Fulham at Derby County

Things have obviously changed a lot since the 1-1 result at CC in November. Button, Odoi, Edun and Rui Fonte started for us in that one. They're 0-2-2 in their last four, but have some serious firepower with Tom Huddlestone, Cameron Jerome, Andreas Weimann and Matej Vydra, although the latter may be out with a groin injury. Still, you gotta like our chances. Chris Martin? Loaned to Reading in January. Go figure. And our old friend Bairdinho should feature. Our recent trend of playing better on the road than at home seems to be subtly switching to the norm. But...we've improved so much, and still have room for more improvement. Things can change in a hurry, but why would they at this point? Would really, really like to see Cairney be Cairney right about now. Give the rest of the league some more to think about. I'm afraid he's still not 100% with that knee, though. Hope I'm wrong and we start to see the real TC. You can't argue with the recent results though, can you? Just gotta keep it going.

 

He got a red card in their last game, so nope.

 

Good summary of Derby's situation. I'll also add in that Derby have only won one home game so far in 2018 (Brentford). My biggest concern is that after beating the top team Fulham will have a let down this week - kinda like last year after they beat Newcastle away and then went back to Craven Cottage to draw with soon-to-be-relegated Blackburn and lose to Wolverhampton. Getting into 4th is certainly a motivation though to keep things going.

 

Weather forecast for freezing temps and possible snow showers. Better be ready for an ugly 90 minutes

 

Odoi comes in for a "slightly" injured Kalas. Otherwise much the same as last week:

Bettinelli
Fredericks, Odoi, Ream, Targett
McDonald, Cairney, Johansen
Ayite, Mitrovic, Sessegnon

Bench: Norman (not Button, hmmm), Christie, Norwood, Piazon, Ojo, Fonte, Kamara

On the Derby side Vydra gets the start.

 

Looks like a few other matches have been cancelled including Cardiff, which means another mid week fixture for teams. And it will look like were that much closer to the promotion spots after we beat Derby this morning!

COME ON!

 

Cue The Nana!!!

Long Live the Shirt!! Long Live the Shirt!!!!...

 

Keep waiting for this amazing run we're on to end, but the boys keep it going. I'm so stunned, and so happy.

Feel like there's not enough games left to catch Cardiff and snatch an automatic promotion spot, but 5 of their final 12 games are against teams in top 10 (we have 3 from last 11; with 2 coming next).

 

Some highlights. Mitro is a beast...perfect compliment to Sess. Lovely little backheel from StefJo to Sess for the second goal. They got a little lucky on theirs, and some huge plays at the end by KMac and Betts to secure the W. The biggest thing? We saw out an early lead for 78 minutes to get three points. Kept waiting for the dagger, last minute equalizer to be conceded, but we didn't. Very big, very huge.

 

I guess Derby gives their video editor off on Sundays because they didn't post any highlights until today. Derby's official highlights:


Can you believe it? We scored off of a corner! Did you even know that was allowed? And what a beautiful pass from Johansen to Sessegnon for a beautiful finish. I thought we were going to end with a draw, but the did exactly what was needed for a win.

Fulham1879 FanTV did his first away day vlog. In gives a clear picture of the weather they were dealing with, gets an impromptu interview with GJ at a gas station on the way to Derby, and includes plenty of singing from the away fans. You may remember he got booted out of Craven Cottage earlier this year. He's come to an agreement with Fulham where he can continue to shoot footage focused on the fans, which was nice to hear. Unfortunately, now the EFL is on him and blocking videos that include game footage, *sigh*. Even without game footage, this is still fun to watch: