My Fulham Report - It's All Black and White

One simple statement to begin - we were second best all over the park. Everyone else that has commented on the match so far has said something similar but I will elaborate on that. We were second best from the first minute to the last. It was only a question of how many we would concede. The idea of IF we would concede never came into it - they had chance after chance after chance all the way through and we were, in effect, lucky to get away with a 2-4 scoreline.

It started ok of course. I had no idea who had slipped the ball through to Marley but, on seeing the replays, it was a great ball and excellent running by the goal scorer to stay on side. The second was almost a carbon copy - same ball through, same result. Now if that had been 2-0 we might have gained some confidence from that and gone on. I doubt it though. It was always a case of "they are going to score in a minute" and I had no confididence in our defence and keeper that we would keep them out.

Sometimes you just have to put your hands up and say "Ok, you've beaten us fair and square". I might argue that they had a bit of help from the error-prone officials but there is nothing new in that. In truth though they didn't need it. They were always going to win because they played better than us and we played like strangers who haven't played much football at all, never mind together. Here are a few statistics:

BBC match stats show 68% possession for them. It looked more like 88% to me. We just couldn't get the ball.
Our goal difference is now 23-20 in our favour. We are the third best goalscorers in the division but only Forest and Rotherham have conceded more. Our defence, and our ability to protect our defenders from midfield, is becoming a huge worry.
The last time Fulham won at Oakwell was 1970 - the year I joined the RAF. FORTY SIX years ago.
The last time Fulham scored at Oakwell was 1982 - 34 years ago. I know that we haven't played them many times since 1970 but even so - that's a long time. Isn't it funny how other teams can break their hoodoos against us but we rarely do the same to others. Like, for example, we never win at places like QPR or Norwich and probably never will.
One more - Chris Martin had not scored a goal for six months. He always scores against us - he did yesterday!

On the subject of Martin, what are Derby doing letting him out on loan to Fulham? I would have thought they needed a nasty, battering ram of a centre forward. He is an obnoxious character though, always delighting in winding us up whenever he plays at Oakwell. He's dirty, he's all elbows and he scores plenty of goals. He antagonises defences and fans in equal measures. Shame he doesn't play for us!

But what can I say about the match that hasn't been said already? They had skill from front to back and just toyed with us all the way through. In Scott Parker they had the kind of midfield general who can sit in the centre circle, or close to it, all day long and just dictate play. I said yesterday that they had an ex-England international opposite our ex-Wycombe Wanderers player. That's not being derogatory to Josh Scowen. It's just stating a brutal fact of life at this level. While we all thought our lower division recruiting looked like terrific business not so long ago it's beginning to look inadequate now.

It was a huge blow losing Hourihane yesterday but he's not a one-man team. He's an inspiration, certainly, but he can't win every match for us on his own. Yesterday was a great chance for Sam Morsy and, apart from his two great balls through for our goals, I can't say that I noticed much of his play. You could argue that those two passes alone could have won us the match, but Fulham had other ideas. What annoyed me most about goals two and three was the lack of concentration straight after kick off. I have a feeling that they went straight down the field after Winnall's goal to equalise. That is just shocking on our part - inexcusable. On the other hand it was just another example of how easily they could rip our defence apart, almost at will. The third goal was also a shocker. An obvious cross which Davies somehow contrived to miss at his near post at a reasonably catchable height. I would be interested to hear what Chris Coleman sees in him as a potential international keeper.

Then of course Martin rubbed it in with an expertly taken header. It was a good cross as well and you can't stop those. Even if Scowen had stayed on the field we would have still lost. I think, having seen the incident over and over, he was unlucky but he almost scissor-tackled Parker and you're asking for trouble if you do that. He was certainly fouled twice immediately before and, bizarrely, the referee gave US a free kick after sending Scowen off. Hard to understand that, but what't the point in trying to understand the thinking of most referees? He was, like most of them, inadequate and, at times, downright incompetent. He wasn't to blame for us losing the match though. What looked like a beatable Fulham side actually turned out to be unbeatable. They passed it around us all through the game and when we had the ball we were mostly clueless about what to do with it to set up an attack (Morsy's two through balls excepted).

