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Regular readers will know one of my friends has been following the road to Wembley this season. Having started a mere 500 yards from his front door at Chertsey Town for their extra preliminary round replay against Wick, Andy has travelled some 2354 miles, sticking with whichever team won the previous game and finally making it to the F.A. Cup Final last Saturday. You can read his report of Cup Final day here. It was a remarkable journey, one which proves the magic of the cup is still alive and well, and that the Premier League is not the be all and end all when it comes to great football. In my view it was a special year for the F.A. Cup and, whilst not a classic game of football, the final was as enthralling as any in recent years. Congratulations to Portsmouth fans everywhere (even the annoying tattooed one with the bell!) for being the first winners from outside the big four for thirteen years. I started following Fulham after our F.A. Cup final appearance in '75, I'd love to see us get back there with Roy.
A few little bits and pieces I wanted to mention.Rob wrote this great post on Following the Fulham the other day. It really struck a chord with me, and quite eloquently explained how I think a lot of Fulham supporters are feeling right now.Smfifteen has been writing some good stuff on White Lines. In particular his ongoing Language of Football series has managed to raise a chuckle from me when things with Fulham have seemed a bit bleak.The Whites are back up to second place in Mike Whalley's "Last on MOTD" tracker. It seems Derby will comfortably claim the title so we're not even going to win that, but at least it proves we were almost right when we said we're always last on Match of the Day.Finally a couple of items of news. Micheal Timlin's off to join Swindon Town on loan for the rest of the season and Les Reed may well have left the club. I was never quite sure of his role when Hodgson arrived, having been brought in as an ally for Sanchez he seemed to have found himself a comfy position with a lot of power. It's a bit concerning to see the reference to John Murtough's departure and another sign that all was really not well during the Sanchez reign.
It's of little consequence to us now but whilst we continue our increasingly impossible fight against relegation at Ewood Park its also the quarter finals of the F.A. Cup. A friend of mine has been following the road to Wembley since Chertsey Town played Wick in the extra preliminary round and writing about it in his blog Wick to Wembley?. Saturday will be the first time Andy's seen a game involving a Premier League side as he travels to Middlesbrough for their match against Cardiff City. He's been to 13 matches so far and the only game I attended (Camberly Town v Dartford - second qualifying round replay) was the only game to finish goalless. Dartford eventually went through on penalties but I think it says a lot about my luck watching football of late that it was probably the worst game of the run so far. I might seriously have to consider giving up going for the betterment of the game as a whole. Anyway Andy's been featured on the 'Boro website and they've done a nice little interview and a summary of his matches so far. Something to maybe take your mind off the doom and gloom of our own predicament.
I've not been checking my stats page as often as I used to recently so haven't always spotted new links to HEC. Thanks then to White Lines for picking up on another new FFC blog. Not As Plain As Black & White has been out there since early february and has some decent posts already including a preview of the West Ham game. It's got a funky live comments box on the side bar too (might have to look into one of those!). Welcome on board.I should be back later with a veritable flurry of pre-Hammers posts ... ... possibly.
Simon Davies
Simon Davies was made captain of the Welsh side that earned a very creditable draw in Germany. Wales have been almost as poor as England recently and whilst Germany had little to play for I’m sure Davies will have been immensely proud to have led his country in a much improved performance. Really pleased for Simon who has been excellent for us in the last few games.
New Fulham Blog
There’s another new Fulham blog on the street. It’s called White Lines and has started with an interesting post about Sanchez attempting to beat the second of his stated role models when we play Blackburn Rovers, having already achieved victory over Reading.
Welcome on board smfifteen – I’ll add a new link to the ever expanding list as soon as I can.
Blackburn on Sunday
Looking ahead to the weekend we have a tough game at home to Blackburn Rovers. It’s hard to judge what sort of performance we’ll get as both teams will be suffering a little from the loss of players to international duty. That added to a late Sunday kick-off and the possibility of a dark, wet and cold evening ahead may make the chances of a quality game of football fairly slim. Blackburn impressed me on their last visit to the Cottage and I felt we were very lucky to escape with a point. Their form is looking good again so it certainly won’t be easy but I’m hopeful we can put up a good fight and get something positive out of the game.(Yeah - I know I didn't mention any other Super Heroes - I just liked the headline. Sorry if you were disappointed)
I'm off to play touch rugby tomorrow so probably won't get around to posting. However, it looks like I'm about to claim my fifteen minutes of fame! I contacted the humorous football blog Who Ate All The Pies? a while ago with my suggestion of the Eduardo/El De Barge lookalike and they've just published it, along with a nice mention for the Chronicle. Check it out at the link below.http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/2007/09/shit_lookalike_26.htmlIn more linkage news Richard of Craven Cottage Newsround has been interviewed by Fulham USA about The Fulham Review which has just been re-published in a more deluxe format. The Review is a great record of an appalling season. Richard’s matchday reports are interspersed with Martin Kane’s humorous perspectives on events from a Southend supporter's perspective. Bruce McGuire of duNordfutbol.com adds his thoughts on the American contingent and there might even be a bit from me about the departure of Steed and Luis Bo (unless it got cut!). Richard and his friends will be dotted around the ground on Saturday selling copies so pop over and say hello.There you go, if you don't have anything useful to say, link to someone who does! See you Wednesday.
