Game 36 - Arsenal 3 FFC 1

I've been struggling all week to think about anything else but Fulham and our woeful predicament. Every waking moment that my mind was not fully occupied thinking about something specific I would find myself drifting back to ponder our current situation. Will we stay up? Can we nick a point at Arsenal? Will Liverpool have their minds on a European Cup final thus allowing us a vital win? If we lose the next two games can we get a result away from home on the last day of the season? Aargh! I wasn't sure exactly how I would cope with the actual game itself, I wasn't going and we don't have Sky so I would probably end up relying on the deeply frustrating BBC website "live" text update. In the end my Father-in-law came down for the day and we spent most of a fabulously sunny afternoon at the Great Cockrow Railway. If you're in the Chertsey area and are looking for something to do with the kids, or just happen to be a big fan of miniature steam railways, it's worth a visit. The family Chopper spend quite a lot of time at miniature railways! I got home in time to see we were 1-0 down, and then before my eyes we equalised. Ran off to make a quick cup of tea in an attempt not to jinx us and by the time I came back we were 3-1 down. Sod.

I watched Match of the Day 2 for the highlights, and was surprised to see Chris Coleman on as studio analyst. I thought he came across very well, and have to admit to feeling some massive guilt as he talked. It was very clear that Cookie holds the club very close to his heart, as demonstrated by his constant use of "us" and "we" and his talk of having watched all our recent games on DVD. I don't want to go into who should get the manager's job full time yet, but this was the first time I thought "well maybe we should have let Cookie see out the season". I'm sure he'll be getting a decent job in time for next season though, and I'll enjoy looking out for how well he does.

The game itself was disappointing, we reverted to a 4-5-1 formation in an attempt to stem Arsenal's attacking flair, and finally saw the return of Claus Jensen to the first team. I have been an advocate of Claus being added to the squad, but it might have been too much to ask him to play a major role in his first start for over 6 months. It was clear even from the short highlights that we weren't at the races in the first half, a very early goal, a result of a Boca mistake, must have set alarm bells ringing. Carlos has been one of our best performers this season, so you can't blame him for getting caught, especially when playing in the left back role, and it was a sublime piece of skill that out-foxed the American. Amazingly it was Baptista who scored, now I've seen him play in a few televised matches this season, and reckon he could well be the worst finisher in the English league, true to form he had a couple more clear chances and blazed them both wide. Niemi made good saves from Fabregas and Adebayor, and we just about did enough to stay in the game.

The second half saw a more organised Fulham take the field and we gave the Gunners much less time on the ball. Have we actually strung two half's of good football together this season? I'm not sure we have, even in the games we've won. Liam was replaced, I think for the first time this season, apparently due to illness. It seems he had been poorly all week, and had thrown up before taking to the field in the second half. If this is true I think he deserves great credit, he's had a lot of stick for various reasons this year, and yet he never gives anything less than 100% for the team. Volz came on to fill the right back role, and around the same time Helguson replaced McBride and Dempsey replaced Jensen. Though not obvious from the telly, it sounds like Dempsey had a great game playing in the central role behind the striker. That's quite interesting, and may explain why he's so far made little impact playing on the wing. The lob from Simon Davies was sublime, though admittedly massively helped by Lehmann doing a dying swan impersonation as it sailed over his head. We then started to surge forward more often and had two good chances to take the lead but this, of course, was our undoing. Arsenal are without a doubt the greatest counter attacking side in the league, and with players stranded up-field they took advantage with Adebayor scoring with a well struck shot which arced out of Niemi's reach. To run salt in the wounds, Volzy got caught in the box, and as he fell trying to recover he brought down Alexander Hleb and the penalty was duly dispatched.

Some positives then, I think the most important fact of all is that we didn't get thrashed. Right now our goal difference could play a huge part in keeping us up, and a 5 or 6 goal drubbing would have been like losing another point. Fingers crossed for Liverpool on Saturday, I believe we really need a win to be certain and I don't want to think about having to go to Middlesbrough on the last day of the season still needing one. I'll also be cheering on the scousers against the Blue Poo on Tuesday night, not only would it be fantastic to see the Chavs go out of Europe again, but I think it will help us if Liverpool have their minds on another European Cup Final.

One final post script, whilst I was in agony listening to West Ham take Wigan apart on Saturday, I couldn't help but be pleased for Luis Boa Morte that he finally scored his first goal for the club in such an important game.

Come on you Whites! Keep the faith.

Game 35 - FFC 1 Blackburn 1

I may be in a minority but I thoroughly enjoyed Saturday. I thought it was a thrilling contest in which our endeavour countered Blackburn's quality. The players finally showed the level of passion and fight we've all been crying out for and the atmosphere in the Hammersmith End was fantastic. I really can't remember the last time I heard us in such good voice. All this is a clear indication of exactly how bad our situation is and there's no hiding from the fact that we did let our best opportunity to gain three points slip away. Having said that though, Blackburn were very very good and we rode our luck on so many occasions that just not losing was still a heroic feat.

