Fulham 2 - Bolton 1

Despite a calamitous start and atrocious conditions Fulham somehow managed to complete their traditional opening home fixture win over Bolton. It wasn't pretty to watch and it was never certain until the final whistle had blown but we showed a lot of spirit to get back into the game and once in front hold onto our lead.

A catalogue of errors led to Bolton's opening goal. Konchesky tried to control the ball instead of clearing it, which led eventually to a Bolton throw in. Nicky Hunt placed one of his monster throws deep into our penalty area where Zat had a 'mare, letting the ball bounce and failing to clear the danger. Still there was no immediate danger and as Warner seemed to have claimed the ball everyone relaxed. However, as Warner came down he collided with Zat Knight and lost control of the ball, which then bounced behind him where Heidar Helguson (it was inevitable H would score) was waiting to slot home what could possibly be the easiest goal of his career. After that, and as the rain went from bad to worse, we seemed to struggle to find our rhythm. Bolton had a lot of possession and were passing it around really neatly. Anelka and Diouf were looking dangerous up front and I was beginning to fear the worst.

We won a free kick down in the right hand corner and Chris Baird played a decent ball into the box. Zat made contact with his head to loop the ball high in the air and, under a challenge from McBride, a Bolton defender headed the ball towards goal. With two defenders close by Healy reacted quickest and fired home from the edge of the 6 yard box. This gave the team a lift and suddenly we had more about us and started to look more incisive. The second goal came as a Davies corner was cleared by Bolton. Smertin claimed the ball and with no immediate challenge he had time to take a touch inside before firing a shot towards the right hand post. Bolton defender Cid made contact with it as it flew towards him, but only succeeded in firing the ball into the left hand corner. Just before the break we almost saw a carbon copy of Healy's goal against Arsenal. Jaaskeleinen collected the ball in the corner of his area, but then inexplicably lost control. Healy reacted quickly to nick the ball away but as he moved to pass the 'keeper appeared to be impeded. I think he maybe made too much of the challenge, and even if he had got past a defender was closing on the ball quite quickly, so on reflection the ref probably got it right.

We had our moments in the second half with McBride having a decent chance early on. Warner made a couple of decent saves, and Smertin and Davis were working hard in the centre. With about 10 minutes remaining, Kamara replaced Healy and Dempsey replaced Bouazza. Kamara really looked the business, he's got bags of pace and a decent first touch, I can't wait for him to be back to full fitness so we can see what he's really like. Probably our best chance of the second half came as Steven Davis fired in a glorious cross from the left wing which Kamara, who had done brilliantly well to stay onside, just failed to connect with. After that the latter stages saw Bolton in the ascendancy again as they piled on the pressure in search of an equalizer. Some poor finishing on their part and some dogged defending on ours ensured we claimed all three points. Playing poorly and winning is a not a bad habit to have.

Plus points from the night were that the defence as a unit, barring that early lapse, looked very well drilled. We again played a very high line and this time pulled it off very successfully. Chris Baird was particularly solid, making numerous important tackles and blocks, and Bocanegra had a spell in the first half when it seemed nothing could pass him. Smertin also worked hard all night and deserves to claim that goal however big the deflection was. Healy was lively and as well as looking sharp in the box, worked very hard and covered a lot of ground as he looked to play off McBride's knockdowns. I should also mention Tony Warner who, after that dreadful early error, stuck to his guns and made good saves in both halves to help ensure our victory. I don't want to dwell on the negatives too much but I felt Steven Davis struggled to get into the game early on. He did get stronger as the match progressed though culminating in that superb ball to Kamara near the end. Paul Konchesky also had a poor game, getting caught in the wrong position a number of times, and getting caught in possession at least twice.

A great start to the season though, hopefully we can get an improved performance on Saturday with the same result. Some dryer weather would be nice too. Despite being in row JJ of the Hammy End, my seat is right next to the executive boxes and thanks to a small gap between them and a lack of corrugated iron I was quite wet by half time. Still it can't rain like that again ... can it?

The team lined up in a 4-4-2 formation as follows;

GK 12 A.Warner
RB 34 C.Baird
CB 06 Z.Knight
CB 03 C.Bocanegra
LB 04 P.Konchesky
RM 25 S.Davies
CM 10 S.Davis
CM 08 A.Smertin
LM 24 H.Bouazza
ST 20 B.McBride (C)
ST 09 D.Healy

Subs: 13 R.Batista, 11 D.Kamara (for 9 on 79), 23 C.Dempsey (for 24 on 80), 14 P.B.Diop, 02 M.Volz

Is Tony Warner good enough?

First home game of the season tonight and it's an interesting match up with Bolton. Everyone is expecting them to struggle, and we've had a very good record against them at home in recent seasons but I have a feeling we'll find the Trotters a difficult hurdle to overcome. The injury, on Sunday, to Antti Niemi means he will almost certainly miss both tonight's game and Middlesbrough on Saturday. There is a fear that Niemi's recent problems with injury are going to be an ongoing issue and raises the question again of whether or not we need to bring in another goalkeeper.

Until Niemi came along we had struggled to find a 'keeper good enough to be first choice, and have spent the last two seasons trying out a succession of possible backups. This season we only have Tony Warner and Ricardo Batista to fall back on, and of those Batista is surely still too young and inexperienced to be risked. Warner was excellent on Sunday and the question is really whether he is up to the job or not. During his first spell, on loan from Cardiff, he did reasonably well and appeared to have a safe pair of hands. He kept a clean sheet against Birmingham on his debut and also put on a good display in our final match at Highbury. In that game he saved a penalty early on (if he'd done that at the Emirates we really would be signing his praise) and although he went on to concede 4, it was the defence that took the bulk of the blame. He continued in goal until the return of Mark Crossley and then had to cope with occasional games here and there, including a second half substitution at the Walham Green Dog Track where I seem to remember him not looking so confident.

Having signed him on full terms in January he made only 5 further league appearances, the last of which saw him concede a total of 12 goals in three matches against Arsenal, Everton and Liverpool. Last season saw him play just one competitive match for Fulham, sandwiched between loan spells at Leeds and Norwich, the very shaky performance at home to Leicester in the Carling Cup. Apart from that one off appearance last season, a bizarre game for all concerned, we've not really seen much of Warner to make a decent assessment. I suspect he may have lost some confidence, having been in and out of the side towards the end of 2005/06 and then booted out to play for struggling Championship teams neither of whom seemed keen to take him on full time. Maybe the Emirates performance is evidence that Warner has recovered his self belief but for now doubts remain over his ability to perform consistently over a full season.

If we do need to sign a new 'keeper then there are a couple of issues we'll have to resolve. The transfer window closes at the end of August so any deal needs to be brokered and completed in fairly quick time. We also need to identify exactly what type of goalie we actually need. Finding a "number 2" 'keeper is not an easy thing to do. Any player capable of performing at the desired level in the Premier League is unlikely to be keen to sign for a club who want him to just sit on the bench. Traditionally this has meant looking for an "experienced" older pro who has maybe fallen down the pecking order at his current club, or plucking some young bright thing from the lower reaches of the leagues. The problem with this approach is that the older pro may be just as injury prone as Niemi, and the young bright thing may not be up to the job. I think our best approach, although initially more expensive, will be to try and sign a new number 1, or at least a 'keeper capable of competing for the number 1 spot.

I like Antti a lot, and believe he is as good a 'keeper as we're likely to see, but his robustness is a definite concern. I think any top class player with belief in his ability would be prepared to fight for his place, so bringing in another quality 'keeper would only be a good thing for the team. If this is the approach the club choose to take I wouldn't be surprised to see no signing made in the current window. Getting the right player is essential and I think Sanchez would rather keep faith with the players he has and then focus on picking up a new 'keeper in January when fresh funds may be available. I think Tony Warner deserves his chance to stake a claim and, with two home games still to come before Niemi returns, hope we are signing his name again on Wednesday and Saturday.

Cookie Watch #2

Might not have much time today for a lengthy post but I am continuing to keep an eye out for news of Chris Coleman in Spain. I noticed this article the other day, originally from the Daily Mail. It looks like it might be an ongoing series so might make interesting reading.

