Fulham vs. Queens Park Rangers

This Saturday Fulham host London rivals QPR in the early match to conclude the busy schedule before the international break. This match will be live on ESPN3 at 8:30 EDT (I guess the UK hasn't changed their clocks yet). Fulham look to continue the Championship's longest unbeaten streak to 16 matches. QPR are away at Villa today (Tuesday) so they will have a short turn around prior to Saturday's match.

I know there was talk of the team being gassed at the end of the Preston match, but I say if it's not broke, don't fix it. Keep feeding Mitrovic in the middle. Keep running Sessegnon and Ayite/Ojo/Piazon up and down the wings. Keep the core midfielders and defenders. And most importantly of all, keep the clean sheet!

 

A full week off between matches should be enough to freshen up the legs so I’m all for playing the core group mentioned above.

 

If it ain't broke, don't fix it...unless Kalas is fit again. I like Odoi, but preferably outside, not inside. Still, can't argue with the results with him in there, so let's go again! And in the good news, bad news category, the HA's played, and won convincingly, tonight at Villa Park, 3-1. So it figures they'll be fancying a result in a derby come Saturday. Except an extra match is an extra match. And we're on one of the most amazing streaks that I've seen since becoming a supporter in 2011. There is no reason to believe we can't keep the thing going. Winning is contagious, and it's still winning season. Will we catch Cardiff (who beat Brentford tonight as well, 3-1) or whoever sits second? I don't know, but our chances improve if we continue to take care of business and focus on our own matches. Keep it going, keep it going, keep it going, FULL STEAM!

 

If one of our neighbors was going to help us yesterday I would’ve bet large on Brentford at home versus Cardiff (a goal in first half stoppage time by Cardiff doomed the Bees). Shocked is a mild word for the performance QPR displayed at Villa. We thank them, and guaranteed Joka will have the lads not going in overconfident.

 

Good stuff from the gaffer this morning, especially the last comment about Holloway’s “spoiling the party” assertion.

https://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/spo...anovic-press-conference-racap-fulham-14418750

 

UMBC kept me up later than I would have liked, but I'm up and ready for the match! Still no Kalas and Piazon gets the start over Ayite

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

Subs: Button (back after a 2 week absence due to illness), Christie, Norwood, Ojo, Ayite, Fonte, Kamara

 

I suppose we were due to lay an egg. At least we got a point, but it sure felt like a loss. I don’t know why we play well against the stronger teams and not as well against the weaker sides. It’s a habit we need to break.
Despite our early dominance in posession, I thought we wern’t brave enough with our attacking passes. The goals were strictly a result of our superior talent. Piazon’s was especially well taken, after some good work by Fredericks and, I think, TC in the box. Holloway was clearly intent on sitting back and putting 11 behind the ball in the first half, seemingly to prevent Mitrovic from beating them. I really thought the goal we conceded from the set piece right before halftime was the key play of the game. That was a momentum killer. The 2nd half, Ian changed tactics, going with the higher line and pressing. We just didn’t deal with it. Betts really saved the point for us, Odoi’s howler notwithstanding. The subs from both managers were quite curious indeed, but the bottom line is ours had no positive response mpact on the proceedings whatsoever.
Again, just glad we got this mulligan out of our system and lived to earn an undeserved point. Hopefully we get our mojo back for the one Friday night March 30th at Carrow Road, although this result probably kills any hope of finishing 2nd, Looks like it’ll be playoff roulette again, which is certainly fine given our position in mid-November. Oh well, won’t have to worry about Jap Staam’s Reading this time. Guess I better go ahead and order a fresh bottle of Prozac

 

Official highlights from QPR:


Watching that really illustrated how each half were like two entirely different games. Seemed like whoever was going at the Putney end had the mojo.

The most disappointing aspect of our performance was the choice of subs, particularly Ojo and Fonte. This was an aspect of the game that was entirely in our control, but the decision made absolutely no sense. No doubt, we needed subs, just not those two. I thought Christie would come in for Fredericks since he seemed to be getting worn out and I thought Johansen should have been subbed since he was making a number of poor passes that lead to turnovers. Not that Norwood is famous for his possession skills, but what we needed more than anything late in the second half was ball control and a midfield of Cairney, McDonald, and Norwood would have given us a better shot at that. Bringing on Ojo and Fonte made me feel like we were going to lose. At least that didn't happen, but they made absolutely no positive impact for Fulham.

We've been on such a good run it is easy to forget that this wasn't a loss. It was a draw. Not only that, it was a draw that moved us up to third place! This is the best that Fulham has ever played and one bad half isn't the death knell for this team. Hopefully the team learns from this and figures out how to avoid another half like yesterday's last 45. Getting automatic promotion was always going to be a longshot for a team that was in 17th place in November. And it is still a longshot. Cardiff's match against Derby was postponed due to snow so they may end up with a mid-week match tacked on to a period in April already filled with mid-week matches. So whatever chance we may have had for finishing second has stayed about the same - it still requires a miracle, but not impossible. Most likely we are going to the playoffs and that cannot be considered a failure. It is a testament to the quality we have on this team that it is now in third place when at one point it seemed like the season could be written off.

 

A bit Twilight Zoneish