I was particularly impressed by Radzinski who despite putting in some decent performances this season still comes in for a lot of stick. I've been surprised he hasn't been brought back into the left wing role earlier, as this is a slot we have clearly been struggling with and whilst not a left winger Radz has been the most effective player in that role to date. On Saturday I think he may have put on one of his best performances in a white shirt despite, yet again, coming a cropper against our rock hard electronic advertising hoardings as he chased a seemingly lost cause to keep the ball in play. Big Papa Bouba Diop was also back to his best form. A towering performance from the Wardrobe even though it consisted almost exclusively of winning battles in the air and firing super powered headers in all directions. Zat Knight and Phillippe Christanval were excellent together in defence, Zat doing especially well after a inconsistent season. Boca played well at left back, nothing too fancy just solid defending. Simon Davies looked so much more comfortable on the right wing though again fluffed a decent chance to find the target. Macca worked very hard (as always) with a lot of our balls aimed for his head and Montella sniffing around for the knock downs and oozing quality. I thought Liam did OK as well, though it was his mistake, diving in to try and make a tackle when he should have stayed on his feet, that led to the goal.

The subs were quite interesting too. Volz came on for Christanval which led me to believe PC must have been injured, yet in Sanchez post match interview, he gave the impression it was because he was trying to play the ball out of defence rather than hoof it up field, which is a clear indication of what Sanchez is trying to achieve. This change pushed Liam to left back and Boca to the centre. Now many people claim that Moritz should be our first choice right back, yet, as much I love Volzy, I thought he made 2 or 3 mistakes early on that could have easily been more costly. For me Liam deserves to get the nod at the moment for his defensive abilities, but I'm glad to see Volzy back in the squad and wouldn't be adverse to him having another run out in midfield. Routledge came on for Montella and interestingly played in a attacking role which I think could make very good use of his talent. We are shockingly short of alternatives up front, and Routledge's pace and ability could certainly cause defences some problems. Finally Clint Dempsey replaced Radz and did very little. I don't want to be too harsh on Clint as I am sure he has more to offer, I just don't think he's going to offer it this season. I can't understand why Claus Jensen, a player with massive experience cannot get in the team ahead of him, but for consecutive managers to leave him in the cold, maybe there is something else going on that isn't apparent.

With hindsight I guess the 2nd half was not as good as the first, and the momentum we had early on was lost as we struggled to cope with Blackburn's efficient passing and pacy attack. We really could have lost this game 5-1 and had the woodwork to thank or more than one occasion. Niemi made a couple of impressive saves, and when he was wanting, failing to close down an attack in the 1st half, Zat was there to sweep up behind. Prior to kick-off I felt we had to win the game, yet the manner of the performance has left me optimistic that we can get the points we need to survive. There's nothing to lose at Arsenal and with their season pretty much wrapped up and not being renowned for coping with physical football, maybe we can get an unexpected result at the Emirates. Failing that we've had results before against Liverpool so all is not yet lost.

JINXWATCH: My goal drought is finally over, Vincenzo Montella scoring the first Premiership goal I have seen in 685 minutes of football (I miscalculated in my previous post it was worse than I thought), however we still didn't win which means I have not seen us win a Premiership game this season. Therefore the new Jinx Watch stands at 8 games without a victory. Hope I can knock that one on the head in two weeks time and we can all sleep a lot more soundly at night!

The View From The Hammy End

Second half corner, balloons still floating about, Graham Poll looking imperious

Jinx Watch - 675 minutes and counting

Way back in January I wrote about my self-imposed ban on attending games due to the fact that I had not seen Fulham score a Premiership goal since the home game against Wigan last season. I had hoped that by not going we'd be safely out of any trouble before I risked another match. Saturday was therefore my first game since Watford on January 1st and, of course, we failed to score again. This means I have now watched 675 minutes of Premiership football without seeing a Fulham goal. I did at least get some relief by watching the FA Cup game against Leicester but Steed Malbranque scoring on the stroke of half-time against Wigan, last season, is the most recent Premiership goal I have witnessed live. Since then I have attended the home games against Chelsea (0-2), Wigan (0-1), Reading (0-1), West Ham (0-0) and Watford (0-0), and away at Liverpool (0-4) and now Reading (0-1) without a single valid goal. The one game I had a ticket for but didn't go to, home to Newcastle on Feb 3rd, we won 2-1 and to really rub it in we *have* scored in every other home game this season.

Well jinx or no jinx there's no way I'm not going to the last two home games, so I've got everything crossed I can finally break my hoodoo on Saturday.

Ladies Football Team

I've been keeping an eye out for the Fulham Women F.C. results this season. It's been pretty tough for them since Mo pulled the plug at the end of last year. Any remaining semi-professional players left for bigger clubs and they were forced to recruit a huge number of new players. However, after an appalling start losing 17-1 to Arsenal Ladies, and then generally losing quite heavily every week, they have worked very hard and slowly improved finally culminating in a 1-0 win away at Sunderland. They lost again the other day but this report from the BBC shows how hard they are trying, with only 11 fit players, they were forced to play without any subs had their normal goalkeeper play up front, and still only lost 2-0 to a decent Everton side. Based on that performance they might actually have more spirit than our first team - I hope the lads can prove me wrong this Saturday. Anyway good luck to the girls, they lost again at the weekend and are one more (inevitable) defeat away from relegation, but it will be interesting to see how they fair in a lower division.

