or down the hill at our place, but today we walked out as if the points were ours and God’s gift.” 

“We have lost one game in the League tonight (Tuesday) but that is the first in eleven – we have been unbelievable but the way we played tonight… that’s unacceptable.”

By winning on Saturday though Punjab are in the last eight of the Vase and are now Kent’s sole representatives – a truly incredible achievement!

“It was amazing!” a more relaxed Punjab boss said. “I have had so many messages of well-done from fans all over the place; I met the Ebbsfleet Chairman on the train on Monday, and he gave me a big hug in front of everyone – the support from other Clubs has been amazing!”

“The love been amazing – we are a good Club, we are a respectable Club, and we respect the opposition every week. We celebrated Saturday’s win but in the right way, but we now have a lot to play for!”  

After drawing Wessex League side Downton in the last eight of the Vase, Punjab now don’t play again for ten days until facing the Wiltshire side on February 22nd – a fact that the boss hopes to use to his advantage.

“We have a lot of older players, and we have played a lot of football recently,” he told us.

“So this weekend we have told them to stay away from each other and do their own things before we train again on Tuesday. We have set them their own exercises for the end of this week.”

“It will give us a chance to go and hopefully see Downton on Saturday actually play – we will do our homework and then next Tuesday it will be back training and we will be ready for the Quarter Final!” 

“We know nothing about them except for a few videos on You-Tube. My wife was getting upset with me as I was watching their films and then our win from Saturday all night – if it wasn’t us winning at the weekend it was a team that she/we hadn’t heard of!”

“But that’s what we have to do – I already think I know how we will set up for Downton and hopefully after actually seeing them and getting more intel, we can fully prepare next week for the biggest game we have ever played!” 

“I am going to have a few days away from everyone,” a clearly drained Sian concluded, “Saturday was such a high… this performance (though) has really upset me and I don’t know why?”

“It’s just a game right – win or lose – but it was the performance more than anything and I am not going to tolerate that!”