Arsenal 2 - Fulham 1

And so it begins. The first game of the season and I am reduced to keeping track of the game via a mixture of mobile phone, internet and radio. Beforehand I had been mentally preparing for what to write if we suffered a bit of a thrashing, and then within the first minute we've taken the lead! Cue an hour and three quarters of pensive excitement followed by, the inevitable, two late goals and a disappointing finish.

MOTD2 provided me with a brief glimpse of what the game was like and largely confirmed the reports coming from TFI. Tony Warner replaced Niemi in goal (who injured his hand in the warm up) and proceeded to have an absolute blinder. The team as a whole looked well drilled, with the defence in particular gaining praise for a solid performance. We played a very high line at the back, which is not easy to do, but for over 80 minutes succeeded in implementing it very well. We also created a few decent chances and it was pleasing to see Healy capitalise on the early mistake by Lehmann, a chance that could easily have been spurned. The penalty that brought Arsenal back into the game, seemed clear cut to me, and there had also been an earlier challenge by Baird on Hleb that was equally deserving. Fabregas did clip Steven Davis' heel in the second half, and I feel if the ref had seen it we would have got a penalty as well. Following the penalty it seemed that tired legs (and minds) got the better of us and, as Fabregas found more time to control the game, this led to our defence being caught slightly flat footed for the winning goal.

Overall, whilst we were undoubtedly unlucky not to claim a point, we cannot be too upset with the final result. The team looked like they all understood their roles, and the effort and application was excellent. This bodes well for the season ahead, now we have to turn a performance into points.

The team lined up in a 4-4-2 formation as follows;

• GK 12 A.Warner
• RB 34 C.Baird
• CB 06 Z.Knight
• CB 03 C.Bocanegra
• LB 04 P.Konchesky
• RM 25 S.Davies
• CM 10 S.Davis
• CM 08 A.Smertin
• LM 24 H.Bouazza
• ST 20 B.McBride (C)
• ST 09 D.Healy

Subs: 02 M.Volz, 11 D.Kamara (for 9), 23 C.Dempsey (for 24), 14 P.B.Diop (for 8), 22 E.Omozusi

Rich of CCN went to the match and has got an excellent report (with photos) here. For the Arsenal perspective check out DT's views at Gillespie Road and if you're really a glutton for punishment there are more at East Lower and A Cultured Left Foot. That's all probably a bit over the top, but it's the first game of the season and I'm getting a bit carried away.

In other news The Sunday Times suggest that Sanchez has offered to swap Liam Rosenior for Reading's Icelandic central defender Ivar Ingimarsson and Korean midfielder Ki-Hyeon Seol. Liam wasn't in the squad today and the rumour about Reading's interest has been raised before, especially with Reading's current right back, Nicky Shorey the subject of interest from West Ham. The less reliable News of the World are reporting that we are preparing a £600,000 bid for Paris Saint Germain centre-back Sammy Traore.

Season Preview 2007/2008

It's less than a year since I started this blog with my very first season preview. Looking back at that now it's interesting to see how positive I felt going into that campaign. Partly a sign of how optimistic I tend to be, but also that I really did not foresee how badly the wheels would fall off the Cookie mobile. Now I find myself in a similar position with Lawrie Sanchez. I feel he has strengthened the team in key areas and added greater depth to our squad. Uncannily similar to how I felt last year, so I am just a poor judge or are we going to have a better season.

Despite my optimism I don't have as high an expectation this time around. Last season I really felt we were ready to push on and be comfortably in the top ten, with an outside chance of a top six finish. This time I feel we will be happy with staying up, hopefully confirmed a few games before the end of the season and maybe if things go to plan, a good cup run or even a final appearance to enjoy. Whatever the outcome I can't believe we can be any worse than last year and my biggest wish for this season is that, however many points we claim, the football we get to watch will be more exciting.

I believe we're going to see a more straightforward 4-4-2 system played home and away. I don't think it will be Wimbledon style hoof-ball, but it will be pacey and direct. We'll make use of the wings and will also look to stretch defences with some pace up front. Kamara may be playing in a free role just off McBride (so more of a 4-4-1-1 really). This puts a lot of emphasis on new Club Captain McBride as we currently don't have another striker who can play that target man role. Our other strikers, though, will be able to come in and provide some variation up front. Healy is a tricky little player with a lot of skill, and I can see him being used a lot off the bench. Bouazza may get to play more often on the left wing but will also provide backup to Kamara. We might also find that if two pacey strikers are required we'll see Bouazza and Kamara in tandem. Collins John remains a bit of an enigma but there is room for him to make a mark if he puts his mind to it.

The midfield should have more width and pace than last season, two attributes we were clearly short of. I expect Lee Cook to eventually claim the left wing spot with Simon Davies and Clint Dempsey fighting it out for the right side. Dempsey is clearly a talented player and he may also get the opportunity to play in the middle or even just off the main striker as he did so effectively against Liverpool last May. Centrally Steven Davis and Alexey Smertin seem the likely starters, though Diop will be pushing hard for a place. When Jimmy Bullard returns, probably not before November, he'll add a bit a guile and cunning to the centre as well.

I think the back four will, once everyone is fit, be fairly consistent throughout the season. Baird and Konchesky will be the full backs, with Aaron Hughes (when he recovers) being the mainstay of the centre. Zat seems to be in pole position for the last place at the moment, but the absence of Hughes in the first few weeks may give Christanval or Bocanegra or Pearce the chance to stake a claim. Niemi of course will be number one, though his potential for picking up injuries is a concern, as we currently stand, without a decent backup 'keeper.

If all goes well I think we're in for an exciting season, I'm looking for more goals, better football and a lot less miserable draws.

Players In
£1m Aaron Hughes
£4m Steven Davis
£6m Diomansey Kamara
£3m Chris Baird
£3m Paul Konchesky
£1.5m David Healy
£2.5m Lee Cook
£3m Hameur Bouazza
£?k Adrain Leijer
£24m Total Spend - 9 Players

Players Out
Released - Tomaz Radzinski
Released - Claus Jensen
Retired - Mark Pembridge
Free to Oldham - Mark Crossley
Free to Swansea - Matty Collins
Loan End - Vincenzo Montella
Loan End - Wayne Routledge
Loan End - Jan Lastuvka
£2m to Bolton - Heider Helguson
£3m to Wigan - Micheal Brown
£2.5m to Birmingham - Franck Queudrue
Loan to F.C. Kaiserslauten - Bjorn Runstrom
£7.5m Total Income - 12 Players

Still need?
1 First Choice backup Goalkeeper
1 Experienced Centre Back


:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

THEC preview of Arsenal v Fulham

My preview of Sunday's game has now been published here on Gillespie Road. In case you missed it in the blur of posting I made yesterday the view from Gillespie Road can be found here (or just scroll down the page a bit!).

Squad numbers announced

It's been a busy today, I don't normally make four posts in one day, but the new squad numbers have been announced. You can see the full 27 player list here on the Offal.

For those of us that get excited by these things there are a few interesting omissions. Firstly there's no number 1. I wouldn't read too much into that, Antti likes number 29 for some reason and that's why he's not taken it. I think there is still a chance we might sign a "proper" back up 'keeper before the end of August and maybe he'll get the shirt. I figure there will be a few 'keepers who've seen bigger signings come in during the window and will be prepared to warm our bench as first choice back-up.

There are no numbers allocated to Gabriel Zakuani, Simon Elliott or Ahmed Elrich. Now both Elliott and Elrich are long term injuries so Sanchez has not yet had the chance to run the rule over them. When he does I doubt he'll be that impressed and with both players out of contract in June 2008 I would expect them to be let go when their contracts end. Zakuani is a more interesting case. We spent £1m bringing him in from Orient and he's got another three years on his contract. With the signing of Leijer and the continued improvement of Elliot Omozusi though I can't see a place for Zak in our current set up. The likelihood is that if we don't sell him we'll let him go our on loan again, either way I feel a bit sorry for the guy who must have been over the moon when Coleman signed him a little over a year ago.

New Signing - Adrian Leijer

This one has been semi-official for almost a week now and finally Fulham have officially announced that we have indeed signed 21 year old Australian centre back Adrian Leijer. Leijer has joined on a three year deal from Melbourne Victory for an undisclosed fee. Melbourne Victory are current A-League Premiership and Championship (the top four from the Premiership entering playoffs for a Superbowl style final) holders, the first team to have achieved that double and Adrian has made 40 appearances, scoring 1 goal, for them over the last two seasons. Previously Leijer had played 20 games for Melbourne Knights when they were part of the pre-A League National Soccer League. It looks like he moved to Victory when the Knights reverted to playing State Football (check out Wikipedia if you want to know more about the Australian league system!). Leijer also had a trial with Everton when he was only 18, they didn't pick up on him then but he's now got a couple of good seasons under his belt.

