Fulham at Preston North End

Fulham travels to Deepdale to face Preston Saturday. It will be on ESPN+ but with an early start at 7:30am EST.

The big question will be who is well enough to play for Fulham. Rodak will be available but there are lots of other question marks on the roster. Without knowing who's going to be on the pitch I don't know what to think about this match.

 

Mitro’s back
Reed, Wilson and Robinson seem to be no worse for wear
I’m awake
Coffee’s made
Let’s go!

 

Well that left a lot to be desired. Lucky to grab a point. Very lucky.

 

Bugger. How do you NOT win a match where you get a goal from a defender who NEVER scores? Either people are still sick, or the league has figured some things out and made effective adjustments. Or we’ve just put in two subpar efforts. The good news is no midweek match this week, so six days to recover and prep for Bournemouth. Bugger.

 

@stlouisbrad Had to be a thrill to see the Billiken on the scoresheet. 201 appearances and Ream’s 2nd goal. Too early to do anything but wait for the highlights of this one, but the stats suggests we grinded that point out. Derby was an unlucky point (the framework denied us multiple times), but while we’ve gotten used to smacking teams around, this result is a valuable resource for the squad to know even on an off day they can get a result.

 

Maybe it's a good omen for billiken soccer. Big match against Duke today. The biggest in many years. People are talking about billiken soccer around town. That hasn't happened since I was a kid.

 

Stats can be misleading, but the one that jumped out at me? Two shots on target. Since we know Ream’s went in, who had the only other shot on goal? If you said Harry Wilson in the 59th minute, a whopping 44 minutes later, you win…a game worn Pavel Pogrebnyak #7 home kit. 2 shots on goal, none of them by Mitro, Kebano, Bobby or Carvalho. Job number 1 this week? Fixing that.

 

@jumpkutz is 100% correct. We didn't vary our approach play enough. A week to fix that. At least Bournemouth tied their game, too, and we're still top of the table.

 

Still no highlights, but here are my two cents...

Fulham dominated the match for the first 30 minutes. PNE seemed incredibly intimidated until Ream scored. After Fulham grabbed the lead Preston started pressing more and found some success with that. Fulham was playing so well early on it felt like it was just a matter of time before they would score so they had no urgency. Then that second goal never came, PNE tightened up, and the match was no longer in Fulham's control.

Once again, the playing conditions were very bad with whipping winds. Fulham has struggled in these matches regularly this season. I remember past years when Fulham struggled in the Championship but seemed to play well in crappy conditions. These conditions are probably an equalizer.

The end scoreline was fair, but PNE scored after TWO different players committed handball fouls. It was a terrible miss by the refs and something that would have been overturned in 5 seconds with VAR. Fulham was lucky Robinson didn't get a red so it wasn't like all the breaks went for PNE. That's life in the Championship.

 

The highlights, which thankfully include the handballs and Robinson's bad tackle since there wasn't much drama when it came to shooting

 

I don’t know what we deserved or didn’t deserve without being able to see the entire match, but I do know this, and Micah is right: one of the two handballs should have negated the PNE goal, regardless of the other key plays in the match. The second handball might have been harsh, as it appeared the defender’s arm was in a mostly natural position, his upper arm straight down, his forearm pressed horizontally across his stomach. But the other…clearly, if unintentionally, away from the body. As I understand the rule, intent is not always a determining factor.
But…and not for the first time in my mind…a PNE defender seals Rodak off in a manner that would’ve made Charlie O’Connell, the old San Francisco Bay Area Bomber roller derby star, proud. Same thing happened to Betts a few seasons ago. A player may not shield the ball if it’s not within playing distance. Thus, for example, if a player stands in front of the goal keeper on a corner kick, then moves to prevent the goalkeeper from getting around them, should be called as impeding. But, as we’ve seen twice now, it’s very subjective, totally in the purview of the referee. They’ve decided on both such occasions that we’re not worthy.

 

Officiating in the EPL: VAR has shown the ball touched the players aura. NO GOAL.

Officiating in the Championship: A GK was obstructed, and two players committed hand ball, including one shouldering it into the net? Oh, well, the ref didn't see it. GOAL.