Fulham at Preston North End

Little time to savor a victory on Saturday, as Fulham head to Preston North End for a Tuesday night match. The win vs MK Dons helped, but we are still a razor thin margin from relegation. If teams earn the same number of points in the last 7 matches in the next 7 the end of the season looks like this:

18. Huddersfield: 52 points
19. Brentford: 52 points
20. Bristol City: 52 points
21. Fulham: 47 points
22. Charlton: 45 points - relegated
23. MK Dons: 43 points - relegated
24. Bolton: 27 points - relegated
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So, yes, we put 4 points between us and MK Dons, but now Charlton is on the move and we are still in real danger.

Preston North End, promoted from League 1 last season, is safely mid-table at 10th place with an outside shot at the playoffs. When we played in November we were above them, but still managerless and could only get a 1-1 draw at home.

Any points from this away match would be valuable. Fulham has the second most number of away game draws (9) in the league and Preston gives up a lot of home draws (8), so hopefully we can get at least one point from this one.

 

The inability to grind out the occasional 1-0 result has hurt us. How many times have we won by that scoreline? Once..against Wycombe in the Carling or Capital One or Whatever Cup in AUGUST. Not a single time in the league. Conversely the team 1 point above us Rotherham has done it 3 of their last 5 matches. So save to say the lads will have to score at least twice to win at Preston. I'm inclined to predict a 2-2, but hope we can grab all 3 points with a 2-1, 3-2 score.

 

If you look at their squad, only two names really catch your eye. Jermaine Beckford, who usually gives the USMNT fits when we play Jamaica, and Anders Lindegaard, who used to back up DeGea at ManU. And yet, here they are, newly promoted and comfortably mid table. Since we've seldom strung together consecutive results this season, especially after a home win followed by a quick away match, I'm gonna hope for a draw...but I expect a loss.

 

I have a question. What site or sites do you guys use to keep up with Fulham in the championship? I can't find much on bleacher report team stream app, and ESPN app isn't much help. Is the Fulham app any good, if there is one? Are there certain websites besides the team site I can go to?

 

In addition to Don's suggestions I often find myself at GetWestLondon too. Here is their Fulham page: http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/sport/football/all-about/fulham-fc

 

Cue the Dancing' Bananas!!!! The boys went on the road and grinded it out. Just as importantly every other result down in the table went out way, gaining points on the 3 teams directly above and directly below. Back up to 19th, and feeling much better about the run in. Well Done!!!

 

Wonder what happens if you go support Chelsea....Champions of Europe?

First back-to-back wins since Halloween!!! Good time for it. Now let's keep this up & restore hope for next season.

 

7 minutes of injury time?! WTF?! I wanted my exploding ball prototype for stoppage time. Thankfully we held them off.

Tuesday could not have gone any better. This is the kind of day I feel like we rarely get. We won a match that we probably didn't deserve to win and just about every other match broke our way. The only other match from our time in the Championship that felt similar was our win at Huddersfield last year - in that one we played 30+ minutes with 10 men, gave up two PK's, 10 corners, and 31 shots, but still won 2-0.

Six games to go and a 7 point spread. There might be light at the end of this tunnel.

 

After this and the previous result against MK Dons, I really think Moussa would benefit greatly from another season alongside Ross. But I seriously doubt that's going to happen. He seems to have made up his mind that he's moving on (not necessarily up). I'm sure his agent will disagree, but I think he'd be well served by another full season with us. After all, he's only 19. Plenty of time to make it REALLY big. Regardless, another massive 3 points in the run out to avoid a squeaky bum finish ABOVE the relegation zone. And that's definitely more important.

 

The highlights. Nice clearance by Madl off the line in the first half.