A couple of interesting quotes from Wikipedia. His first season with Victory "was a disaster and a real flashback of his season at the Melbourne Knights; Melbourne Victory had finished second last and last out of all the Australian teams in the league, however, his contribution to the team awarded him with The Players' Player of the Year and Clubman of the Year". His second season at the club was more successful, with Leijer cementing his position in the team alongside Rodrigo Vargas and Daniel Piorkowski, at the end of the season "having completed the double he was voted Hyundai A-League Young Player of the Year".

I've said previously that this is an odd signing. At 21 he's obviously not being considered someone who will be straight into the first team, yet he's at an age where if he's going to make it in a major league he needs to be playing first team football. I guess we'll have to trust Lawrie's judgement on this one, I may get to see him at a reserves match soon and will report back on how he looks but for now I don't think we need worry too much about how good he is.

Gillespie Road preview of Arsenal v Fulham

My Arsenal friend DT writes a blog called Gillespie Road. It's very good and despite being totally about Arsenal I enjoy reading it. DT suggested we should exchange previews for the forthcoming Arsenal v Fulham match so we have, DT answers my questions below and you will be able to read my responses to DT's questions soon on Gillespie Road.

DT maybe you could start by giving us a brief introduction to yourself and Gillespie Road?
I’ve been a gooner all my life. I honestly can’t remember not supporting them. My Dad is from the West Country, and is a Robin’s fan, but I was drawn into the gooner fold by my best mate. We’ve known each other for about 23 years, and as such I *think* that’s how long I’ve been an Arsenal fan. My Dad was always a big rugby supporter, Bath to be specific (his home town), but never really did the whole football thing with me, so I was left to my own devices on that front and ended up supporting the team my bezzie mate did. Rugby wise I am a Bath fan, so my Dad doesn’t feel like a complete failure. Gillespie Road is my latest project. I started a homepage back in the late 90’s that was a good grounding in basic HTML, but quickly lost interest in it. A few years ago, I discovered the Arsenal blog scene and became an avid reader of various sites. This summer, the whole transfer speculation thing, and the maelstrom of crap that surrounded TH’s departure really got on my wick. I had to do something. Gillespie Road was the answer – chucking my two bits out into the net is a great release. The readership is slowly increasing by the day, so I must be doing something right! I try and put a positive spin on things as well. There’s too much negativity from some ‘fans’ that have been spoilt by the Wenger years. If you think back to the mediocrity of the mid 80’s, we really should give thanks the last ten years have seen such a massive turnaround in the fortunes of the club.

What are your expectations for Arsenal this season and how do you think you'll cope with the loss of Thierry Henry?
Ah. The old Henry angle eh? I knew you’d ask that. Henry was never my favourite Arsenal player. I have massive respect for him as a player and I’m thankful he spent the glory years of his career at Arsenal, but for me, Dennis Bergkamp was always the one. Iceman was truly a genius. He may not have been as prolific in front of goal as the Frenchman, but it was Dennis who was the architect of so many of his goals. Thierry was a great Arsenal player – one who typified the Wenger ideology. But now he’s gone and we have to move on. Last season Thierry spent a lot of time out injured and I’m sure that had a negative impact on the team. Not because he wasn’t scoring the goals, but because the rest of the players weren’t sure what to do without him. The team was built around the way he played the game, and without him running the channels and producing moments of inspiration; the side looked a little lost. Also, when he did play, he was in a permanent grump. I think we’ll benefit from the loss of his negative attitude that pervaded his performances last season. It will allow players like Adebayor and van Persie to kick on to the next level as they will not be subject to “Le Stare” any more. It may mean a slight change in gameplan, but I think the team, on and off the pitch, know exactly how to affect this and we’ll prove a few people wrong – mainly all those that think the Spuds will finish fourth!

Of the new signings made this summer who do you think will make the biggest impact?
A lot of people will be looking at Eduardo da Silva to score a hatful like he did for Zagreb. I’d be surprised if he does. He’ll need time to settle and adapt, but I am expecting him to do well. Don’t get me wrong! For me though, the key player is Bacary Sagna. His interplay with Eboue/Hleb/Theo will provide the platform for many attacks. He has shown that he is capable of solid defence and good attacking play and the threat down the right could be comparable to the days of Pires and C*le. This will allow the likes of Eduardo the freedom to play their natural game and maybe score a load of goals. I’ll be surprised if Fabianski gets more than a handful of appearances, and Nordtveit is just too young and in experienced. I actually have a sneaking suspicion that there might be another signing before the 31st though.

Do you agree Eduardo da Silva looks like a member of 80's Mowtown popsters DeBarge?
I hadn’t actually thought so until you mentioned it, but yes. Oh my god yes!

What are you impressions of the new Emirates Stadium and how much do you miss Highbury?
The stadium is fantastic and it shows the direction the club is heading in. The vastness of it is so imposing for visiting teams, but it lacks some of the intimacy of Highbury. But I’ll warm to it. Sitting in the west stand of Highbury I could nearly touch the players, and I’m pretty sure they could hear me (specifically, above all the others) shouting, and that’s missing from the new ground. But we needed to move. For all the sentimentality Highbury held, it was not the place that was going to help propel the club into the next stage in it’s regeneration under Arsene Wenger. A new home was vital to the revenue generation and general impression the club needed to create. I take my hat off to the board members who listened to Arsene and help get the build done. The repayments are manageable and don’t really effect the boss’s budget for signings (despite what people say) and we can still turn over a profit at the end of the FY. Something the Glazer’s and Abramhovic’s of this world should take note of.

What are your views on selling the naming rights to the stadium, wouldn't you prefer it to have a proper name that would stay with it forever?
It already does. It’s The Grove. No one I know calls it “The Emirates”. I’m thankful for the money they paid to have their name plastered over it, but it’s not their stadium. It’s ours – the fans. We like “The Grove” and that’s what will remain after all the naming rights have been and gone. You know that Highbury was officially called Arsenal Stadium, right? As in the mystery film? Well, it was, but every single person in the world called in Highbury. Don’t be fooled by the media who have to call it by the “official” name, the only official name is what we the fans call it by consensus of opinion.

What is going on with that third strip you're about to release?
Hideous isn’t it? A money making plan and nothing else. Ironically similar to Barcelona’s home strip though isn’t it? Colour-wise that is.

How do you think Fulham will fare this season, and what was your impression of how we played under Coleman?
To be honest, I always though Coleman did a good job. Last season wasn’t anything to do with him, he just lost the players backing and they wouldn’t perform for him. Players will blame anyone but themselves, and a run of poor form will have them blaming the manager in a heartbeat. Once that happens, it’s a downward spiral. I thought Fulham were functional under Coleman – nothing more, nothing less. Sanchez has shaken things up a bit, but it’s always hard for a player to see a new guy come in and bring in his mates (Northern Irelanders in this case), knowing that this will change the team dynamic and create an instant clique within the ranks. However, his record as the N.Irish manager, and his work at the end of last season does stand him in good stead. Ladbrokes are quoting 4/1 for Fulham to finish in the top half, and I reckon that’s worth having a score on.

Who in the Fulham Line up worries you for Sunday?
I like Diop. He’s athletic, strong, has a good eye for a pass and can welly a ball. He’s also 8 foot tall or something. McBride and Kamara will also be a handful. Our centre backs aren’t particularly tall and have lacked positional awareness, so those two could cause problems. I’m afraid to say that a lot of the new Fulham boys are a little untested at that level of league football, so it’s hard to say who really stands out apart from the 3 I’ve already mentioned.

Your prediction for the score?
I think we’ll win it by a goal. It’ll be a cagey game, but a 2-1 or 1-0 is my bet. I’ll say 2-1 and go as far as to say van Persie will get both. He’s on form, and is just a top class player.

