Fulham vs Preston North End

Another match we should win, especially at home. PNE are without Jermaine Beckford since September. We get James Husband back from the red card against Birmingham. Hopefully Ream has recovered from whatever illness he had over the weekend and we get back to defending like we're capable of.
I hope.

 

Don't care if it's the ugliest performance of the year as long as we get the 3 points. It's early in the week, so hoping the players at know who will be taking over.

 

Pacey wingers? C'mon Don, that'll NEVER work!

 

And suddenly, it sounds as if half our lineup is a doubt. Fitness tests await Stearman, McCormack, O'Hara, Cairney and Tunnicliffe before this one, per getwestlondon.

 

Happy Turkey Day all! I expect Mattila to start after a good showing against Dons. Outside chance of seeing Hyndman in this one? Kid sure deserves a shot.

 

Yeah the injury news is a concern. I'll take any points we can get, given the circumstances. Hopefully there's good news on the Manager front coming soon.

 

Interesting. Remember, PNE was Brian McBride's first English team when Moyes brought him in on loan from the Crew, the first time. And their fans on the official PNE message board were really nice to me.
Other than that.. I know nothing.

 

Tell me if this sounds familiar; 1 bad half & 1 good half or sometimes its 1 good half & 1 bad half. 2 points in two weeks against a couple of clubs we could ill afford to drop points against. Looking more and more like a 10-15th place finish. Rigg wants to be Billy Beane & bring Moneyball to SW London. Well that means he needs to be blamed when things go wrong. This managerial or should I say coaching search doesn't give me any confidence in him.

 

So same as Kit then. I'm not seeing the catastrophe. Granted, I'd like to see the manager situation sorted, but I'm more concerned with finding the right fit. It's not like we're losing these games under Grant and looking uncompetitive.

 

The organizational malaise that began when Fayed decided to sell continues.

 

While these results haven't been catastrophic Matt, these are two clubs that hay needs to be put into the barn against. Fulham is still only 6 points behind the last playoff spot, but the problem is clubs are moving past us (including our 2 neighbors QPR & Brentford).

 

Husband should have been sent off...again. Dodged a huge bullet on that one. On the flip side, every one of the opponent's 2nd half challenges in the box should have resulted in a kick from the spot. We were somewhat unlucky not to get the winner after leveling it.

 

We weren't beating teams we were supposed to beat with any consistency under Kit. My point is I don't think the results would have been much different if we hadn't made a change (probably 1W & 1L, imo). Therefore, the change had to be made & there's no use lamenting these results.

I don't think we're going up this year regardless of what happens, so maybe that's coloring my judgment. I think it'll take some time to drill defense into this side & scoring will suffer initially. Plus, we lack width, pace up top and we're still playing with a 3rd choice, emergency loan keeper.

Whatever, I'm tired of trying to be the voice of reason. Y'all panic & bitch til your hearts content. Think I'll take a break from it all.

 

The great thing (or one of the great things) about sports is hope. Hope that your team wins. Hope that your team wins more than it loses. Hope that it can win siginificantly more than it loses and earns a trophy and/or rings or promotion, or both. Hope that if it's not winning more games than it's losing, or it's pretty much even, that the next winning streak is right around the corner. That everything starts to click. The new field boss is a perfect fit. The best players are healthy and starting. The starters develop chemistry. The subs make quick and decisive impacts upon introduction. The right moves are made during a transfer window. You may be right, Matt. We may not go up this year, regardless of what happens. But it's still more than mathematically possible. It's even possible despite the current condition of the club. We weren't doing anything consistently under Kit, but we were definitely better than we were under Magath. Most people seem to agree that the talent is there. Recent leadership gaffes aside, there's still a decent chance, despite the squad weaknesses you cited, that we can become more consistently good than bad and win the games we should win...like this one against PNE.

 

I agree with the viewpoint that promotion was only going to be achieved this season by luck, or an act of God. I also believe that any remote chance of promotion has been hindered by what appears to be, from the outside, a hapless and/or mistaken managerial search / appointment / plan. Personnel issues with injuries and performance haven't helped as well. However, a club at Fulham's level (a couple of years ago were Europa finalists and top-10 finishers and have relatively deep pockets) should not be excused for the 3 week absence in the head coach position after firing the previous manager. I understand some situations are out of the club's control regarding potential appointments, but damn if it doesn't look sloppy on the part of the front office. I think it reasonable to have had things tightened up before the trigger was pulled on Kit.

It's not doom and gloom, but the club has to wear the criticism that is warranted from this head coach, manager, babysitter role search that lingers on. And so goes English football, it could all turn on a dime tomorrow and a brilliant coach is installed.

COYW