Fulham vs Preston North End

PNE are sixth, 3 points ahead of us and enjoying a good start to this season. They're getting 3 regulars back from injury, so that will give them a psychological boost. Soares is supposed to be fit and ready for us. Should be interesting to see if he displaces someone in the starting 11. If not, he'll almost surely displace someone on the bench. Personally, I'd like to see us string some clean sheets together. Haven't had one since August at Ipswich. We've reached the point in the season where the die should be cast for what the rest of the campaign should look like, player and performance wise. I hope we can come out of the blocks from this break roaring. Are we contenders or pretenders? It's crunch time.

 

Tim Ream should come back rested.

 

In case you didn't see this on Facebook, @HatterDon posted a link about Brian McBride being honored by the Fulham Trust at the PNE match. Dan Crawford, who works for the Trust I think, posted the following:

So, if you want to say something to Brian, go to this post and leave a comment for him.

 

Thats this afternoon, eh? McBride is my all time favorite, I'll definitely have a New Orleans based question for him.

Hope y'all are doing well, I've taken a break from some of the online club stuff, but still happily listening to GJ and telling all the folks at Finn's that I'm starting to feel cautiously optimistic about our chances this season.
I think this first week back from the break is a great chance to take two big steps forward as there are sure to be teams that have a let down above us after the international break. In the next 4 matches any point is good, so long as we keep scoring more goals and get back to where we were last season, when guys were pulling up their socks in the away locker room at the cottage and in their back of their minds, they're thinking, "shit...I'm gonna do a lot of chasing today." Granted we didn't win enough at home last year, but you get the idea.

Goal Scorers? Kamara? Johanson? Kebano? Fonte?

Happy Friday and COYW!

 

http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/fulham-give-injury-update-ahead-13756340

I don't understand the coyness about Cairney's status. Apparently there are no league rules or guidelines about reporting injuries which, if I were a betting man, would make me quite ill. How are you supposed to wager on an athletic contest without adequate knowledge of potential participants? And charging fans and journalists for the "privilege" of getting such vague info from the team physio via the club's digital platform is just wrong. I am mildly outraged.

 

And now we find out at match lineup time that Fredericks is out due to some mysterious "knock" incurred in practice. WTF?

 

Sounds like Cairney is on the bench

 

And Soares is still on the bench. I was hoping that he would take over at the back so Sess could move up to the wing. But I guess we'll still have to rely on his defense.

 

When does 1 point feel like 3? Nice not to be on the receiving end for a change. That point earned and the two dropped by PNE could figure come late Spring.

 

This sounds more serious than the player and club are letting on. Like, surgery, serious. If he needs an operation, the sooner, the better. Knees rarely heal on their own after this long a period. It sounds for all the world like they're delaying the inevitable. I can appreciate trying to give it every chance to respond, but at a certain point, you've got to make a call. The sooner it's made, the sooner we get him back.

http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/spor...ws/fulham-captain-tom-cairney-admits-13764204

 

Official highlights from Preston North End:


I watched the full 90 too and I think that PNE was offside on their first goal. It was VERY close and you can't really tell from this screen grab I took if Ream's right foot is keeping the PNE player at the bottom left corner onside.


Regardless, they are a bit ragged and Odoi seems unaware of the guy behind him. Odoi also jogged back on defense after this because I think he assumed PNE was offside. Play to the whistle boys.

Both PNE's goals came off of quick transition play. In both cases they intercepted passes and quickly attacked the goal. I feel like that's how we give up most our goals. I don't see teams being able to set up and work a ball in very often.

When Cairney came in he made four or five beautiful passes and then just disappeared for the rest of the match. If we can't get him healthy this season, I think our current position is about as good as it is going to get. Oliver Norwood is simply no where close to the quality of Cairney. Norwood repeatedly turned the ball over and we're lucky those didn't lead to more goals. I have no idea why he of all people took the penalty, but he got the job done so it was a smart choice.

We were incredibly lucky on that last goal, but we deserved a little luck and the draw.

 

I'm not sure how to feel about this one. As SCJ stated, it's one point but feels like three. The meaningful last second goal certainly shifts one's perspective, but overall Fulham should have done better.

It was not a good day for the left side of our defense. Ream and Sess are at fault for both their goals. Neither put a body on the first goal scorer and Sess' turnover led to the second when Ream didn't properly close down the PNE player's run (and subsequent shot).

Anyone know if Kamara was hurt? I'm kind of surprised that he didn't even make the bench after having positive shifts in his previous two matches.

 

I think I remember GJ mentioned Kamara may have a hamstring problem.

I thought Ream played well enough, but you're right about the turnovers leading to goals, Norwood, Sess, especially but Preston showed what a good defense can do to a team trying to keep possession. Its easy enough to attribute those mistakes to Norwood (which I might) but its a lot about how they defended leading up to those turnovers, combined with Fulham's desire to pass teams into the ground, that lead to those two quick goals. Preston is a pretty good side, they showed what happens when you mess up at this level.

 

There is a number of interesting pieces in this video from a Fulham fan who always posts after home games:

• Shots of a model of the new Riverside stand on display plus fan reactions to the plan
• A soundtrack for Tom Cairney's return that made me smile
  
• Recording of the half-time interview with Brian McBride
• Hammersmith End views of both Fulham goals plus fan reaction (he was in the Riverside stand toward the Putney End for the first half)

 

The most disturbing thing about this video is the guy in line at the concession trailer, pre-match, with a current Dennis Adeniran kit. Got nothing against the lad, but what a suspect choice to spend one's hard earned money on. I mean, the kid doesn't even make the first team bench most of the time, so, why? And if that's Mr. Adeniran, Dennis's dad, than I apologize profusely. Hope he leads us back to the Premiership.

 

The most suspect thing about the kit is Adeniran is now an Everton player.