Update: Just heard that Fulham Women are in the Surrey Cup final this coming Sunday against Chel**a.They would love to see big Fulham turn out to help beat that lot from down the road. Kick Off is at 12 next Sunday at Molesey FCs ground, Walton Road,Molesey,KT8 0JG.

Game 34 - Reading 1 FFC 0

"We're shit and we're going down" is the tune that's currently reverberating around my head. This was probably the most anticipated match I've been too for a good five years and was always going to struggle to meet my hopes and expectations. Having had a little time to evaluate what I saw today, perhaps there were signs that we'd got some fight left in us, but I was still left hugely disappointed with the lack of spirit shown by many of the players today. The report on Craven Cottage Newsround sums it up very well so not much point me going into detail. However much we huffed and puffed in the second half we just didn't find the target often enough. I think Sanchez very much kept things as they were today, and I hope that he will have learnt a lot. I would expect to see some changes for the Blackburn game, Davies surely cannot be asked to play left wing again and we need to find some way to get the ball to our strikers in dangerous areas. I would like to see Claus involved but other than that I think we're stuck with the same group of players. Fingers crossed that Blackburn can draw with the Chavs tomorrow and they'll have they're minds elsewhere next Saturday.

Here's some pictures.

1. Pre-match tension.

2. "Look Boss it's a plane!"

3. Action shot to make Ken Coton proud ... not!

4. Montella on left, Dempsey on right, not sure what's happening though.

5. He might be a Gunner but he sang his heart out today for us. 6. So did I ... got a sore throat now though.

7. Almost caught us in full song.

8. Marcus Hahnemann. I saw this man let the ball go through his legs at Grimsby when he played for us and yet he keeps two clean sheets against us this season.

Reserves 0 Arsenal 1 - Tuesday 10th April

Its the Easter holiday so this was a nice opportunity to go and see the reserves in action and forget about the troubles of the Premiership. My eldest son Ben is "currently" an Arsenal supporter, he's only six so I let him off in the faint hope that he might eventually see the light. Actually the idea that he might eventually abandon Arsenal in favour of the Whites took a bit of a knock when I asked him about why he supported Arsenal and he told me it wasn't because they play in red (his original reason) but because they play good football ... "ah, right son. This is going to be it for life isn't it?". Anyway, I'd never been to a reserves match at Motspur Park and it was a lovely warm evening, with a decent crowd, quite a few of whom were also Arsenal fans.

Fulham featured Claus Jensen, Clint Dempsey and Bjorn Runstrom alongside some established younger players, Arsenal had Mart Poom in goal, Justin Hoyte and Johann Djourou alongside the "new Cesc Fabregras" Francisco Merida Perez. Arsenal played much like their first team, plenty of attractive and tidy football, but fairly toothless in attack. They missed three golden chances to score before Djourou eventually bundled in a scrappy winner on 75 minutes. Fulham had much the better of the game, but failed to score partly down to a lack of sharpness up front, but also some heroic goalkeeping from Mart Poom.

Claus pretty much ran the show, and was ably assisted by Chris James and Wayne Brown, both of who really worked their socks off. James in particular impressed me, getting forward to support the strikers and really driving the team on. Compared to Claus, Dempsey was a disappointment. He clearly needs a lot more match practice, but even so I would have expected him to make more of an impact at this level. He needs some time to adapt, and I'm sure he has a lot more to offer, but right now I would be picking Jensen ahead of him for the first team. Runstrom also did well, he looked pacey and had good feet, if his finishing had been a bit sharper I think we'd have seen a different result. Omozusi looked very solid at centre back, and marshaled the defence well, who as a unit coped comfortably with most things Arsenal threw at them. All in all a good night for £3, and I might even come back for the last game of the season against the Chavs. There's some pictures below that prove pretty conclusively that I am no Ken Cotton.

Chris James attempts to find touch. Hang on ... is that the right game?

There's a ball around here somewhere.

Incoming!

Cookie Crumbles ...

... or in reality gets the sack. I felt after Monday's disaster that if we were going to make a change it had to be this week, and it seems that's what the board thought as well. I think Sanchez is a good choice, completely out of the blue but exactly what we need. It's going to be a scrap until the end of the season, and we need someone who can motivate the players we've got. There's talk that Les Reed could be joining as coach, which can't be a bad thing, and it seems for the time being that Dave Beasant is still in a job. I think if Coleman was going to save his job he needed to get a win out of the last three home games, having only managed 2 points there was no indication that he could get us out of trouble without relying on the misfortune of other teams. I am sad for Chris, he has given us 10 years as a player and manager, and I think always did his best for the club. In the final analysis though, I think his style was based more on motivation and leadership that tactical ability. I wish him well for the future and look forward to an exciting climax to the season.

Game 33 - FFC 1 Manchester City 3

Flippin' heck! There's really not much to say about this is there? We clearly need to get two wins to stand any chance of staying up and today was one of our last good chances. We blew it, as we did against Portsmouth, and Villa. We've only two home games left, against Blackburn and Liverpool, neither of which will be easy opportunities, which in all likelihood means we need a win away from home. Two games ago I still thought Coleman could do the job and we'd probably be fine, now I don't think that's the case anymore.

