Fulham Away to Bolton

Well once more the lads are away from the friendly confines of CC as they travel to the Reebok. Is it too much to ask to put in a decent performance? How about finding the back of the net? The last 4 away have produced 1 goal (Pog's winner early in the qpr game). Bolton under Coyle are so much more entertaining than Big Sam's root (canal) one style. They have come together after the Muamba near tragedy (great to hear how well he's doing) and have won 2 Prem matches in a row.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012 ... ers-fulham


Bolton v Fulham

Bolton boss Owen Coyle was named manager of the month for March after his side won three out of three in the league, and they have picked a very good time to find some form.

The most impressive thing about Wanderers' win at Wolves on Saturday was that they survived being battered in the first half. They hung on in there, which is a good sign because that was something which just was not happening earlier in the season.

As for Fulham, well I remain unconvinced by their away form - they have only won twice on the road in the league, at Wigan in October and at QPR at the end of February - and Pavel Pogrebnyak's ankle injury is not exactly encouraging news for Cottagers fans hoping to add to that tally here.

Prediction: 2-0

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17629224

 

We will win this game. We probably shouldn't as we have no recognized forwards, but I believe we will.

 

We're dire on the road. They're fighting for their Premier League lives. I'm hoping we can take a point but suspect we drop it 1-2. We do tend to pick up more road wins in the final run in though.

 

I'll be avoiding boards today since i'll be able to watch the replay this evening. First time i'll be able to watch us on TV in over a month since I botched the recording of the ManU match. Streaming is okay, but that gets old.

Sent from my DROID using Tapatalk

 

Got my fingers crossed for a 2-1 win.

Here's the lineups

Bolton starting XI: Bogdan, Ricketts, Ream, Wheater, Alonso, Miyaichi, Pratley, M. Davies, Reo-Coker, Petrov, Ngog

SUBS: Jaaskelainen, Steinsson, Eagles, Knight, K. Davies, Klasnic, Sordell


FFC starting XI: Schwarzer, Kelly, Hughes, Hangeland, J. Riise, Duff, Dembele, Diarra, Ruiz, Kacaniklic, Dempsey

SUBS: Stockdale, Baird, Senderos, Etuhu, Frei, Davies, Trotta

 

That's how we do it!!!

 

Thanks to me losing my clicker and having to go on Facebook to bitch about it, I saw the score on my news feed. Dammit, this always happens when we win away from home. Maybe I should never watch an away match because we might win a few more.

 

While watching the ESPN tonight when the ticker came across for the scores the only match it showed extra info it showed on the EPL was the Fulham score mentioning Dempsey and his 2 goals.

 

Great write up Don.

 

I was not expecting that. Really impressive stuff.

As for the bad news, apparently Jol said after the match that they suspect Ruiz has a broken metatarsal, which would rule him out for the remainder of the season. Not good, but perhaps it will give Kacaniklic, Frei, and Trotta some more time through the home stretch.

 

Great result and we won the battle of the pretentious kit maker logos. I don't know if 3-0 goes down as Fulhamish, or if it's our usual end of the year deal where we grab a few road wins after making the task look impossible for most of the season. Regardless, that was a pleasure to watch.

For me, contrary to Don's view, MotM was Dempsey. If you ask the professionals, the majority will tell you the hardest thing to do is put the ball in the back of the net. So when you do it twice, you get the nod in my book. Clint has struggled at times playing up top as the lone striker, but he made the most of it on this day. It was good to see him knock home that free kick as well. Don was right there, that was long overdue.

Close second (or rather 1b) was obviously Duff. He terrorized, tormented and tortured Alonso, and as I type this, I'd bet Marco A is in the throes of a nightmare about our Irishman. Watching Duff take him to school over and over was an absolute joy to watch. His early crosses were pretty much stinkers, but once he got dialed in, he wreaked havoc on Bolton and probably should have had a brace of his own if not for some fine keeping by Bogdan.

The other really notable performances for me were Riise, Hughes and Kelly. Riise had the sensational stop on Ngog, made some brilliant runs forward (outrunning Kacaniklic on several occassions) and of course assisted on Diarra's goal. Hughes was in the right place repeatedly to guide Bolton's attack harmlessly away. And to sum up Kelly's day, all you had to see was what transpired in the 91st minute. Petrov got to the byline yet again, fired off a cross yet again, only to see it blocked out for a corner by Kelly...yet again. He threw his hands up and walked to the corner flag shaking his head. Kelly stymied him over and over and is really playing some fantastic football right now.

Having read Don's piece I have to disagree on a few points. First, I didn't think Dembele and Diarra looked all that good at in midfield, at least offensively. Defensively, they were very good. But we played around them for a good chunk of the match and when we did go through them early, Diarra misfired on a number of passes. Dembele made a few runs but most of them ended with him pulling up and passing back to the defense. They were more involved late and played quite well offensively then, with Diarra scoring our 3rd goal. But I didn't think either had a standout performance overall. I certainly don't think it wouldn't have been better if Murphy had been out there, at least offensively.

The other point was Ruiz looking physically strong. He's still getting knocked to the ground religiously and he has to have the worst peripheral sense of anyone I've seen in the Prem. I lost count how many times someone ran up from behind him and took the ball. Most players seem to sense when someone is closing down on them from the side or behind but Ruiz doesn't show that at all. He does make some really nice passes though. I know there's a majority opinion that he'll come good on the goal front next year, but having watched him all year, I don't think it's going to happen. I'm convinced he's like a good point guard, he's a facilitator who might score a handful of goals, but his value will be in his assists. We just need to make sure we have someone on hand who can put them away. From what I've read, he did break a metatarsal in his foot and will be out for the year. I hate that for him, b/c I was really hoping he'd prove me wrong on the goal thing here at the end. But if it was going to happen, at least the timing of it couldn't be any better. We're safe and it should lead to some more youngsters getting some pitch time.

Or at least that's what I would hope. Jol's subs surprised me today. First, when Ruiz came off, it seemed like a good time to give Trotta a run out and let Clint play off of him. Instead we got the logical defensive choice in Etuhu. Then when Duff came off for Frei, Sleepy moved Kacaniklic to the right and put Frei on the left. :angry-banghead: Surprised Don omitted that since I know how much of a burr in his saddle Frei on the left is.

Despite my being critical, I do very much appreciate the write up Don. Just haven't had a chance to disagree with you much lately. You must be feeling better.

Nonetheless, it was a fun match to watch and we got a great result. Now let's go do the same to the scum.

 

Upon further review....Damien Duff looked like a different man out there. My MOTM, even though Deuce got the brace. Without Duff's good work, it's a different match.

 

Great write up as always by HD and Aggie as well. Since I cannot decipher the entry codes to post in the comments section for the VFST, I post it here:

Duff, Duff, Duff. Duff, Duff, Duff. Duff, Duff, Duff.

There's nothing Duff can do that can't be done...

Thanks as always, HD!

 

Brilliant idea, senator.