Fulham v Leeds

Leeds look well on their way to getting back to the Prem for the first time since 2007, but as @timmyg stated they have found a way to blow it repeatedly over the last few seasons. We’ve hit a rough patch, but it’s the Championship and we are more then capable of beating any club in this division (as well as lose ).

 

A tough test indeed. To move up though, you have to beat those above you.

The most baffling thing is that this match was not selected for tv. Instead, we all can watch the glory that will be Millwall vs Barnsley.

 

As my rambling tirades of recent weeks indicate, I'm not feeling good about Fulham's chances for automatic promotion. However, looking at what happened last year with Leeds reminds of Jim Carey in Dumb and Dumber - "So you're telling me there's a chance"

Halfway through last season Leeds was in first place with 48 points - just one more point than what they have now. In the second half of the season Leeds went the other direction and more than tripled the number of losses they had in the first half of the season. Leeds ended up getting one point from the last four matches of the season and finished with "just" 83 points. Meanwhile Sheffield United, who eventually got automatic promotion, were in 6th place with 38 points - 3 more than Fulham currently have. Sheffield eventually finished 6 points ahead of Leeds with 89 points.

So if Fulham were to pull off a win on Saturday they would be a nearly identical position as Sheffield to take advantage of another Leeds collapse of similar proportions. Of course, the odds of a similar collapse are probably small.

Fulham won't be brimming with confidence following three consecutive loses, but it will also be interesting to see how Leeds responds after their draw with Cardiff. Leeds was up 3-0, but then gave up 3 goals including the tying goal in the 88th minute when Cardiff was down to 10 men. It would be nice if at the end of the season we could look back on that match and say "That was when it all started to fall apart for Leeds."

 

Wow. You could write a definition of "Fulhamish" or you could just point to the last 3 games.

 

I didn't brother checking the score until about 2 today because I thought I wouldn't like the scoreline. Glad I was wrong.

 

Short highlights via Leeds:


I was doing early Christmas with the in-laws and trying to avoid knowledge of the game until I could watch the replay. Unfortunately at about 11:40 am EST I accidentally saw a notice that it was 1-1 and then later saw an article summary that showed Leeds players celebrating and a headline that said "Leeds' unbeaten run..." Although I didn't know if the headline said "unbeaten run ends" or "unbeaten run lives on", I assumed it was bad news for Fulham given the picture.

So I was shocked and delighted when Josh Onomah put the ball in the net (at what must have been 11:41 am EST right after I hid the score). This was not at all what I expected to see from Fulham.

Even if Fulham had not won, I would have been happy with how they played. Fulham was so much better than the past three matches. I felt like Parker made some legitimate changes to their game plan. Fulham did try to play up from the back, but if it looked like there was too much pressure they banged the ball deep. Sure, sometimes Fulham lost possession, but not always and they didn't have any heart-stopping moments from trying to play out. Fulham also pushed forward more aggressively. They drove toward the goal more often and spent less time setting up in the opposing half and passing sideways. I realized in the second half that this match was fun to watch rather than the torture I had gotten used to.

I think Fulham did get a little lucky with the early injury to Hernandez, the PK call, and the PK shot bouncing in off the post. There didn't seem to be much of a push on Bobby Reid to earn a penalty. I have to wonder if Reid NOT flopping to the ground and instead trying to play-on convinced the ref that he really had been shoved out of position. Despite the luck early on, Fulham still showed they could hold their ground against Leeds.

To top everything off, other results went Fulham's way and pending the result of Sheffield Wednesday's match on Sunday, Fulham are back in 3rd place - 9 points behind Leeds with 23 games to go.

 

My thoughts exactly, timing was slightly different.

My favorite story like that has to do with the Miracle on Ice. I was living on the east coast. The game was actually in the afternoon (in Lake Placid). I believe the game was tied in the intermission between the 2nd and 3rd periods. I like to watch TV with the sound off. I will forever be grateful, because I just saw the perky local anchor come on screen. I didn't find out until the next day that what she'd said was basically "amazing upset by the US hockey team". Thus, I got to experience the longest 10 minutes in the history of sports in real time, sort of. Now that I know the ending, the agony just makes the story better.

 

Two things at first blush:
1). Rodak (and Mitro’s late clearance off our line) saved our butts.
2). As much as I hate bitching about things from a win, we’ve still got to tighten up the defense, especially in the final third. Gave them way too much room, and they sliced us open pretty easily for those early and late scoring chances. Most days, the team at the top of the table will make you pay dearly. Leeds didn’t.
Haven’t seen enough of Onomah to know if all the haters are legit. Glad he scored, but the ball fell kindly towards him and he pounced on it. Still had some work to do and struck it well, but there was a fair amount of luck involved. I’ll gladly take it. Whatever issues some have had with his play thus far, let’s hope it improves a bunch by a jump start from this goal. Seems obvious Parker’s gonna keep running him out there, so we might as well hope he keeps the positive vibe going. Pretty amazing that we’re well within striking distance of an automatic promotion spot despite a pretty uneven season to date.
Onward!
COYW!