Fulham at Brighton and Hove Albion

Another trip to the coast to face our old friends David Stockdale and Steve Sidwell. They're enjoying a fine season under Chris Hughton, and are second behind Newcastle after fading late last season, then crashing out of the playoffs. They seem determined not to let that happen again, and as it stands, they won't. Still a lot of football left, of course, and our away form has been better. I think we'll bounce back from the disappointing showing against Wednesday, the question is, how big will the bounce be? Hoping it's enough to get all three points, but I'd settle for a draw against the Seagulls, who seem to have had our number in recent encounters. It'll be interesting to see of Joka makes any changes to the starting 11 since we failed to keep our modest two game win streak going with the same lineup. We shall see.

 

away from SW6? 1 pt guaranteed, 3 possible!

 

B&H have won 20 of a possible 27 points at home w/a +13 GD (Fulham as won only 10 of 27 pts. at home w/a 0 GD). Offer me a point now and I'd probably think about it, but we play so well from home I'd decline and say let's see what happens. COYW!!

 

Official highlights from Brighton & Hove's channel (grrrr, Come on Fulham, and I say that in the most sarcastic way possible):


I was with Don on this one that we were facing a loss and keeping the goal differential down would be acceptable, but oh we could have gotten points. I wish we had a better view on the last goal to see if Murray was offside but it is impossible to tell.

Malone was almost the hero again. A 2-0 lead would have changed the match. Unfortunately he shot the ball right at Stockdale's face when he had a clear view of the goal.

Anyone else feel like me and still lament that we let Stockdale go? In our relegation season I felt like he was the only one who gave a damn and I thought he'd be a worthy Championship keeper. He's certainly proven that at Brighton.

 

Yes to keeping Stockdale.

 

To expound (expand?) upon MM's observation about Mr. Stockdale, he was one of the few bright spots during our relegation season. He was the lone standout during our trip to the Cottage on April 12th, 2014. Hugo scored the lone goal in a rare win under Felix Magath, but Stockdale saved our bacon time and again. He and Leroy Fer, who's now playing for Bob Bradley at Swans, were the best players on the pitch. As Branch Rickey might say, not an addition by subtraction.

 

Not much to deduce from the brief highlight reel. We obviously should have scored more than one in the first half, which we appeared to dominate. I swear we shoot more balls at or near the keeper than any team I can recall ever seeing. Our build up play has improved tremendously under Joka, but the finishing...well, it leaves a lot to be desired. The defending is better, too, just not as good as it needs to be to contend for promotion. Their first was pretty decent piece of skill, not much to quarrel with. But the second? How does someone get that open directly in front of goal? I don't get it. We still haven't even halfway replaced the goals we lost from McCormack and Dembele last season, and unless we do some serious business in January, I'm afraid we're doomed to another mid to low table finish in this league.

 

On the bright side, they're on target. There's no chance to score when firing wide or high.

 

So you're saying we should be praying for more howlers from the opposing keeper. Gotcha.