Reading 0 Fulham 2 - It ain't over 'til it's over

Our first away win since the 9th September 2006. Nineteen months of depressingly consistent failure finally ended and, just when we all thought it was going to end with a whimper, there's a faint hope that we've not quite dead and buried. I got back from a couple of days down at my Dad's in time to watch the scoreline via the Internet, but a night out with the boys and a rare "first game on" slot meant I missed both showings of MOTD and am still yet to see any of the action. There's some good first hand reports from FtF here, here, and here and from CCN here with pictures here which all capture what sounds like a cracking day out.

Whilst my brain told me we'd blown it after the Derby and Sunderland games I knew that I wouldn't really accept that we're down until it's mathematically confirmed and the BBC have got an R next to our name on the league table. I still have a vivid memory of my Dad taking me to a Tuesday night game back in the Eighties. The details are a little vague but I think it was a Third Division match against Cambridge United. We were losing, possibly 3-0, and with 15 minutes left most of the crowd around me were moaning and grumbling about every mistake. The reaction annoyed me and spurred me on to cheer every cross, applaud every shot and generally sing as loud as I could to show my support. It didn't make any difference to the final score, we didn't manage a late revival, we didn't even manage a consolation goal, but I felt a lot better about the part I'd played. I'm older now and am probably a little more ready to accept when a game is lost. That said even if my head tells me we've lost, as it did against Sunderland, I'll still be ready to cheer the team on and hang onto the shred of hope we could spring a surprise. I'll have everything crossed for the rest of the season, you never know what might happen if you keep believing.

No need to get downhearted

Saturday's loss was made all the harder to take by the results elsewhere. On Friday I was postulating about the assistance we might gain from Derby County. They did manage a draw with Sunderland which at least kept the Mackem's a little closer, but it was victories from Reading and Birmingham that really drove the knife in. Reading's injury time winner (a game that featured Liam Rosenior in the starting line up) away at Middlesbrough gave them their first points of the year and ended an eight game losing streak. It was also their first away win of the season a feat we'll have to match pretty soon if we're going to pull our selves out of the fire. More shocking was Birmingham City's 4-1 win over a Spurs side that might have been suffering an extended hangover from their Carling Cup win celebrations. Likewise Middlesbrough had played 120 minutes against Sheffield United in the F.A. Cup on Wednesday night. It seems we're just not getting those sort of breaks this season, though arguably it might just be we're not taking the ones we do get.

All this means we're six points adrift of Reading in 18th place and you could hardly blame those clubs above us from writing us off along with Derby. We really do need to put in a good run of results very soon. The countdown to survival is pretty clear. With ten games to play we need around 21 points to stay up. An average of 2.1 points a game is not impossible but when you consider we've averaged 0.68 a game so far the brutal truth starts to hit home. Realistically we're relying on other teams slipping up. Thankfully Bolton lost on Sunday to leave them only above Reading by goal difference, and Newcastle seem to be doing all they can to make life difficult for themselves.

Fulham 3 Reading 1 – Papering over the cracks

It really felt good to see a few goals and a win at the weekend but the performance was still far from convincing. That aside, the three points and confidence gained from achieving a win could prove to be very important to the long term future of the current side. We have a horrible run of games coming up (Anfield, Old Trafford and Goodison), the sort of games I wouldn’t expect us to win even if we were playing well, and those three points may just give the team enough breathing space to cope with what is bound to be a tough month.

There were signs of greater passion and a bigger desire to win on Saturday. Maybe the players understood just how important the game was as well. There were a few key men who played very well and pulled the whole team along with them and, whilst we struggled to claim possession and retain it when we had, it was at least clear that we were trying to do the right things.

Antti Niemi seems to have re-found his Mojo, making a number of excellent saves to keep us in the game when things were tight. He did very well to tip a second half freekick wide of his left post and just out of reach of the lunging Micheal Duberry, and followed that up with a superb dive to his right to save another decent shot from distance. Where Antti seems less confident is in dealing with high balls in his box and in failing to get anywhere near the corner that led to it he may have been partially culpable for Reading’s equaliser. Overall though Antti looks back to his best.

Aaron Hughes and Dejan Stefanovic appear to be forming a pretty useful partnership in the centre. Hughes, in particular, really impressed me. He covered a lot of ground across the whole backline and made a number of excellent challenges. Stefanovic is harder to judge but he clearly has a good football brain. The MotD highlights showed him make one very important and well timed and well executed headed clearance late on. When Reading’s equaliser came though, it was probably Hughes who was caught out as Kevin Doyle nipped past him to reach a far post corner with his head.

Our two young full backs did themselves proud after slightly nervy starts. Ashton was full of pace and not frightened to get forward and Omozusi looked better the longer the game went on. It’s pleasing to see young players given a chance and showing they are up to the task. Omosuzi’s undeserved late sending off was the only disappointment in his game.

Despite Reading’s possession they never looked much like scoring from open play, but were definitely a danger from corners, free kicks and long throw’s. Unfortunately, for a spell at least, they had a lot of corners, free kicks and long throw’s to work with. This is where our entire defence seemed to struggle and there were a number of opportunities where we were lucky to get away without conceding.

