Fulham v. WBA

Now that we are six matches into the new season, teams have started to establish their position in the table and this will be the first time that Fulham and West Brom face a squad that is currently in one of the top six places. So this is an early, but important match for both teams.

West Brom have yet to lose with three wins and three draws so far. More than half the goals scored against them have come in the first 15 minutes, but West Brom managed to overcome early deficits in all three of their victories and two of their draws.

Fulham will be without Arter as he serves out his red-card suspension. Everyone seems to be healthy after the international break and Mitrovic returns after having collected three more goals for Serbia.

 

Played out like Micah said ^^. WBA are a resilient group, still encouraged about where our boys are heading.

 

Was it a foul on Betts, probably. Should it have been called, probably. Do players put a body on a keeper every match that has a corner kick, yes. Should Betts have been stronger and cleared Austin out to make room, definitely. In the end for me Betts has to catch that ball with both hands or at least get a firm punch on it to reset the corner. Keepers go week in and week out with players bodying them up no differently than Austin did to Betts.

 

Mostly encouraging, but how is that not a foul on Austin? He blocked Marcus’s arm, preventing him from catching the cross. Did the best he could with his FREE arm, but knocked it right to Ajayi. The announcer opined that there was not enough evidence in it for the referee to call anything.
Bull crap. You can’t interfere with the keeper so much that he doesn’t have a fair chance to do what he’s allowed to do by rule.
HOW IS THAT NOT A FOUL?
Did we have other chances to win?
Yup. Doesn’t matter if you don’t enforce the rules accurately. Just hope these two points don’t come back to haunt us. We’re still very competitive, so that’s the best news.
Onward to Hillsborough!

 

Very short highlights via West Brom:


Really disappointing that Fulham couldn't hang on to get the win. Seems that Fulham often brings out the best in the opponent's goal keeper!

 

"Making contact with GK === referee blowing his whistle" isn't a new phenomenon in 2019. Its been that way for over a decade. The infraction by Austin is called a foul in like every soccer league I've witnessed (except for maybe the SPL).

That said, I was alarmed at how late Parker took to adjust to Bilic's constant tinkering. By the time WBA scored, they were completely overrunning our midfield.