great result today. Hopefully it gives everyone confidence going into the start of the league season!
Really crappy quality highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyA4f1si ... r_embedded Dempsey looks good.
Dempsey was really the creative force behind AJ's two goals, wasn't he? On the first he strips one Vetra player and gets a great cross in around a second, and on the second goal he plays a really clever ball to put EJ through. And, of course, all credit to EJ for a good setup from there and AJ for two good finishes. (We always score with our Johnson.) (Johnsons? What?) EJ is wearing #21 this year, it seems.
I got off the tube at Putney Bridge into a waterfall of rain. My father, middle son and I started to walk towards Bishops Park along with a healthy crowd of others, especially as we were at the station an hour before kick-off. As we entered the park we struck up a conversation with a guy from New York on his second visit to Craven Cottage. He had been in Paris that morning and was coming over on the off-chance of getting a ticket. We said our goodbyes as we came onto Stevenage Road. By that point we were all fairly wet with our shoes squelching as we walked. We stopeed outside the main gates of the Cottage to read the tributes to Bobby Robson. The club had placed a back and white wreath at the feet of Johnny Haynes. We made our way inside the ground and had a nice cup of tea. I had to give up my jumper as my son was soaked through so I spent the rest of the night in my Fulham shirt. The ground started filling up and we took our seats 10 rows back and half way between the Cottage and centre line in the Johnny Haynes stand. The game started and Fulham were totally dominant, though, for most of the game we lacked any incision in our play. Konchesky worked the flank with Dempsey and ran overlap after overlap but the final cross was often cut out by the first man. Given that it was a qualifier is still felt like a pre-season frendly agains a non-league team. Vetra were very poor. Bobby Z missed a shed load of chances, although AJ blocked one on the line. It wasn't until the second half that Fulham played some football and all that was best came from Dempsey and the pressure he put on the defenders. The back 4 were rarely troubled and Vetra were left with 40 yard shots. The midfieild move the ball around for fun but with no bite to the play. Riise came on for the last 10 minutes, never very easy, but I though he looked lightwieght and the 2 or 3 things he did were not very good. For example, he was put through on goal from a good diagonal ball, but once he bared down on goal he made the wrong choice in trying to flash it acros the face of goal and the execution was poor. It will be intersting to see if he can settle to Premiership football or if he will end up on loan in a lower division to try and get his feet. In many respects it was just too easy for Fulham and so they lacked concentration. 3-0 was not a fair reflection of the game and if we could finish it should have been 7 or 10. Still, it is early doors and the sharpness will come. I hope Zamora can score more this season, his general play is excellent but he is unlucky and often gets it wrong at the vital moment. If anyone can move him forward it will be Roy.
Here is a better video of Andy Johnson's third goal (the one assisted by Eddie and started by Dempsey). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-dH8aYW ... r_embedded
A little dated folks but here are some photos from the game. You can actually see Dickson's goal getting ready to drop into the net. Same caveats...I don't take great photos and this is on Snapfish. http://www1.snapfish.co.uk/thumbnailsha ... napfishuk/