Finally, given the choice between selling out to a multi-millionaire owner who guarantees you a Premier League and Champions League double or continuing to play football the way you currently do and winning nothing which would you choose?
That is a tough one. My ideology against my desire for trophies? Hmmmm… I think when all is said and done its titles that matter. People talk about the Dutch side of the 70’s, but what did they actually win? Titles get you remembered. No one talks about the kids from the Carling Cup run now. That’s all swept under the carpet. If they’d won it however, it would go down in league history. Ideally, we’d win and be able to do it with style, à la the double winning sides of ‘98 and ’02, but out of the options you given me, success is more important. That said, Kroenke can sod off! And Ecclestone too. It’s so much sweeter knowing you’ve earned it. Are you listening Ch*ls** fans?

Friday Poll

Morning all, just playing around with the blogger bells and whistles and thought I'd try out the Poll feature (over there on your right). Vote for who you think is going to score Fulham's first league goal of the new campaign. Closing date is next Friday but of course, unless we get off to a really poor start, we should have scored by then!

Captain America

Brian McBride was officially named as Club Captain yesterday. I have no complaints about that, Brian has been a real trooper since he joined us and certainly leads by example. The use of the term Club Captain however suggests Lawrie will not have any compunction to start with McBride if he doesn't want to which I reckon shows that LS believes he has a lot of natural leaders throughout the team.

One of those natural leaders is Aaron Hughes, and it also emerged that he picked up an injury in the QPR friendly that could keep him out for around six weeks. That's a bad thing. With no obvious sign that we're any closer to signing that elusive "experienced" centre back a lot of weight was on Hughes' shoulders to ensure he led the back line. Without him we're basically back to the same players that failed Chris Coleman last year. I don't mean that unduly harshly as I still rate a lot of those players, but as a unit they definitely failed to perform. My money's on Zat and Boca starting, but both Pearcey and Christanval made an appearance (if only on the bench) at QPR so may still be in the running.

No official confirmation from Fulham that we have signed Leijer the 21 year old Aussie centre back. It was mentioned on TFI that he was at Motspur Park yesterday afternoon for the medical so we should hear something today.

Finally the Reserves took on Aldershot in their final friendly on Tuesday night. Yet again this match was shrouded in mystery as far as the Fulham website was concerned but the Shots site says they "rounded off their pre-season preparations with a 1-1 draw against a strong Fulham side at the Recreation Ground. Lewis Chalmers gave The Shots an early lead but it was cancelled out a short time later when the Cottagers equalised from a spot kick". So there you go. I really don't understand why Fulham have refused to advertise the reserve fixtures or provide any news off the players involved or how they got on. I can't believe it's a football decision and am left to assume it's just another symptom of the shoddy website management.

New Signing - Hameur Bouazza

Fulham have completed their eighth capture of the summer with the signing of Hameur Bouazza from Watford for something in the region of £3-4m. Bouazza is a striker but played the majority of games on the left wing for Watford last season. He joined Watford as a scholar in 2003 and since then has made 83 league appearances scoring 8 goals. He also made 17 cup appearances for the Hornets in which he scored a further 5 goals, and had a brief spell on loan at Swindon Town in 2006 where he scored 3 goals in 15 appearances. He is French-born Algerian international, finally deciding to play for his parents country (rather than France) in February but has so far only played twice.

I think he's a cracking signing. He's young and pacey and can play up front and on the left wing. Initially he may start ahead of Lee Cook, but longer term I see him as understudy to Diomansey Kamara. I didn't see a great deal of him early on last season, and when I did I wasn't that impressed. However JB my Spurs mate reckoned he was decent, and from then on I took more of an interest. He scored a scorching free kick to equalise against Wigan, and a spectacular volley against Man Utd. in the F.A. Cup semi-final and seemed to be getting stronger as the season ended.

A visit to the Emirates

Regular readers of the Chronicle will be aware that my eldest son, Ben (previously referred to as Chop Jr, which would have worked if I could have found a snappier nickname for George. Chop Jr 2 was the best I could manage which didn't really achieve the comic genius I was after and took longer to type), is an Arsenal supporter. I still cling to the faint hope that when he gets older (he's 7 now) he might change his allegiance to Fulham. However, every week that goes by the more I realise that is never going to happen. On Monday we took one more step along that road. Ben got some vouchers for Christmas for a tour of Arsenal's Emirates Stadium. For one reason or another it's taken us a long time to find a date when we were able to go, but finally, and ironically less that 7 days before the Whites take to the very same field, we made it up there on Monday.

As a Fulham fan I am fiercely proud of our "little" ground, it's still full of character, even after the recent modernisation and having spent so long within it's confines there are few places where I feel more at home. However, as modern stadia go, the Emirates (which is a crap name, I don't really care how much money you're getting for naming rights it's not the same as giving a ground a proper moniker) Stadium is pretty impressive. The whole tour took an hour and was very well presented. I remember as a kid I did the Wembley tour a couple of times, and that was really special, the Emirates inevitably does not have the same sense of history yet but it is still worth looking round. From the executive seating areas with very comfy seats to the players entrance with an imposing facade for visiting teams and an underfloor time capsule. From the dug out along side the immaculate pitch to the home dressing room with its feng shui design. Everything is very modern and yet very well designed. I'd really like to go and see Fulham play there, this coming Sunday has come too soon,but maybe next season I can make it along. I did place my own special voodoo curse on the ground by wearing my Fulham hat and reciting the ancient gypsy spell "comeonyouwhites" repeatedly in the home dressing room. Let's hope it works.

Ben loved the whole day. We also took the time to find the massive A R S E N A L letters over the clock end bridge and walked back to Highbury to see what remains of that once special stadium. When I asked him what his favourite part of the day was he looked at me with a certain look in his eye and said "I can't say the shop can I?".

Here's some photos for those that are interested.

Team Sheet and Statistics Chart

This is just a test run to see if this works. I wanted to create something a bit like the back page of the programme whereby you could see at a glance who played what game and in what position. Not sure if this really works mainly due to the limitations of width. There's a direct link to the spreadsheet at the bottom of the post as well. This test is based on the games I went to last season (check that goals scored column!) but if I think it's worth doing I'll try and maintain one for every match this season. Let me know what you think - good or bad!





http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pQO0zjOSc-YvD4JxicItnBg&output=html

Comments are welcome either via this blog or via my email which you should be able to get from my profile page.

Moritz Volz charity auction

The nice man at Vzaar asked me to mention the Moritz Volz charity auction. There's a signed Fulham shirt up for grabs which you can bid on here and Vzaar provide the ability to add video to your auction. The video is available below partly because I like embedding video in my blog, partly because in a Japanese tourist like fashion they seem to have made a video of something that could have been better served by two photos, but mainly because its for Charity and I like Volzy.

Van der Saaaaaar!!!

Not being petty or small minded but former Fulham hero Edwinn van der Sar saved three shoot-out penalties in a row to defeat Ch*ls** in the Charity Shield yesterday. Well done Edwinn we still love you! Chav fans ...

UNLUCKY! HA HA HA!

The Chavs also have a mounting injury list.

Ok - I am being petty and small minded.

Kicker Conspiracy

Not much to say that hasn't already been mentioned.

Franck Queudrue has left the club to join Birmingham City for around £2.5m. I've had mixed feelings about Franck, having been quite excited when we signed him, but subsequently disappointed when I saw him play. Still feel he could probably have found a better club but it might make the final home game of the season more interesting. Actually thinking about it let's hope that, and maybe the outside chance of qualifying for Europe, is the only reason the final home game of the season is interesting!

We played QPR on Friday night and lost 2-1. I didn't see any of it so check Craven Cottage Newsround or the Offal for more extensive reports. It sounds like we didn't take our chances (that sounds familiar) whilst the R's did take theirs. McBride scored our goal early in the 1st half, but also missed three decent chances. Healy started alongside him as Kamara is still suffering from the injury he picked up against Portsmouth. Lee Cook made his first start for us and played 45 minutes, Ian Pearce also made a return coming on as a 2nd half substitute and Philippe Christanval was on the bench. The first game is in a weeks time at Arsenal before our first home match against Bolton on Wednesday night.

The BBC are reporting that we have signed Australian centre back Adrian Leijer but he doesn't arrive until Tuesday so I doubt it will be officially announced until then.

Updates might be a bit intermittent on here for various reasons. I'm going on a tour of the Emirates Stadium tomorrow with Chop Jr. so will report back with my opinion later in the week. This weeks "humorous headlines" were courtesy of The Fall.