I'm going to Reading on Saturday, mainly because a friend of mine lives near by and we've planned on going from the start of the season. It now looks like this could be a make or break match. Not sure if Coleman will still be in charge by then, I think any remaining fence-sitter's (myself included) probably fell off today, and Mo may think that the time is nigh. I'm not sure a change now will actually make much difference, our only real option is Ray Lewington as caretaker, but we need something to change our fortunes.

Do Do Do the Carlos Bocanegra!

Meant to add this to the previous post, as further evidence of "where did it all go wrong". Carlos' goal on Friday night makes him second highest scorer in the league this year with 4. Only big Brian McBride has scored more with nine, whilst Heidar is not far off with 3, but with Carlos and the one-legged Ian Pearce being our only scorers in the last four games I think it's time the strikers stood up to the mark.
[*UPDATE: 9th April - Carlos scores again to reach 5 goals, comfortably second and if he keeps it up may stake a claim to pass McBride!]

Carlos scores despite Phil Neville's attempt to scare him by gurning. Picture from BBC Sports.

Game 32 - Everton 4 FFC 1

Another hammering on Merseyside, and yet I'm not too despondent. We were undone by some fine football from Everton in the first half, but didn't give up, and had a real go in the second half. There were some welcome changes to the starting eleven, although much of that was probably down to injuries and suspensions, rather than some sudden tactical revolution. It was nice to see Volz back in the team, and for Routledge to finally get another go on the wing. Disappointing though that Cookie felt it necessary to switch Simon Davies to the left wing, where I felt he was more restricted. I feel pretty certain that Routledge can play with either foot, and would be the more natural choice for that role, but maybe with Liam having to fill in again Coleman felt it would leave us too open on that flank.

As it turned out, despite taking the lead slightly against the run of play, it was probably Routledge's fault that Jolean Lescott was able to rampage forward and play the ball of his life into the box for Lee Carsley to convert.

Two more goals conceded before half time, and in both, I felt there was some clever movement from the Everton forwards to ensure that nippy but short Andy Johnson played off Zat thus isolating Bocanegra with their big men. This was particularly evident in the killer third goal, in which AJ dragged Zat way out of position, Zat really failed to clear the danger, and the ball was quickly played into the box where what was left of our defence was in disarray.

The game really was over at that point, but we stuck to our guns and created a lot of chances in the second half. More than anything it highlighted our biggest problem of the season, and inability to score. We really do need Montella to get fit and play a few games if we're going to pick up those "two wins" Coleman reckons will see us safe. McBride had the best chance, with a towering header, and if that had gone in maybe we could have got something out of the game. It wasn't a surprise that pushing so many people forward eventually led to a forth and final goal, but I was proud of the way we had fought, and if we can keep playing with that attitude maybe we can pick up the wins we need sooner rather than later.

Game 31 - FFC 1 Portsmouth 1

Another draw then, I was stuck at work yesterday and relying on the painfully slow "live" BBC website updates for the score, so left for home at 5:00 thinking we had lost 1-0. Finding out that we had actually snatched a point put me in a much better frame of mind than I might otherwise have felt about the scoreline. There were mixed opinions on TFi yesterday, but a great report on Craven Cottage Newsround seems to sum it all up very well. I'm particularly pleased for Ian Pearce who's taken quite a bit of stick over the last two seasons. The fact that he was even on the pitch at all shows his spirit and commitment, and I believe we need players like Ian, who aren't going to cost the club a fortune but can be called upon to do a job when required.

So, after yesterday's results are we now involved in a relegation scrap? Mathematically we're not safe, but I think, when you look at the comparative run-in's of the main clubs involved, we'll be OK. They've all got tough matches against "top 4" opponents, as well as tricky games against each other, so despite struggling to see where the Whites can manage much more than 7 points I think that will still be enough.

FFC - Everton (A), Man City (H), Reading (A), Blackburn (H), Arsenal (A), Liverpool (H), Middlesbrough (A)
Sheffield United - Bolton (H), Newcastle (A), West Ham (H), Man U (A), Charlton (A), Watford (H), Villa (A), Wigan (H)
Charlton - Man City (A), Reading (H), Everton (A), Sheff U (H), Blackburn (A), Spurs (H), Liverpool (A)
West Ham - Arsenal (A), Sheff U (A), Chavski (H), Everton (H), Wigan (A), Bolton (H), Man U (A)

I think Cookie's safe until the end of the season, mainly because he's still meeting the objectives that MAF and the board have set him. The quotes in the papers suggest that he has picked up on the criticism from the fans, and with the press also reporting it quite widely, there may be added pressure when the board look at the longer term situation.

The New Coventry?

Coleman was right when he moaned about the Premiership schedule the other day. The two weeks between the bore-draw at Wigan and Saturday's forthcoming fixture have really dragged. There's a feeling of unfinished business in the air, and yet no chance of a resolution before the weekend. In particular it will be interesting to see how Liam responds to the criticism he received. I really like him, so I hope it will motivate him to really show how good he can be.

