Fulham at Huddersfield Town

This one may hinge upon whether or not McCormack is fit. If he is, then we should at least score. If not, I think we're in trouble. He and Smith were just starting to click when Ross had to leave the Leeds match with a couple of knocks to a knee. It will also depend upon which Fulham defense shows up. That one's a coin toss for me. We've not won since the Turner addition, so it's hard to say. I've pretty much concluded that our opponent and the venue are largely irrelevant this season. It seems to depend solely on whether or not our guys turn up or not. Too often, it's been not. That's the main thing that has to change for these last eight matches. Would still like to see Dan Burn given another shot. What the heck could it hurt?

 

Fulhamish Law 1: thou shall not count thy chickens. So to that end hope the boys put away their chances, avoid brain cramps at the defensive end, and get a result.

 

Anything to add to the six point cushion will be gravy for me. Following Fulham in the recent past must be what it's like to drown...except for the whole dying part.

COYW

I was living in Huddersfield Town
I didn't know it was a Huddersfield Town
Oh, Lord, it really brings me down about Huddersfield Town

 

We've taken 2 pts from our last 6 road matches but we did beat Huddersfield 3-1 at the Cottage. It'll be important to get something this weekend since Wigan host 16th place Bolton & Rotherham host 13th place Wednesday.

Millwall are away to 6th place Brentford, so while that's good, it probably means little as I think they're pretty much relegated along with Blackpool.

 

Lineup:
Bettinelli
Grimmer, Hutchinson, Turner, Richards
Hoogland, Tunnicliffe, Kavanagh, Kačaniklić
Woodrow, Smith

Substitutes: Kiraly, Burn, Bodurov, Donnelly, Roberts, Fofana, Rodallega

Not a lineup that inspires me with confidence - so we are sure to win! COYW!!

 

A win and our first double of the season...with 10 men for a half hour no less! Where are the dancing bananas when you need them?

Wigan levelled at the death & Millwall pulled a surprise draw. The cushion is back to 8.

 

Massive three points. Massive. Time will tell, but this one might have saved us from another drop.

 

If you were told before the match that we would receive 5 yellows, a straight red, and concede 2 PKs, a 0-2 win would be the last score line you'd come up with. Dancin Banana + the Roll on the Ground Laughing icon. Can't wait to watch the full replay.

 

After losing to Leeds I said maybe we need more luck. Well we got it today along with 3 points. Unbelievable. I was waiting for my son to finish guitar practice for much of the second half and watching the text updates. I kept thinking they must be wrong. No way we could still be ahead.

And let's add to the madness SoCalJoe - Huddersfield had a 3-1 shot differential and 13 shots on target. We had 3 shots on target and 2 goals. They had 10 corners and we had one - that we scored on. Usually these are the kind of stats we are on the wrong side of.

 

The highlights! I still have no idea what exactly happened with the red-card for hand ball. GJ says it goes off the post, but clearly it doesn't. However I'm not sure I see a hand ball either. To me it looks like Hutchinson deflects it away with his chest rather than arm. Thank goodness the PK was blocked, the guys held on with 10 men, and it didn't impact the end result. Love the fans falling over the seats and flags to celebrate with Fofana at the end.


Full reply here: http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2015/march/22/huddersfield-town-replay

 

Didn't look like a handball to me, although it's difficult to tell due to the poor quality of the video. In the short time Ive followed the game at this level, I've seen far more egregious examples not given more often than something like this. Suffice it to say I have not been impressed with the quality of the officiating in the Championship. I can only imagine how bad it must be in the tiers below. Whatever happens at the end of the season, the away supporters who managed to get to this one and the FA Cup tie at Wolverhampton were treated to some dramatic, if not wholly deserved, wins, with some great heroics by some of our lads. Bettinelli is becoming a penalty stopping superstar. He might be leading both the Championship and the Premier in penalty saves. I'm gonna have to look that up. But the fact that he and Stockdale last season had to make so many great plays just to keep us in games speaks volumes about the state of our defense. Still, as I mentioned above, just a massive, massive three points at this stage of the season. It's strictly a matter of survival right now, just like last year. I don't even what to think about what the future holds if we go down again.

 

Somebody needs to tell the league website folks that Betts was born in Camberwell, and has been called up for ENGLAND'S U-21's...just this past November, in fact. But it SOUNDS Italian, don't it?

 

Wow. Quite an oversite there