Fulham at QPR

Fulham takes the short trip to visit QPR Saturday. The match starts at 10am EDT (England is now on daylight savings time along with us) and will be available on FFCTV.

Fulham had a number of players on international duty, but they should be in good shape coming into the match. Robinson played the full 90 in all three of the USA matches so I'm most worried about him. Wilson and Williams both featured for Wales earlier in the break, but were unused subs in their last non-competitive match. Silva should have a pretty full roster to choose from.

OPR has been on a dreadful run recently that has put them in danger of missing out on the playoffs. They most recently lost at home to lowly Peterborough. They are two points out of the playoffs in 8th place. Things are incredibly tight for the playoff spots - the third place team (Luton) and the tenth place team (Millwall) are only separated by 6 points. Only half of those teams are going to make it to the playoffs, but all of them have a good shot at making it. QPR will need to be better in April than they were in March, and that starts with Fulham.

For Fulham the stakes aren't nearly as high. Fulham didn't look great in the draw against Barnsley or the loss to West Brom, but Fulham has almost always bounced back from a loss with a win in the following match. Fulham handled QPR 4-1 after that embarassing loss against Coventry, so lets look for Fulham to bounce back against their London rivals again.

 

Gotta love a ‘true’ Derby match. Atmosphere at the HaHa’s bandbox should be electric.

 

Some of this on the weekend: COYW!!!

https://www.premierleague.com/video/single/482580?TAG=On this Day

 

We've been a bit Jekyll and Hyde-ish between international breaks this season, mostly Jeykll, although, to be fair, none of them have been too bad, else we wouldn't be 8 points clear at the top. Micah, I share your opinion about Antonee. It's a shame, really, that we'll probably have to do without him for this one. There is one thing in our favor: he's a whopping 24 years old. Still, I think you sit him for this one. Too soon. Three solid 90 minute shifts for our country, though. Fair trade. I didn't keep up with too many of our other internationals, but I assume they're all OK and available. Looks like Mitro played the full 90 against Hungary on 3/24, and was subbed out in the 62nd minute versus the Danes on 3/29 in Serbia's friendlies, so he should be good to go. I'm hoping we reel off four or five wins in a row and put this thing to bed. No more breaks between now and the season ender May 7th at Bramall Lane. Nine matches to win promotion, including two reverse home fixtures that we should do better than the first go around: Coventry City and Luton Town. But, as we all know, this is the Championship. No mail-ins. You have to go out there and win it on the pitch. What's the magic number?

 

What a fun team that one was to watch.

 

Dang! I missed this one. Will have to find the highlights.

If my math is correct, we could clinch promotion after two more matches if we win them and other results go in our favor. I admit I'm already counting my chickens and wondering what the club is planning to do to prepare for the Prem in the offseason. I hope the brass learned from the last two experiences, and that we find a Goldilocks approach to the transfer window and the preseason this time.

 

Fulham currently has 80 points. Maximum possible points for teams that could pass us for automatic promotion:

Huddersfield 84
Luton 85
Middlesbrough 86
Blackburn 80
Nottingham Forest 88

And that's assuming they win all remaining games. So ... 3 wins and we don't care what anyone else does!

 

Finally, highlights!

 

Nice to see we got a comprehensive win. My kid's team got thumped this morning. So this improved my mood.

 

One thing the highlights missed was the best shot of the day! And it came from Joe Bryan! There was Fulham corner (I think) and the ball was cleared outside the box. Bryan took the ball down with his chest and then hit this delicious volley that forced the QPR keeper to make a very good save. It was a pity that it didn't go in.

The penalty was pretty soft. Yes the players arm was not tight against his body, but it didn't change his silhouette from the perspective of the ball. However, the ref was looking at it from a different angle so he may have thought the arm swung out beyond his body. It did feel like a bit of karma since this was the same ref who made the terrible penalty call against Fulham in the Coventry match. Fulham has had plenty of bad penalty decisions go against them, so this one was due.

Despite the relatively narrow scoreline, Fulham seemed in control of this match for most of the 90 minutes. There were a few sloppy passes that put Fulham into trouble but generally they were solid. The back line and midfield did a particularly good job of dealing with QPR's high press - something that Fulham hasn't always done well this season. Fulham also did a great job of putting on their own press and preventing QPR getting much going. My man of the match would be Harrison Reed. I thought he did a great job of clogging up the middle when QPR had the ball and he prevented them from getting comfortable in the Fulham half. The whole back line did really well and they all deserve recognition for the hard work that doesn't get the glory of a highlight reel!

One thing that also struck me was the enthusiasm of Seri when he came on as a late sub. Silva has done a great job of getting him to play for Fulham even if it isn't in a starting position on a top-tier team.