Sunday, November 30, 2008

The new Finland? - Aston Villa 0 Fulham 0

Another fantastic point away from home. It's difficult to claim an informed opinion from Match of the Day highlights, but it seemed we weren't at our best yet stuck to our guns and made it difficult for Villa to break us down. Villa created plenty of very good goalscoring opportunities but the loss of John Carew (who was injured and left Villa playing Agbonglahor up front on his own with Barry and Sidwell supporting him from midfield) and some decent saves from Mark Schwarzer ensured they were unable to take them. Clint Dempsey struck both of our best attempts. The first, a looping shot as he was tackled by Ashley Young, stretched Brad Friedal making his 167th consecutive league appearance. The second, a powerful shot straight at the Villa 'keeper, was comfortably stopped.

There's a part of me that feels we're unlikely to keep this run going. Possibly a natural reaction for every Fulham fan. Selfishly I'd have settled for losing at Villa Park to increase our chances of winning at home to Man City next week. That said you can't knock another away point and we go into next weekend full of confidence. Four games unbeaten and eighth in the league is all very pleasing but, as someone pointed out on TiFF yesterday, we're four points off 4th and four points off 18th. It's going to be a long a season and we shouldn't go taking anything for granted. That aside, we're doing incredibly well and should also try and enjoy it while we can.

UPDATE:
I'd meant to link to an old post on CCN in which Rich first discussed Roy's achievments with Finland being largely based on not conceding goals. I forgot before my initial post and now can't find it anyway.

We've drawn Sheffield Wednesday away in the 3rd round of the F.A. Cup. Nice to get a team we've not played for a while but at the same time I can't shake the feeling we'll be lucky to progress. Still, a trip up North in early January is quite tempting, wonder if I can convince Mrs C to let me go?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Pretty good assessment - Fulham played well without being too dangerous (but forced Friedel into a couple of decent saves).

Villa should have put a couple away, but all in all it was a well deserved point for Fulham - and it was bloody freezing.

Very impressed with Bullard as usual. He really pulls the strings in midfield, made our boys look poor.

Anonymous said...

Cheers Chris. Bullard's had an odd season so far, possibly his worst period at Fulham yet called up to the England squad. Pleased to see he's back on track. Was outstanding against Spurs and played his part in two consecutive away draws. Good luck for the rest of the season.