Fulham vs. Brentford

Fulham hosts London rivals Brentford on Saturday in the late match (12:30 EDT). Brentford can claim to have handed Fulham its worst defeat of the season when they beat us 3-1 in early December. That match was the only time this season Fulham gave up more than three goals in a losing effort - which isn't surprising when you consider that Bettinelli was still on the bench, Ream was out, and Odoi got ejected after his second yellow in the 53rd minute. After that loss Bettinelli got the start, Ream returned, and we've only lost one match since then.

After having a poor run in March Brentford has won all three matches in April. They haven't scored an away goal against any of the other teams in the top six, so another shut-out should be Fulham's objective for Saturday. Brentford is still in the mix for a playoff spot and they would love to put a dent in Fulham's record and promotion hopes. Brentford will give us their best, but Fulham needs to get a win to keep the pressure on Cardiff.

 

COYW. I don't know what else to say anymore.

 

Friday in NOLA

Its French Quarter Fest this weekend, which is the unofficial start to "Festival Season" here in Louisiana, and we have a festival for just about everything: Creole tomatoes, strawberries, crawfish, plus the seafood and petroleum festival....not making that up.

But I would trade all those good times and good food for a few wins from the boys this week.

Looking forward to this "spicy" fixture, all signed up for the free trial...so lets make this happen!

#ReamtheimpossibleDream

 

COYW!!!!!!

 

Cardiff gets a goal in the 86th minute to beat Norwich 1-0. A draw there sure would have been nice. Either way, we need three points today.

Familiar lineup against Brentford:
Bettinelli
Fredericks, Odoi, Ream, Targett
McDonald, Cairney, Johansen
Piazon, Mitrovic, Sessegnon

Subs: Button, Kalas, Christie, Norwood, Kebano, Fonte, Kamara

 

2 home derbies, 2 home draws to qpr & Brentford...ugh.

 

Could very well end up being the difference. It's a damn shame. Just gotta keep moving forward and hope Cardiff slip up

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

Still bullish on finishing second. Our road form has been better than home, so 2 out of last 3 on the road? No problem. Disappointing day, to be sure, but the streak lives, so....

 

Last year I would have looked at this match and thought "Hey, we snuck out with an undeserved point! Better than nothing, right?" But now with the race against Cardiff and our recent form, this was once again a draw that felt like a loss. The downside of being good.

My fear is that Brentford has shown other teams how to beat Fulham - and if the ref had been a standard Championship ref, rather than that horrible Premier League ref, Fulham would have lost. The winning formula is to clog the passing lanes and just keep forcing Fulham to pass back until mistakes are made or until a 50/50 pass is lumped forward. I really wanted someone to just run into space with the ball, but that hardly ever happened. Brentford executed the game plan just about perfectly and almost got a win. My hope is that the remaining opposition teams don't have the right players to pull it off.

As the Brentford set up the tying goal I was begging someone to step up and put pressure on the ball rather than giving them the time and space to think about a cross. What's the point of sitting 10 yards back?! I think if Johansen had still been in he would have been on top the ball, but unfortunately McDonald chose to sit back and gave the the equivalent of a set piece.

Matches like this one are bound to happen. That's why catching Cardiff was always a ridiculous prospect (and it still is, keep hope alive!). I just hope if we end up in the playoffs we don't have to face another team from London! That seems to be our weakness but I'm not sure why.

I'll end with positive: thank goodness for Mitrovic! I love that guy.

 

So it's sentient now? A very interesting development.

 

The hard to watch highlights via Brentford:


I called out McDonald for not applying pressure before, but looking at the highlights I'm horrified to see that Fredericks just stopped playing and is the reason why Maupay was unmarked for the score.