Fulham at Barnsley

This is simple. To have any chance at promotion, fixtures like this have to be an automatic 3 points. Barnsley are 19th, just two points above the drop and with a minus 12 goal differential. Got to get a W. Our last two results are among the most encouraging since relegation, just got to keep it going somehow.

 

I'm guessing this won't be an advert for the Beautiful Game . It was a scrappy 2-1 win at CC just last month (12/23), and Barnsley at home will be 90 more minutes of the same. It wouldn't be a shock to see a scoreless final or a single goal be the difference.

 

There is always lots of wild speculation in the British press about who might transfer where and there was a fair bit this week about Cairney. Sadly, the fact that he stayed behind in London today to mend his knee won't help tamp down that speculation. We are left with two unappealing options: his knee continues to be a persistent problem or he's playing games to pressure the team into a transfer.

Either way, I hope that this starting lineup, unchanged from last week, can continue its winning ways:

Bettinelli
Fredericks, Kalas, Ream, Odoi
McDonald, Norwood, Johansen
Piazon, Fonte, Sessegnon

Subs: Button, Steven Sessegnon, Targett, Cisse, de la Torre, Kebano, Kamara

Targett makes the bench in his first week with the club.

 

No reason to change much at this point. Would still like to see StefJo get untracked, scoring wise. He's one of those flying just under the radar kind of guy, and when he's on, it makes the whole team better offensively. He looked more lively last weekend. With Cairney a question mark indefinitely, it would be great to see Stef step up.

 

HatterMom is a smart lady

 

There will probably be better highlights but for now...



The Barnsley player with a yellow completely lost his mind! I didn’t get to follow the match but it seemed like this may have been a turning point. Anyone have additional analysis?

 

I listened to the match and GJ couldn't believe how stupid it was for Cavare to shove Johansen. It was clear that Johansen had made a bad foul and was going to get (and did get) a yellow. So for Cavare to come up and shove him after running back across the field was ridiculous. GJ thought it was a straight red rather than the second yellow, but a straight red wasn't out of the question. Up until that point it seemed like Fulham would muddle through a pathetic match and lose one that they should have won. That red seemed to change everything. After that we come out of the half and score almost immediately. Barnsley seemed buoyed at times by tributes to their former manager who passed away this past week, so they fought back hard during portions of the second half. I couldn't understand why we weren't able to counter more effectively when we had an extra man and they had moved up the pitch. Fortunately we kept hammering until we had a breakthrough.

No one played a good first half and we certainly didn't deserve to win after the first 45. Ream made an error that led to the corner they scored on. Many players were at fault for poor passing. It sounded sad. Odoi who was repeatedly called out by GJ for poor play was replaced by Targett in the second half and by the sound of it he played well. I hoped they learned something from that performance because I'd hate to see us repeat it. However, I do appreciate that this Fulham team always shows a willingness to fight to the end.

And I've lost track of how many matches I've listed to this year where GJ rails about the opposing goal keeper wasting time only to howl with a cry of "Serves him right!" when Fulham finally scores the late winner. Just a sign of how often we let lower quality teams stay competitive with us.

 

Official highlights from Barnsley, although oddly they don't include the foul from Johansen that led to the retaliation that got the red card. You'll want to use YouTube's slow-motion feature to watch the Barnsley goal (no hand-ball, but probably obstruction), the foul on Sess (was outside the box, he fell into it), and the second Fulham goal (McDonald scores a goal from the "crab soccer" position - did any of you have to play crab soccer in gym class? I hated it, why couldn't we just play regular soccer?!)

 

PS. 6th in the table (for now...)!

 

Another match that we deserved nothing from and got all three points. Well, sort of. They did let us off the hook in the first half. Their goal was dodgy, no question. How can an attacking player screen the keeper off the ball? Chalk it up to typical 2nd tier officiating. Staying within striking distance after stinking the joint up in the first half was definitely key. The red card was a gift that we almost pissed away, but thank goodness we didn't. We just willed the ball in for the go ahead goal, but we don't get that one or the leveler without great work from Fredericks. The subs did well, and Sess starting closer to the opponent's goal is helpful (yes, that was a lame attempt at sarcasm). It's funny how some seasons some teams win games they shouldn't. It's usually a sign of a club trending in the right direction. I'm kind of sorry to January end. Just gotta hope we keep it going in February. Streaks are fickle. But, for now, I'm going to continue my abstinence from sex with Annie Savoy.

 

After further reflection I have to say that I think the ref did a pretty good job. I wasn't sure if the player impeded/obstructed Bettinelli enough to commit a foul so I went and looked it up:

The Barnsley player didn't move into Bettinelli's path, he happened to be there from his position during the corner and trying to take his own shot. Also, the ball was certainly within playing distance. I think it looked bad because the guy threw himself back into Bettinelli to get out of the way of the ball. The ref made the right call there along with a number of other tough calls that I had to watch in slow-motion to see if he got right. Based on that match he deserves a promotion.

 

Micah answered with much more due diligence, but my first thought was, how is an attacking player screening the keeper off the ball any different from a defender screening an attacker off the ball in order to let it go out for a goal kick?

 

I agree with Micah that the ref was correct to allow the Barnsley goal, in fact, I never even considered obstruction until reading it here. All the Barnsley player did was occupy space he was in prior to the play beginning which is not a foul.