The long running Coleman In/Coleman Out debate on TFi really comes down, in my opinion, to one question. Are we content with just staying in the Premiership or do we think we should be achieving much more than that? I think it's pretty clear that, at the moment, the chairman and the board are content with just staying up and gradually increasing the profitability of the club. I have, so far, felt that way to some extent too and I still believe that the longer Fulham remain in the top division, the stronger we will become as a team and the greater our opportunity for winning a cup or playing in Europe. However, there does need to be some level of entertainment to make it all worthwhile, and that's the big thing we seem to be missing at the moment.

I remember "back in the day" as we began another, ultimately fruitless, attempt to escape the third division, having a particular dislike for Coventry City. Every year they would avoid relegation without too much anxiety, yet never have a season when they even looked like achieving anything exciting. OK they won the F.A.Cup one year, but that was a fluke, right? I think Fulham are in danger of becoming the new Coventry City and to be honest, I really don't think that's something I want to aspire to. Maybe being in the Premiership is something you only really appreciate when you're not in it anymore, but right now I think I'd rather see a heroic Fulham team playing a bit of football and going down, than a dour one achieve another 13th place finish.

I'm hoping for a stirring performance against Pompey on Saturday, I reckon we owe them a bit of a thumping after last season, and a chance for a flair players (particularly Routledge & Montella) to show us what they can do. Come on Chris give us what we want, a few goals and a proper game of football.

Game 30 – Wigan 0 FFC 0

Well it really is looking like the last few games of the season are going to be a bit of a drag. By all accounts a woeful game of football in which Fulham managed to create very little up front. A blast over the bar by Diop in the first and a shot that was always sliding wide of the post from Captain Browny in the 2nd. We do clearly need to pick up some points to ensure we don’t get dragged into to the drop zone, and on a wet and windy day you can understand Coleman picking a conservative team, but still some strange choices made. Pearce & Boca continued at centre back, yet neither Christanval (who played midweek for Europe) nor Knight even made the bench. No place in the 15 for Moritz Volz either, which really is perplexing, as he does not appear to be injured and has shown this season that he can fill in a number of roles. We continue to play the narrow four man midfield, with no natural left footer, and seem reluctant to let our flair players any where near the pitch; Dempsey, Routledge, and John all on the bench (with only John getting any time on the park – a massive 8 minutes), and no sign of Claus at all. We need 6 points to reach the "magic" 40 point mark, maybe when we get there we’ll try and play some football again.

Game 29 – FFC 1 Aston Villa 1

A big game this one, and one, which I think, may be indicative of our whole season. Villa had an almost identical record to us going into the match, and with a more or less full squad to choose from we really needed to win it. I certainly don’t think there’s much danger of us getting sucked into the relegation zone, but if we want to show how good we are these are the games we need to win. Maybe if the threat of relegation was greater we might have found that extra notch in performance to win the game, but it just wasn’t there. We continued with the same formation as we played against United (spot my mistake in the previous post!), a 4-4-2 with Davies and Diop playing the "wide" roles. It really does highlight the often bizarre selection policy of Coleman/Keen as, however well Diop has done (and it’s not that well!) since climbing out of the Coleman doghouse, he is by no stretch of the imagination a left midfielder. Having sold Boa the left wing role is very much up for grabs, but surely the prime contenders in the current squad are Radzinski, Routledge or Dempsey. Clearly "the management" are concerned about having a "lightweight" player on the wing if we only have a four-man midfield.

I can see their dilemma, but hope they have realised that Diop is not the answer. Personally I’d like to see Routledge given a run, but Radz could stake a claim too having performed well above expectations this season. With Montella out for at least one more game though, Radz could well continue up front. Our options are beginning to look pretty bleak here with no one really setting the world alight. I think Brian and Monty should be first choice, and Radz is probably our best bet to cover Monty’s absence. Much as I admire H’s workrate, I only really see him as back up to Brian, and CJ really has blown his last chance.

The defence has taken a bit of a hammering this season, so it was good to see Boca and Pearce doing a reasonable job. I think Boca’s a decent defender who definitely adds depth to our squad, Pearcey’s done OK at times this year, but I doubt he’ll make another season. Fingers crossed the long hoped for "quality centre back" arrives in the summer. I hope Christanval will be back for the Wigan game, he is essential to our defensive line. I also think Zat deserves another go, it’s been another up and down season for him, but he did start so well. Before the stupid broken jaw injury he was playing well, and I reckon he may have been named Captain instead of Brown if he hadn’t been out for 6 weeks. Since then he’s not really had a decent run of games, and that shows in some poor concentration levels. I really hope we do keep him, I think he is good enough to play regularly in the Premiership and we cannot afford to lose too many players. The Rosenior/Voltz conundrum I’ll leave for another post as I’ve gone on enough already.

My team for Wigan would be;

Niemi – Rosenior, Knight, Christanval, Queudrue – Davies, Smertin, Brown, Routledge – McBride Radzinski.

Wigan will be looking for the points (and the chance of a double), but there’s no point going up there to try and contain them, let’s have a go and try and take all three points.

Game 28 - FFC 1 Man United 2

So it turns out I am indeed feeling a little better after the weekends result. The "not-flu" has not quite gone, but is definately going, and the Whites put in a respectable, if eventually unsuccessful, performance. It's something to build on, and a sign that maybe there is still one last twist in the tale of this season.