Prole Art Threat

The Fulham FC Community Sports Trust is one of the beneficiary charities of the Great British Duck Race. I have reproduced below the official club statement explaining what this is all about. Any way I thought this would be a good opportunity to have a bit of "inter Fulham fan site" fun. I have sponsored a duck in the name of The Hammy End Chronicle, and likewise Rich has sponsored a duck for Craven Cottage Newsround and Si has sponsored one for TFI. Actually Rich and Si have sponsored two ducks each, hmm, maybe I need to get another one too? Anyway the idea is we have a mini race, amongst the thousands of other ducks involved, and hopefully one of us will be crowned "Official Unofficial Fulham Fan Website Duck Racing Champion" or something, which I'm sure you'd agree is a title worth having! The race is on the Thames near Hampton Court, which is not far from me, so if all goes to plan I'll pop along and get some pictures of full on duck racing action (am I taking this all a bit too far do you think?). Here's the official explanation.

Fulham FC Community Sports Trust is proud to be a beneficiary charity of the Great British Duck Race.

Please support us in raising funds for our disability programme which offers much needed sporting opportunities for young disabled people. We deliver positive and inclusive programmes across a number of disabilities, including Downs Syndrome, Deaf, Visually Impaired and Mild and Severe learning difficulties.Each year we carry out a number of fund raising events to grow the programme of work we carry out with disadvantaged groups in South London and Surrey.

On Sunday 2nd September 2007, 165,000 rubber ducks will be sent down a 1km stretch of the river Thames near Hampton Court Palace and in doing so, will set a new World Record and raise £500,000 for UK charities!

So why not adopt a duck for Fulham FC CST! It costs just £2 to adopt a duck (which includes a donation to charity) plus a recommended donation of £3 per duck which comes directly to Fulham FC CST. Every duck entered has the chance to win a massive £10,000 or one of 30 other great prizes.

Become a Record Breaker - adopt a duck today and help a very worthy cause. To adopt a duck and support Fulham FC CST just click into

http://www.thegreatbritishduckrace.co.uk/charitypage.php?charity=290

The Great British Duck Race will do the rest. You are not restricted to one duck, buy as many as you like and tell your friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances the more ducks you have, the greater difference you make.

Touch Sensitive

First of all here's a link to the Guardian's Premiership preview for Fulham, which I think is a pretty fair assessment of our chances. If you can be bothered to read it all there's an irksome Plod fan getting shirty in the comments.

The reserves managed a very respectable 2-1 win over Staines Town last night. Michael Timlin scored the first with a cracking volley, Goncalves possibly got the second though there is some suggestion it may have been Wayne Brown. Staines goal was an OG scored by Adam Watts. Here are some comments (nicked shamelessly from TFI) from some people who were there;

"A decent performance overall, best player was Timlin but Lewis smith looked good despite being a substitute" - James

"Hudson-Odoi was much better than Ehui, but Lewis Smith when he came on defended from the front, ran all day and hassled and created opportunities for others and he's only 17. Second half Wayne Brown and Robert Milsom ran the midfield, but the big lumbering Watts kept getting muscled off the ball by smaller players" - The Oracle

Meanwhile the BBC report we are in negotiations to sign 21 year old Australian centre back Adrian Leijer. No me either. It seems an odd move to me with at least six centre backs on our books already. If we do need one then someone with experience and quality, someone who would walk straight into the first team, is what we require not another potential prospect.

There's also been a lot of talk in the red tops about players coming in and going out. The Sun say Reading manager Steve Coppell is preparing a £2m bid for Fulham defender Liam Rosenior (I hope we wouldn't be interested in that) and that Middlesbrough hope to beat Fulham to the signature of Sean Davis. The Daily Mirror mention that Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce is prepared to splash out £3m to sign Papa Bouba Diop (which might explain the Davis thing) and that Sunderland have signed Tottenham striker Mido for £6m (Ha ha ha ha ha ha - THAT is very good news!). The Daily Express says Sanchez is offering £1m for Liverpool defender Sami Hyypia (now there's a CB with experience and quality) and The Times say the Reds have offered possible Whites target Anthony Le Tallec to Sochaux for £2.5m. All interesting stuff but I wonder how much of it is based on fact.

Totally Wired

A quiet (no) news day today but I still feel obliged to post if only to retain my running "headline theme of the week".

The reserves are playing Staines Town tonight at Wheatsheaf Lane. I had hoped to go but worked later than expected and then had "Dad stuff" to do when I got in. Staines drew 2-2 with Brentford's first team the other week so it won't be an easy game. Hopefully I'll find a report somewhere which I can pilfer for tomorrow's post.

I did discover that Chris James, one of the few genuinely promising prospects in our youth/reserve set-up, is likely to leave the club this summer. He's supposed to be having a trial with Nottingham Forest at the moment, and it looks like he'll be moving on one way or another in search of first team football. It will be sad to lose a talented young player but with him apparently no nearer our first team it's understandable he wants to go.

Still some confusion over whether Bocanegra's contract has run out or not. His original one ended back in June, but there has been a suggestion (on the official message board) that he has extended that to 2008. I can't find any confirmation that he signed an extension at any point but it might explain the lack of talk concerning him.

Finally the Spanish league has a lot further to go before they start their season but I did a little search for Real Sociedad news today to see if Chris Coleman has made any moves and found this article on Goal.com which I thought was worth reading. There's also talk that "There's Only One" Lee Clark has been offered a coaching role, and that "Not Super" Steve Marlet is in talks concerning a possible free transfer (that's some depreciation!).

Sanchez Glasses

It seems Lawrie Sanchez has been taking sartorial tips from my good self. This picture was taken at the recent Asia Cup competition and shows (if you look really closely and squint) that Mr S has bought himself a new pair of specs. My Spurs mate JB reckons they are exactly the same as mine. Have a look at my profile picture (down there on the right) and see what you think. They are pretty close. If he has I can only recommend him for his fantastic taste. My pair are without a doubt the best pair of glasses I have ever owned and, I think, succeed in making me look more sophisticated and intelligent than I actually am! Maybe Lawrie's been reading the Chronicle and felt the same way.

Photograph courtesy of FulhamFC.com

Green Eyed Loco-Man

When did I become a news site? I'm sure I didn't used to try and write quite so much about what had happened during the day. Maybe it's because I am posting at the end of the day instead of in the morning. Whatever. Here is the news.

Michael Brown has finally completed his move to Wigan, the Official website said this was for an undisclosed fee (we really love those don't we - I wonder if we're laundering money for the Mafia?), but the BBC (amongst others) reported it was for £3million. If that's true it's an even better price than I first thought, though I'm sure there are actually all sorts of clauses in there before we'd get the full wedge. Good luck Browny.

Roy O'Donovan looks to have decided he would rather play for Sunderland. He was quoted today as saying Roy Keane was his idol and he always hoped that one day he would get the chance to play for him. Fair enough, you can't really compete with that can you? Sunderland played Cork last night in a friendly so that must also have helped them jump in and hijack our deal. All things considered it's not the worst deal to have been gazumped on, given the choice I'd rather have signed Chris Baird so I think we've come out ahead so far in comparison to the Black Cat's. I'll be interested to see how O'Donovan does though, definitely one to watch.

Following Sanchez's comments about signing 2-3 more players we've also been linked with a number of new signings. We've allegedly made bids for Charles N'Zogbia of Newcastle and Seol Ki-Hyeon of Reading. N'Zogbia is a nippy left winger who looked pretty tasty in the glimpses I saw of him playing for Newcastle last year. I'd be surprised if Big Sam was prepared to let him go, especially considering his comments about their dearth of players, but it has also been rumoured that Sam wants Diop as part of the deal. Seol ripped us apart when we played Reading away last season, but generally didn't get as many opportunities in the side as he'd hoped. I had read that he'd been played out of position a lot which could explain his subsequent dip in form, so he might not be a bad signing for us especially for £1million. There's was also a suggestion back in June that our new Korean sponsors LG were keen for us to have a Korean player on board so there may be more to the move than just squad strengthening.

Finally I completely forgot about the rumour from yesterday that we were looking at Anthony Le Tallec. He is owned by Liverpool, but spent the whole of last season on loan at Sochaux and the whole of the previous one on loan st Sunderland. Neither club subsequently picked him up, which doesn't bode well, however, he has been described as a tall forward who can hold the ball up well. If true he could well be useful as a back up to Brian McBride. With Kamara looking to feed off a big front man McBride has a big role to play this season and we don't seem to have another striker who can offer the same attributes. Either way its all rumour and hearsay so far so we'll have to wait and see.

