Fulham v. Bristol City

I wouldn't necessarily say that Bristol City are struggling. They have won 12 points from their last 7 matches (3-3-1) with the only defeat being away to WBA.

I think it will be a pretty tightly contested matchup, but I like the hosts to continue their roll.

 

We just need to keep doing what we're doing, and how we're doing it. If they make effective adjustments, we need to react with better adjustments. I despise cliche's, but this league is notorious in that there are no easy outs. You can't just show up and expect to get a result against anybody. We can't allow that to happen. I don't think we will. We've got momentum, and I don't think anybody wants to be responsible for screwing it up.

 

Nine minutes of highlights from Bristol City:


I am of two minds about this match (I watched the full 90 on replay):

1. Based on the balance of play Fulham deserved to lose
2. Fulham was denied a draw by incompetent officiating

I have absolutely no idea how the ref doesn't award a penalty when Kebano goes down in the box. It was clear as day that he was tripped. I guess the ref didn't want to feel like he was deciding the game but by NOT making the call he was still deciding the game. There was other ridiculousness from the ref during the match that was clearly slanted against Fulham - and I don't say that as easily as GJ, but it is true in this case.

As for Fulham's play it was disappointing on a number of levels especially in the attacking third. In the first half just about all of the crosses were terrible and aimless. In the second half the crosses were better, but until Kebano and Kamara came on there was almost no one to do anything with them. In the rare chance a cross was delivered to a Fulham player then the shot was off target. On defense Fulham did a terrible job of marking players and were lucky not to have given up 3 goals. The second goal was the most embarrassing with Knockaert and Kamara failing to track back and giving Bristol City one of the easiest goals all year. Finally, as a manager Parker failed to make changes early enough. I wanted Kamara on at the half and Kebano was a surprisingly positive addition too, they just didn't have enough time to get the job done. Those two players made Fulham so much more dangerous on attack and should have been brought in far sooner.