In midfield the undoubted man of the match was Simon Davies. He pushed forward at every possibility and scored a cracking goal to set us on our way. Ironically, just before he scored I was thinking that his lack of defensive ability might be one of our problems this season but he went on to show me exactly what he brings to the team. The goal was expertly taken flying like a rocket off the outside of his boot to curve around at least two Reading defenders and leaving Hanhemann with no chance as it crashed into the bottom right corner of his net. Steve Davis also did well, like Hughes he worked hard all game and made a number of surging runs down the middle. I still feel he needs to be playing alongside a more forceful partner, though I don’t think that player exists in our current squad. Murphy was fairly anonymous throughout and much as I like Smertin (who was not even on the bench this time) I’m not sure he’s the ideal foil for Davis either. Like Murphy, Bouazza also had a quiet game eventually being replaced by man mountain Shefki Kuqi.

Having confirmed his suspicions that Kamara and Healy can’t play together at Sunderland, Sanchez reverted to playing Dempsey as target man alongside pacey Kamara. Dempsey worked hard as always but Kamara was shocking. He’s got pace and plenty of skill but he doesn’t seem to know how best to use it. Far too often he’d fall over when nudged instead of trying to stay on his feet and out pace the defender. When he did get the ball he’d often end up slowing play down as he decided what to do with the inevitable outcome that he’d be easily dispossessed. He had two great chances to score in the second half that he failed to take. The first came from a right sided cross that it later transpired came off Duberry’s hand. Despite that I still think an alert striker would have been closer. The second came shortly after Reading had scored and Simon Davies mounted a swift counter attack but saw his cross just evade Kamara’s desperate lunge. I watched Kamara in the build up and noticed that he seemed unable to decide whether to attack the box or pull wider, and it was this indecision which ultimately meant he didn’t reach the ball. I think the last three games have raised some serious questions over Kamara’s ability to cut it in the Premier League. I hope I’m wrong about this as seeing a player with that much pace is a joy to behold, but I suspect his speed of thought is not up to that of his legs.

The key moments in the game came after the introduction of Kuqi. Bouazza was the man replaced with Clint Dempsey dropping back into a central midfield role just behind the front two. Kuqi entered the field like a rampaging bull and straight away the crowd were behind him as he chased lost causes and won headers. This is exactly what we’ve been missing. He looks clumsy and un-athletic but on Saturday he was certainly effective. Kamara was given around 10 minutes to benefit from playing with the big man but having failed to do much was replaced on 69 minutes by David Healy. Healy has also struggled to find his feet but you get the feeling however well he plays he’s always going to know where the net is. A couple of early chances fell his way and in at least one instance he choose to shoot instead of pass to the waiting Kuqi. However, it was Healy’s cross, following good work from Davies and Omosuzi down the right flank that led to our second goal. Kuqi leaped like a very large man from Finland and connected with both the ball and the back of Leroy Lita’s head, directing his header down and towards goal. It would probably have been cleared had Dempsey not reacted quickest and fired home from inches out.

We were forced onto the back foot again after that as Reading pushed forward in search of a second equaliser but defended resolutely. We made the most of the space this allowed us by attacking on the counter a number of times. A glorious opportunity was spurned when having been set free by Healy, Davies raced down the right flank but fired his cross just behind Kuqi who was therefore unable to direct his header on target. Eventually we did get a third, following a Fulham clearance. Kuqi won another header in the middle of the park and Simon Davies was there again to out pace the Reading defence and fire a perfect cross field ball to Healy who seemed more than a little relieved to find the back of the net with his first time shot.

So we have at least stopped the rot and gained only our second win of the campaign. Despite my feeling that overall we were poor there does seem to be plenty of individual positives. I hope that the confidence gained from this win might go some way towards us picking up a few more in the difficult matches to follow. We have a number of key problem areas not least up front. Kuqi deserves his share of the limelight, but looking out of breath after his first 15 minutes I suspect he’s still not quite ready for a starting place. There’s a lot of work to do but maybe the signs are there that we can start to turn our season around.

• GK 29 A.Niemi
• RB 22 E.Omosuzi
• CB 18 A.Hughes
• CB 06 D.Stefanovic
• LB 38 N.Ashton
• RM 25 S.Davies
• CM 10 S.Davis
• CM 27 D.Murphy
• LM 24 H.Bouazza
• ST 23 C.Dempsey
• ST 11 D.Kamara

Subs: 12 T.Warner, 07 S. Ki-Hyeon, 09 D.Healy (for 11), 14 S.Kuqi (for 24), 37 A.Leijer

Right Back crisis?

I couldn't resist that headline after last weeks similar Left Back related one. I've not really fully recovered from the 4 year olds party we had yesterday, so the full match report will probably not be done until later today.