Repetition

Bit of a late post today as I had hoped to bring news of the confirmed signing of Roy O'Donovan. Roy was due at Motspur Park today for a medical but Roy Keane was reported on the BBC as making a late bid to take him to Sunderland instead. It was also reported by RTE (Irish radio station) that O'Donovan had NOT travelled to Fulham today as originally planned. I think it would be a great shame if we miss out on him, though it looks like the final decision will probably be down to the player. Interesting that we should find ourselves fighting over a second player in this window. We won through on Chris Baird so all may not yet be lost on this deal either. Come the season it will be interesting to see how we compare with Sunderland. You'd like to think we'll be finishing above them but they do have some serious backing and with Keano at the helm will surely have the media supporting them as well.

In other scurrilous rumour mongering. We were reported as having made a £4.2million bid for Hameur Bouazza of Watford. I got quite excited by this as I reckon he would be a very useful player for us. He's officially a striker, which would add another pacy forward to our set up, but can also play left (and possibly right) wing, which would provide us with additional cover where we currently only have Lee Cook. It does seem unlikely as only the other week Aidy Boothroyd was quoted as saying they would not let him go for anything other than a "head turning" bid, but maybe the player's desire to play in the Prem has come into play. I think the story originated in the Watford Observer so we'll just have to wait and see.

More ridiculously we have also been linked with a bid for Sean Davis. Allegedly we are looking for a replacement for Michael Brown, but I cannot imagine we actually need one with a decent set of central midfielders already in place. More to the point what sort of a reception would our former No. 23 get if he came back.

Finally Sanchez was interviewed on Radio 5 Live today in which he talked about making another 2-3 signings before the end of the window (be still my beating heart!) and also had this to say - "We're not going to win the Champions League, certainly not in the next three or four years, but we could get somewhere near a final," he said. "The fans obviously love the Premier League and that is obviously the mainstay, but I'd like to give the fans some day outs at major cup finals. "If other people aren't going to take it seriously, we certainly will. "And over the course of my time in charge at Fulham I'd like to think we'll be getting into Europe somehow, whether that be via the Intertoto, a cup final or our league position." Too bloody right Lawrie, if you can achieve that I think I might just love you forever!

A Very Quiet Sunday

I've just had one of the quietest Sunday's I can remember. Mrs Chopper is poorly and stayed in bed for most of the day, Chop Jr is poorly and was happy lying on the sofa watching TV and Chop Jr II seemed equally lethargic. I'm not complaining, its actually been a really nice day, I've not really been able to get on with anything just potter about and occasionally browse the Internet. Just had a little kick about in the garden with Chop Jr but he got tired and had to go in. Score is currently tightly poised at 10-9 to Jr. We also watched "The Parent Trap" (starring Hayley Mills twice) all the way through and we all enjoyed it! Sunday Roast is now cooking but with most of the family not displaying very big appetites I think I'll get to eat most of it.

There's not much Fulham related to talk about as most of the Football world seems to be taking the day off. Roy O'Donovan is due at Motspur Park for his medical tomorrow. Michael Brown seems still yet to commit to Wigan. If you're looking for something interesting to read Craven Cottage Newsround is always worth a look particularly this article about Franck Queudrue. I had this comment to make on the situation.

"The Franck situation is definitely an interesting one. I was a big fan of him at Middlesbrough but was generally disappointed with what I saw in a Fulham shirt. I suspect all the talk is just to ensure we get the right price for him. However, if he does end up staying it could only be a good thing for us. More competition for the Left Back role and the possibility that I reckon Franck would make a pretty decent centre back. The other thing is how well this reflects on Lawrie, the impression I get is that he deals with these sort of conflicts head-on rather than take the (perceived) Coleman approach of sending a player to the doghouse."

I've also begun writing another Blog. Yes I know - what on earth are you thinking about? I just couldn't help myself though. Did I mention I got up at 6:30 this morning? Anyway it's completely unrelated to Football and is simply a list of my favourite Top 5's, I've been thinking of new ones all day. Its helped pass the time, and I reckon I can write it fairly easily without struggling too hard to devise new topics. If you want a look here's a link. It's a lovely sunny day out there so I really should be out making the most of it, think I'll just turn the roast potatoes and have a potter in the garden.

From St Andrew’s to Craven Cottage

Well it's Sunday so this seemed appropriate. The following text was posted on TFI during the week and caught my interest. It's advertising a book which examines the origins of Fulham F.C. when we were formed by a local Church. I am always interested in the history of the club and this seems to cover an area of which there was previously little information. Its only a fiver so I will be getting a copy and will report back once I've read through it. For now though here's the ad.

From St Andrew’s to Craven Cottage
How a church’s cricket and football club became Fulham Football Club by Morgan Phillips.

The football club may have outgrown its early ‘holy’ surroundings but St Andrew’s, a thriving church on Greyhound Road, is still very much around and the new book was launched at the church’s Summer Fair on 14th July, 2007.

In June 1879, at the suggestion of the first vicar of St Andrew’s, a curate of the church founded the West Kensington Cricket Club. During the winter of the same year, some of the boys attending the church Sunday School, played football on an area of ground known as the “Mud Pond” and thus what is now Fulham FC, played its first game.

Morgan Phillips, a life long Fulham supporter and unofficial Club historian, has written a fascinating book about these early days up to the move to the Cottage. It wonderfully evokes life at the time, including detail of the players who first turned out for the Club and the first games they played. It also shows how people had to stand up for their rights to maintain their environment even then. If developers of the time had got their way Eelbrook Common & Fulham Recreation Ground would have been built on.

The book is published by St Andrew’s Church Fulham, 2007 and can be obtained at £5 (including postage) from:

10 St Andrew’s Road, London W14 9SX

Or by contacting the church website

http://www.standrewsfulham.com

It is also hoped that the Club will allow copies to be sold in their shops.

Friendly: South China 1 - FFC 4

I'm sure I've already mentioned my lack of Sky thanks to Virgin Media and their high horse. No idea then about the game or how well we really played but the Offal has this report of the match and also Lawrie Sanchez post match reaction. There's also reports on Sky Sports and ESPN. The manner of the win seems to corroborate my opinion that we were better off playing South China than the Plod who incidently lost on penalties after drawing 0-0 with Pompey yesterday afternoon.

Michael Brown has (almost) left the Cottage

Almost certain now that Michael Brown is going to join Wigan for around £2 to £2.5million. It represents another decent deal for the club, with us receiving at least what we paid for him if not a bit more. It was hard to see Michael getting many games with Diop, Smertin and Davis already competing for the two central positions and Jimmy Bullard due back around November time.

I liked Michael Brown a lot. There was a point, around about the end of 2006, when he was probably my favourite player. It seemed to me that MB was the only one really trying, and whilst he was never spectacular he was always committed, reliable and occasionally quite fierce. There were those "horror tackles", v Sean Davis, v Ryan Giggs and v Ashley Cole, that were impossible to defend. Once may have been put down to exhuberence, twice maybe unfortunate timing but three times - well if it looks like a fish and smells like a fish ... its a fish. To some extent you probably don't get players that are that committed who aren't also capable of the indefensible, but it doesn't make it any easier to watch. That aside I think we owe MB a huge debt in the efforts he made to retain our status.

I first saw Browny play against us, when he was still in his early twenties, for Manchester City at Maine Road. I was impressed then by his energy and enthusiasm and he made a big impact on the game, one I think we lost 4-0. He moved on from Maine Road when first team opportunities became limited and became a cult hero at Sheffield United, I wonder if it was his time under the dubious tutelage of Neil "Colin" Warnock that added that nasty side to his game. With United failing to reclaim a Premiership spot, Spurs took an interest and he moved to White Hart Lane in 2004 when Jaques Santini was still in charge. Sometime between the fallout from the end of Santini's reign and Martin Jols eventual accumulation of every available midfielder in the country, Brown fell out of favour but whenever he did get an opportunity he put in a performance. I was very pleased when we managed to pick him up last year, and whilst it's only been 18 months since we signed him, feel that he's played a major role in retaining our top division status in the last two campaigns. He did go off the boil as last season descended into panic, but by then the wheels had well and truly come off the carriage. I think it's the right time for him to move on and wish him well at Wigan where I hope he finds a more long lasting home. I just hope he doesn't break any one's legs when we come up against him next season!

