Thoughts from Craven Cottage

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

With West London giving the assembled masses a pleasant balmy evening all recent thoughts of the Beast from the East or lashing rain were firmly banished. Grasping for any sign from the footballing gods might this be a sign that a performance I was hoping for might materialise rather than the pasting I feared and some on here expected. As we strolle to the ground by the banks of the Thames thoughts of maybe were swirling through my head.

if the noise from the fans counted for anything we would have been 4-0 before a ball was kicked. A wall of noise drowning out the very odd sound of the plastic ‘clicker clackers’ that Fulham and out.

Then teams came out from the Craven Cottage corner and it struck me how small the team (Ekuban and Jannson excepted) was compared to some of the giants who have played for us in recent times. Fulham looked huge in comparison ...

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

... and so to kick off, for the first four minutes we looked good, dominated possession and Alioski and Dallas combined Weldon the right. We even had the first effort on goal, things were surely looking up.

Then the game began to pan out a little more as expected. Fulham were a time to whom the magic word applied; ‘confidence’ whilst Leeds looked strangers to it. To be fair defensively we set up well and held the shape well but we really didn’t press we’ll certainly not high up the pitch and allowed them time to pick passes. They looked a very good team and good at switching play and hitting the wide men but here’s the thing.... our back four looked pretty solid; Dallas and Pennington being the pick. Dallas and Alioski tag teaming the wonder kid pretty well and ably assisted by Phillips when he came on.

Phillips improved the team when he came on for the injured O’Kane, bringing more energy and bite and looking like he had a point to prove. Sure Fulham looked good but the more the half went on the more composed we bang to look defensively. BPF has a couple of wobbles early on but then grew.

The goal was a poxy scrappy goal seeming from where I was stood to have deselected to hit the arse of the Fulham player and diverting it past BPF. Okay we were down and Fulham looked good but we were not out of it. Hernandez was fairly anonymous and nothing was really coming off for Siaz. Jannson got involved with the ref when he didn’t need to and got a stupid yellow card, dull, dull, dull and needless.

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

and so to the second half, whatever was said in the dressing room at half time did the trick.

We came out with poise and purpose and when we didn’t have the ball pressed up the field to good effect like other teams often do to us. Suddenly the game was not so easy for Fulham having to force passes under pressure. Phillips played well and Vieira visibly grew in confidence with and without the ball. Players who had been quieter in the first half came into it Beradi, Saiz and Hernandez. As confidence grew (that magic word again) we started to look good and Fulham looked rattled. Saiz, Alioski and Hernandez in particular started to create and caphances began to come. Great ball to put in Alioski and great finish, sadly offside!

Then it started to become the Saiz show. Ekuban looked good too, full of running, showing for the ball and using it week. It was building and coming and then the pass, Saiz splitting the Fulham back two with a killer pass perfectly weighted and Ekuban was in. Surely he would score but no (suspect it may have had something to do with that word confidence again) and Fulham moves the ball swiftly to the other end completely against what had gone before and lo it was 2-0.

Nice touch though, all the outfield players ran to support a clearly distraught Ekuban. Clever touch from PH to leave him on for a while longer. We still created and looked to be the most likely. Alioski got chatted again and then the big dawgs of Grot and Lassoga (glad I don’t pay his weekly food bill) came on.

Saiz again created, making space and floating in a ball of such precision it was begging to be buried but alas no, Grot put it over the bar. Saiz looked incredulous that again his craft was wasted.

lasogga was brought down almost clean through, on a different day possibly a red. (Need to see the replays on you tube).

Dallas was brought down in the area, possibly on another day a pen.

Yes we lost but but we competed with and rattled one of the best teams in this league and for 25 or so glorious second half minutes outplayed them.

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Negatives; Jannson got a stupid yellow card so I think now has an auto totting up ban, Pennington went off at the end with a bad injury, O’Kane seems to be half the player of last year and more worryingly some of our players are a little petulant and want to get involved with the ref or niggle when they should just walk away, particularly, Alioski, Janssen and Saiz. Also Saiz ran off the pitch first way ahead of the rest of the team and barely acknowledging the fans.

Positives; we showed heart, passion and quality especially second half. There is quality in the team to allow quick attacking football to be played. We have a nucleus of players around whom a decent squad can be built. Ekuban with confidence could become a very good player. He has pace, size, a decent first touch and is good at pressing high up the pitch. PH got them playing that way so maybe he has the skills to match the patter.

All in all I was much encouraged by what I saw.

my youngest loved it he stood at the barrier for the whole of the second half and almost caught Ekuban’s shirt when he threw it into the crowd.

will be interesting to see who plays CB next week as looks like we have no recognised CBs available.

Draw would have have been a fair result which I was hoping but not expecting to be able to say.

[WTF11]

Never has a nickname been more appropriate. Clearly watching a different game.

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Never has a nickname been more appropriate. Clearly watching a different game.

now now no need to get personal.

[coeman]

Never has a nickname been more appropriate. Clearly watching a different game.

No he wasn't! Everything he says happened. They should have had one sent off and we should have buried 2! We did ourselves justice in the 2nd half. Your just being a T₩@t for the sake of T₩@tism!!

[Jezleeds]

Does Ekuban give out his underpants and socks too when he scores?

[WTF11]

No he wasn't! Everything he says happened. They should have had one sent off and we should have buried 2! We did ourselves justice in the 2nd half. Your just being a T₩@t for the sake of T₩@tism!!

No I'm not, but neither am I hopelessly optimistic.

It's always "they should have this", or "we should have done this", etc etc, never "we did"

But to take your specific point on goalscoring, yes we should, but we DIDN'T, and neither will we if we depend on Ekuban. He's another Sacko, runs around some, with no perceptible end product, makes Lassogga look reasonable ( he's never going to look good!).

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Does Ekuban give out his underpants and socks too when he scores?

Maybe - time will tell I guess