I did, however, want to assess the likely impact on our starting line up at Anfield after referee Mark Clattenberg completed a rotten performance by sending off the impressive Elliott Omozusi. I still have no idea why he was sent off, most of the people around me didn't even notice that a card had been shown. Watching television replays it was clear Omosuzi was a long way from making contact, and the reaction of Reading's Harper and Murty showed how poor a decision it was. To make matter's worse, Clattenberg, who had just completed a one match Premier League suspension of his own for an equally shocking performance in the Merseyside derby, showed just a red (which would mean a three match ban) but seems to have stated in his match report that it was for a second yellow. This is confirmed on the F.A. website where they show a one match suspension.

With Volzy saying in his diary that he could be out for at least one more week and Chris Baird also seemingly injured as well, we now have to find a way to fill the right back slot. I reckon we have two options. Aaron Hughes can certainly play that role, and with Bocanegra returning from suspension he could combine with Stefanovic in the centre leaving Nathan Ashton at left back. However, Sanchez may prefer to retain the improving Hughes-Stefanovic partnership in the middle, and could offer a debut to Australian Adrian Leijer in the right back slot. If that happened I would expect Bocanegra to return to the left back role.

A couple of links I thought were interesting. Bill Edgar picked up on the impact Shefki Kuqi made in his tactical analysis for The Times though I reckon Bill claiming Sanchez had "reinforced his reputation for long ball football" is wide of the mark. The Fulham Women's team are having a good season and now top their league and look like they may return to the premier division at the first attempt.

Kuqi Kuqi Coo

Tomorrow afternoon I have ten four year olds expected for my youngest son's birthday party so all things considered I won't be able to get a full match report out until Monday. Still I couldn't resist making some comment on today's game. It sure makes you feel a whole lot better when you've got a win to talk about. It wasn't the greatest of games and there was still a lot to be desired in our overall performance but at least we showed a bit more passion and a greater will to win. Of all the team the player that embodied that spirit most of all was Shefki Kuqi. Whilst clearly not the most skillful or most pacey or most spectacular of players it was evident from the moment he joined the fray (replacing the ineffectual Kamara) that he was a player who really wanted to impress. There were other positives as well. Dempsey continued to scrap for anything he could get, Simon Davies was at the heart of most of our attacking maneuvers and Aaron Hughes put in a lot of work to keep our back four together. There's still a lot of hard work to do but this was a much needed boost for everyone. For once I'm looking forward to Match of the Day tonight.

Fulham v Reading - Match Preview

Time to put thoughts of changing our manager out of my mind and concentrate on winning a football match. My expectations are pretty low for Saturday and I have no great anticipation of a turnaround in form. If this is true for a lot of Whites fans then it may be down to the team to inspire us. We're rarely the noisiest bunch in the world but right now we really need to get behind the team and cheer them on to raise their game. The first twenty minutes will be vital, if the team looks sharper and keen to win then the fans will respond, if they look as flat as they have in the last two matches I suspect we could be in for another quiet and depressing weekend.

This is exactly the sort of game we have to be winning, despite the fact that Reading managed a double over us last season. The BBC say that Reading are on a four-game losing run away from home, and have not won a Premier League match in London since defeating Fulham on 25 November last year. Reading's last line up is detailed below and having achieved a 2-1 win over Newcastle I would expect them to remain unchanged.

Goal: Hahnemann
Defence: Murty - Sonko - Duberry - Shorey
Midfield: Doyle - Gunnarsson - Harper - Hunt
Attack: Lita - Kitson
Subs: Rosenior, Long, Federici, Ingimarsson, Convey

Marcus Hahnemann must have surprised any Fulham fan who travelled to Grimsby for his last game in a White (well Green actually but you know what I mean) shirt by impressing last season but has looked less solid this term. Striker Kevin Doyle really caught my eye in both games last season, though at the moment he is having to fill in on the right side of midfield (actually taking Rosenior's place). He did a good job in that role last weekend so unless Liam gets a chance to show us what we lost Doyle should continue in that spot. Anyone who has read this blog for any length of time will know that I was a big fan of Liam's, so to some extent I'd love to see him play against us. To some extent I think he's the sort of player who would actually play very well if he felt he had a point to prove, but I reckon Reading would be a poorer side if they were forced to field him ahead of either Murty, at full back, or Doyle in midfield.

We're short of options at present but I think there may be a chance that Kuqi will start alongside either Healy or Kamara. Whilst the big man may not be the most anticipated of players I think it's been clear that Healy and Kamara don't compliment each other as a partnership and either player would benefit from playing alongside someone like Kuqi. The midfield will probably remain unchanged though I would love to see Smertin back in the side in place of either Steve Davis or Danny Murphy. I cannot understand why Sanchez has chosen to drop him. Defensively things get interesting as I have already considered this week. I think Elliott Omosuzi deserves a second start at right back after impressing at Sunderland. We're without Konchesky and Bocanegra at left back so the choice seems likely to be between youngster Nathan Ashton or oldster Dejan Stefanovic, with Aaron Hughes as an outside bet. Hughes will probably continue in the centre where if Stefanovic is moved he could be partnered by Chris Baird.

I'm not brave enough to make any predictions, just hoping for three points any way we can get them. Come on you Whites!