One last news item, it also looks certain that we have managed to complete the signing of "New Kevin Doyle" Roy O'Donovan from Cork City. Both the The Irish Times and the Irish Independent are reporting we have verbally agreed terms with O'Donovan being loaned back to Cork for the remainder of their season. I really quite like the "Current Kevin Doyle" so if the nomenclature is accurate I reckon we could have picked up a bit of a steal here.

Lloyd of the Rovers

The reserves played a friendly against Bromsgrove Rovers on Tuesday night, though you'd have been hard pressed to know it was on unless you searched really hard. I eventually found a match report, nestled between stories about an appeal for a missing pony and the Local History Society's exhibition in Chaddesley Corbett, on the online version of the Bromsgrove Advertiser. The report obviously skewed to the Bromsgrove perspective, suggests the reserves has the better chances of the game but having only taken one of them were held to a draw thanks to a last minute goal from Rovers hotshot Paul Lloyd. The whites fielded a fairly standard reserve side consisting of Brookes-Meade - Moncur, Briggs, Omozusi, Watts - Milsom, Anderson, Sanders, Goncalves - Hudson-Odi, Ehui. Ishmeal Ehui scoring from close range three minutes before half time.

I may well check back with the Advertiser to bring you an update on the pony situation.

The End of the World is Nigh

Well not really, though you may have been mistaken for thinking so if you'd read TFI yesterday. Fulham lost their first match in the Asia Cup 1-0 to Portsmouth. It means we'll probably play the South China select XI rather than Liverpool in our final (I guess you could call it 3/4th place playoff) match on Friday. Today's match was live on Sky and Friday's will be too, it will probably kick off at 11:00 GMT, but thanks to Virgin Media's ongoing strop with Sky I won't even get to see the goals. There's a reasonable report on the Offal but a more in depth one on ESPN soccernet.

The message boards were full of doom and gloom with Zat in particular taking a tonking. Sky also contradicted themselves after initially talking about the insignificance of friendlies they decided that having seen their beloved Pompey win they could safely claim that this was a good indication that Fulham would struggle next season. Pah! Probably won't do us any harm in the long run if everyone is underestimating us. In some ways I think a game against South China may do us more good right now than having to face Liverpool.

Friendlies are always going to be more about fitness than results, and whilst it has to be good to be winning, you can't really expect to fly half way round the world and perform to your best, no matter how much money you might be making out of doing so. The criticism of Knight is probably not completely unjustified, his concentration really needs to improve if he's going to continue playing at the highest level. However, if there's one thing I've noticed about Zat it's that he tends to improve when he plays more games in a row. I'm pretty sure Konchesky, Hughes and Baird will form the bedrock of our defence this year. Whether the last spot goes to Zat or Liam or one of our other defenders (Boca certainly has a claim to a starting position) remains to be seen.

Looking at the rest of the team it was interesting to see Dempsey get a long run out on the left wing. I reckon it will take Lee Cook a while to get up to speed for regular Premiership football and maybe Clint will be the man to fill the void. On the right hand side of midfield Simon Davies is likely to be first choice, but again it's interesting to see Liam get another run out in that position. This could be a good opportunity for Liam to get into the side assuming Baird continues at right back. Up front seems more straight forward, Kamara will start, probably alongside McBride. Healy will probably be useful as a sub, and CJ will continue as forth man unless we sell him and bring in a replacement.

In other news, the club finally confirmed that Bjorn Runstrom will be loaned to F.C. Kaiserslauten for the season. I think his contract may be up when that ends so I doubt we'll see him in a Fulham shirt again. Also the Reserves apparently played at Bromsgrove last night though I've been unable to find out the score.

Nostalgia - Les Barrett

Article written by Gordon Mills.

During one of Fulham’s perennial slumps in form during the middle sixties, the manager at the time, the globetrotting Vic Buckingham, took the unprecedented step of dropping the great Johnny Haynes, establishing George Cohen as captain and picking a group of untried youngsters from the youth set-up under the tutelage of one time water pistol bandit Mark ‘Pancho’ Pearson in a desperate attempt to turn the team’s fortunes around. One of the debutants that day was someone close to my heart, an ex-schoolmate called Les Barrett.

We knew Les would make it to somewhere close to the top because at school he had the knack of always being that bit quicker to the ball than anyone else. The funny thing was that he wasn’t actually the most gifted of footballers at our school – there were a couple of others, Clive Coast, Phil Hennessy, Alan Pooley, who were all his superior but they lacked Les’ determination and that knack to get to the ball first. When we got to school in first form, we were told in no uncertain terms that we wouldn’t be playing soccer, rugger was the sport for first formers. That didn’t faze Les who used his speed and anticipation to make it into the Under 12 team as centre or wing without any difficulty. When we went back for Form 2 he switched to football with a bunch of others while people like myself kept playing rugby.

Until he left school at the end of Fifth Form, we tracked each other’s progress and he was already on Fulham’s books by then. It gave us a sense of pride to see his name in the programmes as a member of the junior team and so we approached his first team debut with intense interest and anticipation. At that time he was playing as an inside forward – he wore number 8 on his debut – and while he didn’t exactly set the Cottage alight that day, he did retain his place after the 2 – 1 victory. (Can’t remember who it was against.)

Eventually he found his best position of course, which was on the left wing. For someone who was not naturally left footed he did remarkably well, using his speed to go past full backs on the outside and get as close to both the by-line and the goal before crossing low into the path of one of the strikers. He wasn’t a great crosser of the high ball but he got into some really dangerous positions from which his low deliveries caused havoc.

Les was one of the few Fulham players who excited the crowd when he received the ball; there was an air of expectancy, that something exhilarating was about to happen. He won Under 23 caps for England but never made it to the full side. I watched one of his appearances for the Under 23s in the traditional eve of cup final game between the full England side and the Under 23s at Highbury. The Under 23 front three were Clarke, Marsh and Barrett and they were unstoppable. Les gave George Cohen quite a roasting and Rodney, a QPR player by this time, tormented Bobby Moore all evening. The Under 23s won 5 – 0, Clarke 2, Marsh 2 and Barrett were the scorers. Unbelievable.
Les wasn’t a prolific scorer but he was a great provider. One season he was our leading scorer and I wondered if he was going to concentrate more on his finishing but he didn’t. One of his most famous and important goals was in the sixth round of the cup against Carlisle – the only goal of the game that took us to the semi final and eventually the final in 1975.

He didn’t have one of his better games in the final. West Ham put two men on him and Mullery and Moore kept moving the ball the other way towards Jimmy Conway. The Guardian in its headline above the report on the Monday said something like "Fulham Fail To Walk the Barrett Way" a play on the slogan of the Barrett’s shoe shop and the fact that Fulham didn’t get the ball to him enough. When they did feed him in the last quarter of the game, he made some typical runs down the wing but by then it was too late. (My favourite Guardian football headline was for a Crystal Palace game when Gerry Queen was sent off for fighting. The headline read "Queen In Rumpus At Palace".)

After the consecutive relegations, I was very surprised he stayed at Fulham but he was nothing if he wasn’t loyal and, like Haynes before him, he gave all his best days to the Whites. I wonder what he would have achieved though, had he moved to Tottenham as was rumoured on more than one occasion. In these days when the nomenclature "Legend" is bandied about without rhyme nor reason, Les Barrett stands tall as a true legend of Craven Cottage and I’m proud to have had him as one of my schoolmates.

Anyone who remembers this era is welcome to reminisce with Gordon at gmills@cob.edu.bs

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye?

Marvellous. I've been poorly and haven't eaten since Thursday night - starting to dream about food! It doesn't seem like I've missed much though. Heidar is almost definitely going to Bolton but there's been no official confirmation yet. Fulham have arrived in Hong Kong for the Asia Cup and Micheal Brown is missing from the Captains photo which adds fuel to the rumour that he may leave as well. Bjorn Runstrom looks likely to sign for Kaiserslauten in Germany. One of the tabloids carried a story that Collins John was causing unrest in the dressing room and may also be on his way out. Franck Q has talked about sitting down with the manager and agreeing to fight for his place unless a decent bid comes in. Nothing has been mentioned about Philippe Christanval.