Strange that reverting to the loathed 4-5-1 formation * seemed to have worked much better than previously. With Montella banned for 2 more games, and our sudden influx of midfielders, maybe this is how we'll see the season out. Both Davies and Radzinski were very busy throughout, and the Diop/Smertin/Brown triad seem capable of imposing themselves on any team. The down side is the effort required by the lone striker, and the lack of opportunity for someone playing in that role to score. Big Brian is certainly no shirker, but he needs a lot of support for this system to work. It's not hard to work out that Brian will win a lot of ball in the air, but we need to ensure we have players who can get to the second ball to create chances or score. If we are going to turn this season around we need a similar performance against Villa on Saturday, we won't have many better opportunities to win 3 points so we need to grasp it while we can.

* Subsequently realised we actually played a slightly narrow 4-4-2 in this game with Radz back as a striker. I think Diop may have covered the left flank, which all seems a bit strange, but Ferguson noted this as being one of the reasons we did so well against them.

Not-Flu and minor depression

Game 27 - Bolton 2 Fulham 1 & FA Cup Round 5 - FFC 0 Spurs 4
Two really quite miserable games seperated by a bout of "not-flu" which I am still recovering from. It's amazing how quickly football can kick you in the gut just when you think things are going really well. I didn't really expect us to get much out of an away trip to Bolton, but combined with a complete capitualtion in the Cup, and I'm finding myself as miserable as almost any other time this season - a real low ebb. I really have nothing to say about either of these matches, and with the prospect of not actually going to a live match until April, I'm not sure I'll have much to say for quite a while. Maybe there is an element of hopes being raised after a successful transfer window, only to be dashed again by too many under-par performances, but I had really thought we had improved our squad and could actually push on to the upper reaches of the league ans was looking forward to a nice little cup run and (I know I was getting ahead of myself here) maybe ... even ... a Cup Final appearance. This all seems to have been dashed in a little over a week, and the reality sinks in that our remaining 11 Premiership matches only offer the opportunity to avoid relegation.

Maybe a stunning performance against Man Utd can turn this all around, and maybe it's just that I'm not in the most positive of moods after 2 weeks of the "not-flu".

Round up part 4 - FA Cup and Game 22 to 25

FA Cup Round 3 – Leicester City 2 FFC 2
This time last year we faced Leyton Orient with a huge injury list and I had a foreboding that we would lose. I though about putting money on Orient (at 9/1) to try and pre-empt this disaster but in the end didn’t make it to the bookies. I felt sick when I saw the final score line of Fulham 1 Orient 2. So here we are in January again, with another huge (possibly worse) injury list facing a team very capable of knocking us out. I headed straight to Ladbrokes to put a fiver on a Leicester win at stingy odds of 2/1 and thereby ensured Fulham lived to fight another day.

Game 22 - West Ham United 3 FFC 3
Boa’s been sold to the Hammer’s and I’m not sorry that he’s gone. The last straw for me was his lack of effort when forced to play left back against Reading. Boa’s still a great player but I felt over the last season and a half he seemed to have lost his drive, and often looked like he didn’t want to play for us anymore. I hold no grudge though and am happy to look at the good times he gave us, and there were many. I am however, amazed that the club finalised the deal prior to our match and thereby let him play against us! In the end it probably didn’t matter but it looked like a cock up waiting to happen. This game was another in the continuing series of "end-to-end games with Fulham snatching last minute equaliser’s". I’m not sure it’s good for my health but so far I like it. Today’s hero was an unlikely Philippe Christanval on 90 + 3. Love it!

FA Cup Round 3 Replay - FFC 4 Leicester City 3
OK so a temporary halt to my self-imposed ban. Hey tickets are only £17 and we’ve already lasted longer than the last two years. A midweek game gave me the opportunity to hit the pub prior to kick-off, and in particular give the Bricklayers Arms a try. A great little pub, though one that, in future I will probably have to allow more than 10 minutes to get to the ground from. A brisk walk though Bishop’s Park (greatest walk to a ground in the country surely?) and as we approached the Hammy End the unmistakable muted cheer of the opposition scoring. Arse! 0-1 and we’re not even in the ground yet. Thankfully the beer helped temper my nerves and we sat back to enjoy a classic cup tie. Big Brian struck to pull us level just past the half hour mark, before another spot of calamitous defending allowed Leicester to sneak a header in at the far post and take a 2-1 lead at half time. Montella made his home debut as the teams restarted, and the anticipation was palpable. Couldn’t wait to see how good he really was, but not before we are stunned again as Leicester fire in a hopeful shot from midfield that flies into the top corner to give them a 3-1 lead. The beer’s still working though and I’m not worried. 51 minutes and Michael Brown fires a low cross in front of the goal that Montella clinically dispatches, 60 minutes and a deflected corner again finds Montella at the far post to rise and head home for 3-3. Game on! MONTELLA – WHOOOH-OH-OH-OH! We love him already, a genuine fox in the box, with real quality. Leicester do get back into the game though and there are a few nervy moments. With time running down, I’m holding on for Extra-time and the chance to go for a quick wee, when Wayne Routledge (who has also had a great game) jinks his way into the Leicester half. Seemingly completely trapped by three defenders, he seems to have blown it before drawing a foul as one of them needlessly pulls him back. However as the lino furiously flags the ref (Alan Wiley who also did very well tonight) plays advantage, Routledge somehow slips between all three players, picks up the ball the other side, maintains his composure and slots away the winning goal. OH YES!!! (Oh my bladder!) A great night and a great result.