I'm trying not to be all negative and predict a race to the bottom but things are starting to look a bit bleak. Our squad is big enough on paper but the quality doesn't appear to be there and there is nothing we can do about it until January. I just hope that we are not vying with Rotherham for bottom spot by then. As others have said we could just as easily turn up the heat on Newcastle on Tuesday and win that, but I somehow doubt it. I hope it's a good game and not another like the Keegan 5-0 one. A 2-2 would do me - are Bobby Hassell and Emil Halfredsson available?

 

we are 6/1 for relegation, would never back it, because want us to win every game, but the bookies cant have watched our last few games ,hope I am wrong but I am thinking that 6/1 ,will be massive price soon,

 

Referee got the Scowen incident absolutely spot on under current guidance. He tried to play an advantage as Josh skipped away from the edge of the box. He got clipped twice and ref saw that he wasn't going to keep possession, so blew for a free-kick to us. This was just before Josh lunged in on Parker, having lost the ball after those two minor fouls. Josh over-stretched, chasing a lost cause and went in off the ground with studs raised. It shouldn't be a red, but under the current guidelines, it will always be one. Ref's whistle had gone first, though, which is why we had the resulting free-kick when Scowen had gone.

 

Advantage on the edge of the box surrounded by players?

 

Good write up, but I disagree with one thing, that we were 2nd best from minute one. I thought we were the better team for the first 10 minutes, until we scored, we were pressing them high up the pitch, and we got our reward with a well taken goal. And then all of a sudden we stopped pressing, stood off them, and the rest is history.


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Our defence was at sixes and sevens which is why we lost. Yiadom could not live with the LB and MacDonald was in no mans land for 2 of their goals.

I'm pretty sure Watkins and Winnall had the beating of their back line though.

 

Good report.
Just being a bit pedantic but I think it were his far post Davies was beaten and tbf it went straight to the only place out of reach ,top corner .
I wouldn't be too overly concerned as yet though because as you say in you report we could get beat by Newcastle 5-0 be it we could also get a favourable result so that says a lot of how we can play.

 

A month ago, we were third in the table, winning matches (quite comfortably at times), scoring goals for fun, keeping clean sheets, playing some wonderful football. At the time, I said I was simply going to enjoy it while it lasted. Now we're on a poorer run, I for one will continue to back the Head Coach & players. Players and teams have poor games and go through such spells as we're having. I'd like to think that the players & staff have earned the right, after last season's successful exploits, to be cut a bit of slack from the fans when things aren't going according to plan. After all, last season's success is the reason we're playing at the current level.
I have every confidence in Paul Heckingbottom and his abilities to steer us through this sticky patch.

 

Who cares what Bookies think ?

 

We were lucky they weren't that great in front of for the first of goal for the start of the game.

Great summary as ever.

 

Well I may be wrong but I think it entered the net at the near post and ended up in the far corner. It was a complete mess, I know that for certain

 

Thanks. When the full replay is on Player I will count the goals they could have had with steadier finishing

 

I agree. I didn't think it would last. I believe we will be ok this season but there is going to be a lot more pain to endure.

Yesterday was a good slapping from the older boys. It's how we react to that now.

 

Well I think that our goals were just blips in their total domination. It's hard to believe that they will get an easier game this season.

I'm sure our lads have the character to bounce back though. Four points from the next two games is my prediction.

 

Agree with all that, old mate. As I said earlier, I have every confidence in Paul Heckingbottom's abilities to get things back on track.

 

You could be right I sit in the west stand side of ponty so it may have crossed the line near post but from my angle it seemed to cross far post.

 

I think the camera angle on the replay suggests the point of entry was pretty much near post and it flew across to the far corner already over the line with Davies floundering helplessly.

It was a speculative cross/shot which should never have gone in. Can't believe we were so dozy TWICE in a match from kick offs.

 

I had a perfect view and it was a complete fluke. He sliced it and it went in. My mate reckoned Davies should have done better, but I'm not sure there was much he could do.