Fulham at Bristol City

Fulham travel west to face Bristol City on Saturday. Bristol City has just one win versus a team in the top 10 this season. Sadly that win came at Craven Cottage back in early December when they defeated Fulham 2-1. You might remember that loss as the match where Fulham earned 6 yellows - 4 of them in injury time after Fulham was denied a clear PK when Kebano was tripped in the box. That loss was the first of three consecutive loses for Fulham - the only time so far this season that Fulham suffered back-to-back defeats.

Bristol comes into this match having lost three in a row followed by a draw at Millwall last weekend. It is hard to tell if this is a significant downturn for Bristol since two of those three losses came against Leeds and West Brom, which could be understood, but the last loss was against struggling Huddersfield.

If Fulham wants to have a realistic shot at automatic promotion they will likely need to win eight of the remaining 10 matches. This is a match Fulham needs to find a way to win if they want to keep the pressure on Leeds and West Brom while also holding Nottingham Forest at bay.

Joe Bryan will likely not play but Parker says his injury "isn't so bad".

 

doubt we get much help from Huddersfield this weekend, but maybe Swansea can help just a bit. Oh, and Fulham secure 3.

 

Millwall did Fulham a favor and beat Nottingham Forest today. We all owe thanks to former Fulhamite Matt Smith and his hat trick (done in the span of 13 minutes!) for giving Fulham a shot at getting six points in front of fourth place this weekend.

 

Frustrating first half. We should have a goal by now.

 

@stlouisbrad Speaking of frustrating, I was awake and downstairs at 5:30, but had forgotten Fulham was the early match until the 86th minute. Missed Cairney’s equalizer, but saw the lads push hard for the winner. Thought Reid should’ve been slightly quicker on his shot (slick buildup). Also, I realize the ref was directly behnd the play and unable to see the contact, but it was close to a pk when the GK cross-checked the Captain at the very end.

 

Most of the game ended up being frustrating. Definitely deserved a point and I would say all three but we had trouble creating a lot of opportunities in the final 3rd. I thought we might get the winner late. We were away to a team fighting to get into the playoffs so I guess not a bad result. Pic of my hi-tech set up to get the game on the telly from the computer.

 

Yeah that was very close to being a PK, I guess they gave the Keeper the benefit of the doubt.

 

Two points dropped. We were clearly the better side and generated enough quality scoring chances to get more than one. Cordova-Reid has got to start cashing in the chances he gets. He seems to either hit them too close or right at the keeper, or miss them by the slightest of margins. There’s got to be a drill for that. Somebody besides Mitro needs to step up and be that reliable second scoring threat. The chances will come because everybody knows we’re going to Mitro any way we can. That means chances for other guys if they’ll
just bloody take and make them. Cairney saved our butts today, but he shouldn’t have had to. When you play well enough to win on the road but don’t, that hurts. There’s got to be a five goal laugher in our favor just on the horizon. I feel it.

 

Nine minutes of highlights from Bristol City. (and despite being from the opposition there is a lot of Fulham on the ball, a fair reflection from the match)


Leeds cruised by Huddersfield, but West Brom drew with Swansea so Fulham lost only a point on second place (5 points to 6 points) as Leeds moved to the top.

I will have to disagree with the fine gentleman from South Texas on this one. On average second place teams in this millennium have earned 88 points. Fulham would need eight wins over the remaining nine matches to get to 88 points. The third place team has on average earned 83 points, so you could argue that is a realistic low target for automatic promotion. Getting wins at home and draws away over the remaining matches would see Fulham at 81 points, just shy of that lower bar.

With only six points separation, things could still turn quickly if things break the right way, but the easier schedule for West Brom and Leeds combined with their superior goal differential makes me think that the hill is a little too steep to climb at this point. Fulham is probably headed to the playoffs, so making a good showing against likely playoff qualifier Brentford this week will be an important statement.

I should note that 3 on the road and 1 at home in the playoffs gets you to Wembley so maybe that IS where Don wants to be!