Game 23 - FFC 1 Tottenham Hotspur 1
Another patched together team with Routledge unable to play against his main employers. Boca has to move into midfield with Pearce returning to the defence. A Montella penalty on 84 minutes looks like giving us three well needed points, before a dubious equaliser sees us draw our sixth Premiership game in a row, and potentially leaves Chris Coleman with an FA charge to face. Still we are now unbeaten for nine games, and that can only be a good thing. We do need to pick up points in the league, but I think its better that we make ourselves hard to beat.

FA Cup Round 4 - FFC 3 Stoke 0
With Simon Davies and Alexey Smertin signed this week we finally look like a team with a squad again, and did a professional job on a Stoke side who could very easily have upset us. Great to see McBride start up front with Montella, they are my dream pairing, and both scored in the first half to set us on the way. I can’t believe we could possibly afford the transfer fee or wages of Montella full time so i guess we just need to enjoy him while we can. Radz, who is fast becoming one of our more consistent performers, notched a third before the hour and the job was done. Roll on Monday and the 5th round draw.

Game 24 - SheffieldUtd 2 FFC 0
Midweek game, up North, on a cold night, in January, playing a rough tough tackling side?
We were never gonna win .................. we didn't.

Game 25 - FFC 2 Newcastle 1
This is the first game I miss due to my "self-imposed ban". Bit of a cheat really as I was off for a boozy weekend in the Isle of Wight, but hey, anything for the good of the team. Appalling mobile reception on the Island mean my supposed "frequent text updates" don't come through as often as I would like from my friends at the match, but eventually the news reaches me that Helguson and McBride have scored to make it 2-0 and I am dancing in the streets of Ryde! The late consolation means nothing, and I am even more excited to read the following morning about the "surging run and pass" from Diop to set up our second goal. Crikey it's like we've gone from first eleven men in boots get a place in the team to a mighty squad of experienced internationals. Three well needed points and I'm smiling again.

Round up part 3 - Game 17 to 21

Game 17 - FFC 2 Middlesbrough 1
Monday night game on Sky, two early goals saw them off and despite a 2nd half strike from Viduka we held on for a very important 3 points.

Game 18 - FFC 0 West Ham United 0
Prior to this game I realised I was yet to see a Fulham win in my four games thus far. With the Hammers struggling I felt we had to be able to change that situation. A really enjoyable game with lots of effort from both sides. End to end football with plenty to shout about. Defensively solid, Christanval in particular looks a class act and Niemi made some great saves. Routledge really started to look the part in midfield, and was causing all sorts of problems to the West Ham defence, Radz worked really hard as well. My biggest disappointment was HH’s inability to find himself on the end of McBride’s flick ons. Brian wins everything in the air and I can’t understand why we don’t make more out of this. Maybe they are too similar in their style, but all round it didn’t seem to be Heidar’s day. A late surge from the Hammers was effectively ended when Routledge broke through only to be taken out by Konchesky who was red carded. In the car on the way home as I reflected on seeing my first points of the season I realised I was yet to see a Fulham goal either … hmmm.

Game 19 - Charlton 2 FFC 2
Xmas all over when it seemed like it had just begun and I’m back to BBC internet updates to keep track of this game. 2-1 down with time running out and my F5 key taking a pounding, I couldn’t take it any longer and switch to radio 5. Radzinski has given away a free kick … no it seems the linesman has given it Fulham’s way … I’m not sure how he’s come to that decision … Michael Brown takes it quickly … it’s in the box … QUEUDRUE! … it’s there! … FULHAM EQUALISE IN THE DYING SECONDS!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Game 20 - Chelsea 2 FFC 2
Same as Charlton, keeping one eye on t’internet, pleased to see Volzy score and amazed to hear it’s the 15000th Premiership goal, unsurprised to see the Filth draw level through a Lumpard deflected shot and then take the lead in the 2nd half. As the game draws to a close I have to stick the radio on and it works again! Third time this season – I LOVE RADIO 5! Another great effort from the team and a Bocanegra header earns us a fantastic point at the Dog Track.

Game 21 - FFC 0 Watford 0
So New Years day and this is crunch time. Thanks to the draw with West Ham I have now seen us "not lose", all I need is to see a goal. If we can’t score against Watford then I am going to seriously think about weather I attend again. To be fair we did everything but score, I did at least get to celebrate two goals as Heidar twice puts the ball in the back of the net only for both goals to be ruled out as offside. From my spot in the Hammy End both goals looked fine, but we weren’t in a position to disagree. Match of the Day confirms that the first decision was correct but the second was onside. We hammered Watford in the 1st half and they were without doubt the worst team I’d seen so far this season, however, they got themselves organised and 2nd half made it much harder for us. Particular mention must go to on loan ‘keeper Ben Foster who was immense, and at times was like an extra defender – a future England number 1? The game was completely overshadowed though by the injury to Antti Niemi. Boca failed to deal with a high ball and as Niemi came to clear he got caught up on Boca and Watford’s giant striker Henderson and came crashing down on his head. It looked horrible and I was very concerned for his health. Antti hadn’t been able to break his fall with his hands as he’d ended up trying to head the ball as he was on the edge of his area. Thankfully he seems to be on the mend (though not yet fit enough to play football, but that must be the least of his concerns).

