Fulham v Derby

Nothing reeks of confidence quite like a Friday thread for a weekend match…

Let's hope that we are all surprised with a positive result. Furthermore (I know it's wishful thinking) we desperately need the home support to lift the team, but I'm guessing that if Fulham doesn't start brightly the boo birds will be out.

 

Well...COYW!

 

Starters, from the lovely Ms. Brookes.



AND subs. Sorry, Sarah.

 

That's the thing in this league. It doesn't take much to move dramatically up in the table. Still a long shot, but if we can string together a modest run like we did when Kit was caretaker, well, crazier things have happened in sports. (See 1964 National League pennant race).

 

If Rodallega had been ruled onside vs Millwall we'd be in 13th place (maybe 14th)! Things are tight at this end of the table.

I'm eager to watch the full replay on this one. From the commentary is sounds like we kept up consistent pressure on defense and didn't given anything silly away on a free kick, corner kick, or throw-in.

Hopefully we can build on this, but we've only got a few days before facing Watford who've won 7 of their last 10.

 

Not only was I able to watch the full 90, but we got a win! Feels like a long time since that happened. We played very well in the first half and then defended well enough to see it to the end. Ross was man of the match for me. The offense all ran through him. Dare I say this gives me some hope for the home stretch?

 

I went to bed thinking there's no way I'm going to drag myself out of bed at 7 am to listen to that one, because we have no chance whatsoever.

Really nice win. Quintessentially Fulhamish.

 

Didn't get to see this one thanks to a dvr glitch but good to see Fulham take all 3 pts. That proves once again just how hard it is to beat a team 3 times in a season in football. Hopefully there's more to it than that, that we've turned a corner & maybe we can string together a run of points to cement our place in the Championship next year.

Nice to see Cauley score as well, especially since I'd just suggested starting him. That kid is well balanced and given enough playing time will prove he has the goods. He reminds me a bit of Stephen Fletcher, with less pace. I'd rather see us invest in him rather than continue to try & milk whatever Hugo has left. Just my $0.02.

 

I had no clue that the match would be televised on tape delay - but my boy recorded it for us and sprung it on me around the 25th minute. We watched the remainder of the match and that was a very nice win for the club.

COYW

 

Just re-watched the entire replay. I've concluded that the orange shorts should be burned. They obviously contain kryptonite, because that's the only logical explanation for the 180 degree difference in our recent performances. Well, maybe not. It was refreshing to see our center forward hustling and pressuring the opponent's keeper and center backs. From the untrained soccer eye, one of the biggest differences I see in our play like today versus, say at Wolves and Millwall, is more energy, effort and intelligence at pressuring higher on the pitch. I know this is risky, but I'd rather see us go down in flames than sitting back and allowing the enemy to dictate play. Except I don't think we would go down in flames if we did it consistently. Derby were top of the table and in form, and we weren't, yet we kicked their tails today. Bad day for them and good day for us? Maybe. But not from what I could see on my screen, which I admit can be deceiving, but only to a certain degree. Today proves we can compete in this league and that we've got the talent to do it. As bad as the defense has been recently, it was that much better today, with largely the same personnel. Marcus didn't really have to stand on his head much today, just be solid, which he was. We were just more aggressive today, top to bottom, and that's the way it has to be every time out now. Time will tell if we turned a corner today, but the way this league seems to be, we're not completely out of the playoff picture yet. Nobody outside of Blackpool and Milwall are.

 

And...don't look now, but Norwich are knocking on the door of the league lead. Norwich, for God's sake....

 

Uh, yeah, we are out of the playoff picture. You can't make up 21 pts in 12 matches. You sure as shit can't do it AND jump 13 teams in the process.

More specifically, Ipswich & Bournemouth have both loss less than 25% of their games to date. If we were to win out, we'd need both of them to lose over 50% of their remaining matches.

Also, why "Norwich, for God's sake"? I'd trade starting XI's with then in a heartbeat with maybe 1 or 2 exceptions.

 

Derby was without Chris Martin, their top scorer with 16 goals. I wondered what he could have added that would have made a difference. Possibly more speed to get behind our defenders on the counter attack? I have no idea, but I was glad he wasn't there. Added bonus - it was Darren Bent who couldn't perform as an adequate replacement!

However, I agree with all of your points Jump. We hardly ever let them sit on the ball and think. We harried them all day and force a number of bad passes and limited their scoring opportunities. When they did get deep into our half everyone had gone back to defend - Woodrow shepherded a ball over the end line for goodness sakes! Woodrow and Dembele also did a great job of continuing to threaten in the second half when we started to focus on defending our lead. They prevented it from feeling like it was a matter of time before Derby scored.