UPDATE 19:30 - Official Site confirms Heidar has departed the club to join Bolton for an undisclosed fee. Sounds to me like a great move for Heidar and a good deal for Fulham (the Beeb had mentioned £2million as the likely fee). Best of luck to H hope it goes well for you, except in games against us of course.

Friendly: Brighton & Hove Albion 1 - FFC 2

Bleurgh! Been poorly today so not up to writing much. We won our friendly tonight, which is good, despite conceding a goal after 3 minutes. There's a report here. Some interesting selections and positions, particularly in the second half, but probably just shows these games are more about fitness than anything else.

Michael Brown's absence might add credence to the rumour that he is going to Wigan. The BBC are also reporting that Heidar Helguson may move to Bolton. Good luck to H if he does go, I've read a fee of £2million being mentioned as well which would surprisingly represent a small profit for the club.

Cook Finally Signs & Former Fulham Watch #1

So in a typically Fulhamish transfer saga we finally wrapped up the signing of Lee Cook from QPR. There's an updated post here all about Lee, as I got a bit over excited last week and announced we'd already signed him on Wednesday! Oops, I should know better but it was the BBC who got my hopes up. The deal has taken an age to agree partly due to the outcry from QPR fans who are obviously gutted to see their best player leave, but also due to medical concerns over the state of Lee's knee. The last time a player failed to sign for us due to dodgy knee's it was John Carew and seeing as he scored against us last season playing for Villa I reckon we'll be OK this time!

A couple of items I noticed during the week regarding former Fulham favourites. Micky Adams has taken up the role of Assistant Manager at Colchester United. It's his first job since being sacked by Coventry City in January. I think it could be a great role for him, Colchester are punching above their weight and if they continue to do so Micky can re-establish his reputation away from the spotlights glare of another managerial reign. Good luck Micky you deserve to do well. Then ex-Right Back Jamie Smith was forced to retire from the game after failing to recover from a knee injury. He was only 32. Jamie played during the Keegan era, and probably never achieved as much with us as he might have done. He never cemented a regular first team place, but always looked pretty solid when he did get a run.

It's Brighton at the Withdean tonight, if you're going take your waterproofs because it sounds like it's going to be wet!

My First Match (and how I became a Fulham supporter)

I started supporting Fulham in 1975, just before we played in the F.A. Cup final against West Ham. I was almost 7 and don’t remember having seen football on the telly before that or even having much awareness of different football teams. My Dad must have told me about Fulham and that we had reached the Cup Final but I don’t think it really made much impression on me until he brought home two posters (one of each team) from the ESSO garage. Those two posters took pride of place on my bedroom wall and remained there for a long time after the final was over.

My knowledge of Fulham then was completely based on what information I could glean from those posters. For a very long time I confused Alan Mullery and Bobby Moore and it was some years later when I realised my mistake and had to convince my brain to reverse the faces I knew as Bobby and Alan. I also developed something of a soft spot for West Ham, knowing almost as much about their team as I did about ours. Strange that over 30 years later I would end up marrying a West Ham supporter. Before the Cup Final was played my Dad also brought home a souvenir copy of the Evening Standard, which had a full colour spread on both teams, and my Gran gave me a Fulham rosette which went up on my wall next to the posters.

I don’t remember the game at all though I’m sure I must have watched it but from then on we would watch the Cup Final every year. With televised football a rarity, and Match of the Day on too late, this was probably my only exposure to what was happening in Football. I don’t remember ’76 or ’77 but the 1978 final really made an impression. Ipswich the unfancied underdog’s took on the might of Arsenal, the Blues 1-0 win showed me how unpredictable football could be and how you could support a smaller team and still find it enjoyable. It wasn’t so easy to pick a team to cheer when Arsenal met Manchester United the following year so in the end I plumped for the London based side. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy the game as much, but I was unprepared for a game that eventually proved to be one of the most exciting matches I’ve ever seen. As Alan Sunderland scored that late winner for Arsenal I was hooked. Football was great and I wanted more of it.

My knowledge of Fulham increased a little further in 1979 as I completed that years Panini sticker album. Despite only being a 2nd Division team there was still a Team photo and a silver club badge to collect. Next to these was a short summary of Fulham facts and figures. I now knew that our capacity was a staggering 42,000 (another fact that stuck with me long beyond the point when the GLC stepped in and started introducing more realistic levels) our record signing was Peter Kitchen, for £100,000 from Leyton Orient, and our record sale was Richard Money who went to Liverpool for the unusual figure of £333,333.

I don’t remember badgering my Dad to take me though maybe by then I knew other kids at school had seen real football games and had might talked to him about going one day. However, when it happened it was completely out of the blue. I remember walking up the stairs, on the way to my bedroom, when Dad stopped me and asked;

"Would you like to go the match this afternoon?"

"What match?" was my nonplussed reply,

"Fulham!" Dad said,

"Really? … err yes please!"

Before I knew what was happening we were in the car and driving, the same route we used when visiting my Grandma and Granddad in Barnes. We carried on across the Hammersmith Bridge and I discovered a part of the world I had never seen before. I took in the whole journey, the places we passed the people we saw, and eventually, as we neared the ground, the crowd. We parked in a side road, walked down to the ground and entered the turnstiles for the Hammersmith Terrace. I think I got in for 50p and the programme was only 25p. By the time we were in there seemed to be a vast crowd probably more people than I’d ever seen in one place. Actually the attendance that day was 6,533 not bad, though nothing exceptional, but for an 11 year old at his first ever football match it seemed completely packed and very noisy.

It was 15th September 1979 and Fulham were about to face Burnley on a gorgeous sunny afternoon. I don’t remember many details about the game itself, Peter Marinello got sent off (possibly in the 1st half) and the crowd sang "There’s Only One Marinello" for the rest of the game. They also sang "The referee's a wanker" quite a bit. I had no idea what a wanker was but I figured it wasn’t a good thing. Next to us there was a huge skinhead with big lace up DM boots and drainpipe jeans. He joined in the vitriol screaming "Challis you’re a wanker". Challis, it transpired, was Ron Challis (Tonbridge, Kent) the unfortunate referee. He had become a Football League referee in 1968, the year I was born, and in 1975 was senior linesman to Pat Partridge for the FA Cup Final. He then took charge of that amazing final I'd enjoyed in 1979. In the end we beat Burnley 3-1, with two goals from Gordon Davies and one from Kevin Lock. I thought it would be like that every week. However, it was December before we won at home again and we were relegated at the end of the season, a fact that was probably more indicative of the years to come than that first victory.

After the game Dad walked me round the ground, under the Eric Miller stand and along the Putney Terrace to take a look at the famous Craven Cottage. As we were about to head home Peter Marinello came out from the changing rooms, heading for the players bar, and someone stopped him to ask about the Old Firm (I didn’t know what that meant either but it sounded quite exciting). Marinello headed on his way every inch the dashing hero. He was my new favourite player, though I wasn’t to know that he wouldn't play many more games for Fulham, falling out of favour as our season went from bad to worse before moving on to Hearts via Pheonix Inferno. I would have a new a more lasting hero pretty soon, he'd already scored two goals in that first match, but for now Marinello was the greatest. I’d had a great day and as we finally left to go home I knew I’d be back.

Reserves Friendly: Lewes 1 - FFC XI 0

Its late and I really should be in bed by now but here I am trying to find out the result of the reserves friendly. Its clearly a low profile fixture as Fulham haven't even mentioned it on the Offal, and even if they had that appears to be down ... again. Never mind, I know some guys from TFI have gone so there will probably be an update on there by tomorrow.

UPDATE: Final score was 1-0 to Lewes. Bexhill Beast from TFI went and had this to say "1-0 to Lewes - poor game overall and if anything Lewes looked more like the Premiership outfit. Mostly younger players though - apart from Runstrom up front who was appalling! Watts best player overall, though Goncalves shone in first half - rather temperamental though, like watching Ronaldo!". It was also noted that ex-youth player Tom Davis played for Lewes, who also have Junior Lewis (Lewis of Lewes!?) on their books and have just employed Justin Skinner as their number 2.

Here's a YouTube video of Roy O'Donovan, an Irish striker we're apparently trying to sign up. Cork City have confirmed they have received two bids, allegedly us and Southend United, for the 21 year old hotshot.