One final mention to Maurice Cook who died prior to the game, a true Fulham great who scored 89 goals in 221 appearances during his seven years at Fulham.
Maurice Cook 1931 – 2006 R.I.P.

Self Imposed Ban
So having failed to see Fulham score for six consecutive matches I had to work out when I had last seen us hit the net. It was the last match I attended last season against Wigan a 1-0 win with out goal scored by Steed Malbranque. This means I have currently watched 585 minutes of football without a Fulham goal. I am horribly superstitious when it comes to Fulham so I have therefore decided to stop going until Fulham have enough points to guarantee safety. My next match was not due to be until February against Newcastle and as this clashes with a trip away with some mates it’s one I don’t mind missing, which leaves Fulham until the Blackburn game on April 21st to sort themselves out.

Round up part 2 - This Is Anfield

Game 16 - Liverpool 4 FFC 0

My mate Mark has been talking about going to Anfield for a few seasons now, but for one reason or another we’ve never made it. Noticing it was on a Saturday and unlikely to be moved due to European football I suggested we go up this year. Having decided to go we then spent quite a long time trying to talk ourselves out of it. The train was too expensive, neither of our cars were up to the job of driving and the coach would mean a very long day, not to mention the inevitable defeat. Eventually on the Tuesday prior to the game we bit the bullet and bought tickets for the game and the coach. The coach option turned out to be not as bad as we feared. Taking a late decision to go from Motspur Park only had to leave home at 7:00 and had the added bonus of being able to park for free. Our driver, (Everton!) made great time getting up there and even provided us with a panoramic trip round the outside of Anfield, passing Goodison Park and Billy Wright’s statue before eventually finding our drop off point on the far side of Stanley Park. We were nice and early so headed straight for The Arkles pub. The pub was rammed with mainly Liverpool with a fair scattering of Fulham, but a friendly environment with both fans standing shoulder to shoulder watching the Manchester Derby (though wanting a different result!).

Spot the Fulham fan.

A great atmosphere and a couple of pre-match pints set us up nicely for the game ahead and as we made the short walk to the ground the full impact of Anfield's historic past hit me for the first time. Walking up to the ground down proper terraced back streets it felt like we had been transported back 20 or 30 years. We went to see the Hillsborough memorial and couldn’t resist having our photo taking by the Shankley gates and the "This Is Anfield" sign. It will be a sad day if Liverpool do as planned and leave this ground behind to move to a bigger stadium. The game itself was pretty much as expected. Fulham strove manfully in the first half to contain Liverpool, and did pretty well despite a few lapses, but we were always struggling to find any threat up front. The second half, particularly after the loss of Diop to a thigh strain (maybe his last performance in a Fulham shirt?), saw the Reds streaming forward with pace and power. The first goal was unfortunate, the second avoidable and then it was all downhill with no way back. It was a long journey home, eventually returning around 11:00, but we had a great day out (despite the inevitable defeat) and were really glad we made the effort.

Wonder if that kid's photo came out better than mine?

Round up part 1 - Games 10 - 15

Game 10 - FFC 0 Wigan 1
I went to this one. Took my eldest and went with one of his pals and his Dad. Going with son 1 means I don’t get as wound up as I would do normally (he’s only 6 and currently an Arsenal fan - son 2 is only 3 and hasn't had to make a decision yet, I'm gonna get it right this time!). Quite enjoyed the game which I felt brought back memories of similar encounters in the lower divisions. Basically a lot of enthusiasm and effort but not much quality. Camara’s attempted scissor kick that just flicked off his foot for a throw in and Kilbane’s sliced clearance that grazed the crossbar and gave us a corner were particular highlights. In the end we were undone by a combined cock-up in defence (Liam, Zat and Franck all failing to clear the ball) and the pace of Camara.

Claus prepares to take corner vs Wigan, next to the 2nd worst linesman in the Premiership.

Game 11 - FFC 1 Everton 0
We have so far always beaten Everton at home in the Premiership. I didn’t believe we could do so again. I was wrong!

Game 12 - Portsmouth 1 FFC 1
Took a surprise lead through Zat, poxy Andy poxy Cole went and equalised.

Game 13 - Man City 3 FFC 1
Never a happy hunting ground and no Steed this year to turn the game.

Game 14 - FFC 0 Reading 1
I really thought I had picked a good set of games for my 6 ticket package. Bound to see some wins I thought. To be fair we were all over them but a rash challenge by Pearce saw a deserved red card and Doyle (who looked Reading’s best player after Michael Brown kicked Steve Sidwell and he had to go off) despatched the penalty. We tried so hard to get back into this but just didn’t have the quality to create or finish in the box.

Game 15 - Blackburn 2 FFC 0
120 Fulham fans travelled to see this - I wasn't one of them. Pretty dire.