Fulham vs Reading IN THE BLOODY PLAYOFFS!

There's a decent recap of our two and a half (remember the fog?) matches against them on the getwestlondon site (http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/spor...ews/fulham-vs-reading-thrashings-fog-13013008). Honestly, it's a tossup, but you have to like the fact that we are capable of scoring goals in bunches and, with the tie rules in effect, that would seem to favor us. Away goals count the same as at home, so no big deal there. Whoever scores the most goals over 180+ minutes wins. We haven't seen them since January. They haven't faced us with Bettinelli between the sticks. It's a later start, 5:30 p.m., local time, so don't get your panties in a wad if you settle in at 10 Saturday morning and no Fulham. It's squeaky bum time, but it's also exciting, so let's enjoy the run. On to Wembley!

 

JINX - Jump started this thread as I was creating a duplicate. Sorry about that, I deleted the other one. My thoughts from that post below...

When there were a few matches left in the season I said that I'd rather face Reading than anyone else. Now having seen how Huddersfield closed out the season, I kinda wish we'd gotten them. Regardless, Fulham can win this, however they can easily blow it too.

Reading comes into the match with the best form over the last 10 matches (7W, 3L) but half of those matches were against the five teams at the bottom of the table. In that span they did have wins against Wednesday, Leeds, and Villa but they certainly faced a far less rigorous finish than we did.

Reading has the second best home record in the league (70% win record) while Fulham has the second best away record (52% win record - way better than our 43% home win record) which will make the second leg of the playoff an interesting match up of trends. We lost 1-0 when we went there in January.

Reading has a habit of losing big on the road:

• 4-1 vs Newcastle
• 4-1 vs Brentford
• 7-1 vs Norwich

And if they don't lose big then they tend to get shut out. Reading has been shutout 6 times in away matches. Fulham of course manged to do both - beat them badly and get a clean sheet - in the 5-0 victory back in December.

Over at Cottagers Confidential Andrew Beck does a nice job of showing how Reading scores early and holds on to a thin lead. If they fall behind they have trouble recovering: http://cottagersconfidential.sbnati...eading-fulham-championship-playoff-semi-final

All this means I'd really like to see Fulham win by 2 goals in the first leg. That would put enormous pressure on Reading in their home leg and likely force them to be more aggressive than they are comfortable with. Of Reading's 16 wins at home, 12 were only by a one goal margin.

If we allow Reading to escape with a 2-1 loss (or worse, a draw or win) I fear that it sets them up well for their style of play at home where they are very comfortable. I don't even want to think about this being decided on penalty kicks.

If we want to have a good shot at Wembley, Fulham must have strong victory on Saturday. Unfortunately, we aren't the best at winning big at home. In the last two months we had 2 wins, 2 draws, and 1 loss at home. And one of the wins was vs 10-man Villa. We did dominate Huddersfield and Reading at home earlier in the year and I'd like to see that kind of result again.

Now on a slightly different subject, anyone in the Philly/Baltimore area interested in watching the match or even know of someplace that is likely to show it?

 

"No team that has ever given up more than 62 goals has ever been promoted. How exactly did they manage such success when metrics and history says they shouldn’t?"
I like the Reading match up for this reason. Goals conceded is a stat that dont lie and if these are two football sides planning on playing football: Then we are going to score more goals over the 180 minutes and move on to the Final. Meanwhile, I'm hoping the other two sides are kicking the hell out of each other.

Got my BeIn Connect hook up, so I'll be at my "Creole Cottage" with a Urban South beer in hand and maybe working on a flag to bring down to Finn McCools for the final!

 

I posted this on fb but I'll post it here as well. It has been years...and I'm serious, years, since I've looked forward to a game this much. Probably since the season we got relegated; that was the last time I anticipated a match like this. COYWs

 

From Joka's presser at Motspur just a bit ago.

http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/spor...fulham-press-conference-live-slavisa-13019108

 

Should we get a defib on standby if we make it to Wembley?

 

One thing's for sure. If we get past Reading and Huddersfield miraculously beats Wednesday, well, let's just say I'd fancy our chances.

 

@americanmike, are you going to be in attendance? If so, enjoy and tell us what the atmosphere was like

Great stuff on the previews above, in Slava we trust COYW!!!

 

The opponents.

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...-fulham-premier-league?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

 

I think we should all pick a time and then blow up Gentleman Jim's twitter feed from Fulham USA

 

Not seeing anything on tv, for either Championship match. Am I missing something?

Really loathe BeIn Sports, btw.

 

It will be online only on beIN4. I signed up for a free 1 week trial of Fubo.tv so I could watch the Reading matches since I wouldn't have access otherwise. The feed was of marginal quality today for Chelsea v. West Brom.

 

This really stinks Don. My only suggestion is to try Fubo.tv to see if their feed happens to work for you. Good luck!

 

I'm with you HD, just stunned that BS network is choosing to televise motorcycle racing

 

That's right Ray! It's GAME TIME!!

Starting XI:
Bettinelli
Fredericks, Kalas, Ream, Malone
Johansen, McDonald
Aluko, Cairney, Ayite
Martin

Subs: Button, Odoi, Sessegnon, Parker, Piazon, Kebano, Cyriac

The only surprise to me in that lineup is that Sessegnon is on the bench. Maybe he's getting a break to start on Tuesday.

COYW!!!

 

I think you're spot on about Sessegnon Micah. Let's get 5 or 6 at home and put this thing to bed before Tuesday night. COYW!

 

If other viewing options fail there's this:

http://goatd.net/202235/watch-fulham-vs-reading