Fulham v. Bolton

Like many...I was very upset throughout the course of the match wondering when the hell we were ever going to score another goal. I remember a point in the season when only Arsenal had scored more goals than our beloved Whites. Wow, does that seem like a long time ago.

But then again, as the game wore on I was encouraged by the fact that the game yesterday is the type of game we usually lose 2-0 or 3-0. We had no business getting a draw but got ourself a much needed result and kept Bolton from picking up two extra points. We actually moved closer to getting clear of relegation!

So as the ever optomistic Cubs fan on the site stay positive...it could have been much worse. Did you all really expect us to win away before our strikers arrived and in Andreason's and Hangeland's debuts? I was hopefull but not at all expecting it.

I was extremely encouraged by our new additions...Andreason had the best chance of the whole damn game and nearly stole us three points!!! Hangeland is a giant and even headed a ball out of the area after being punched in the head by that goofy Finn Niemi.

So bring on the strikers and give us three points against Villa...

COYW!!!

 

I thought of a positive. I could hear the Fulham fans loud and clear, and was able to smile. Way to go Mike!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hopefully he goes back to Northern Ireland. I’ll cross my fingers that he takes Chris Baird with him.

 

Not necessarily. All last night implies is that Hodgson doesn’t fancy Healy as a lone striker upfront and with that said, I completely agree. Healy is a poacher and needs a big/aerial striker working next to him, ala McBride.

If we do get Cousin, McBride gets fit and when Kamara gets back from the ACN it leaves us with the following options upfront.

Kamara
Healy
McBride
Cousin
Nevland
Johnson

 

Our fans were in very good voice last night and I really enjoy these mid-week away matches because they come with alot of camraderie.

Even Billy the Badger made it up there!

 

After re-thinking a little, Andreason was probably better than I initially gave him credit for. I think my opinion was swayed too heavily by those couple of bad fouls, which I allowed to overshadow an otherwise fairly tidy debut.

 

I did see the "We Are Fulham" flag draped across some empty seats too...very nice!

 

Yaaaaaaawwwwwnnnnnnn.....


That is what I thought of that game. I was kind of hoping Bolton would score so that the formation would have to change and we would see something created on the attack.

As said - a point now away is at least a move in the right direction.

 

Thought he was very good in the first half, but dropped a bit as the game went on. He hadn't played a whole lot this season, and the Bundesliga is on winter break, so he might need to build up his stamina. He does occasionally make bad challenges, but he's not nearly as bad as Michael Brown.

 

I think a draw is practically meaningless for us right now. Fulham are great at earning draws. We have 10 draws in 24 league matches this season....and we're in 19th place, 4 points below 18th. We need to WIN. And if Bolton is not one of our winnable games, what is??? I think it's really depressing that we didn't even give it a go. Look at the remaining schedule. Practically every beatable team we play will be on the road. If we're content to draw those matches, we will be relegated.

I would rather Fulham lose a match that they gave themselves a chance to win. At least that way they would go down with a fight.

Once again, sorry to be such a downer, but facts are facts.

 

Most of what you said was actually opinion but it was a safe game by Fulham to get the safe result. They just needed something and they got it. If Roy didn't get a result can you imagine what we would be writing today???

If I were a Bolton supporter I would be flipping a shit right now that we drew at home against FULHAM!?!?!? Especially since it looked as if Bolton pushing hard for a goal towards the end of the game. So based on how Bolton reacted to our tactics...a draw was a good result.

Now I understand that drawing games like that in the future won't be good, but you have to learn to walk before you can run...and Eddie Johnson can run.

COYW!!!

 

Well, yes, I just meant that as a manner of speech, as if to say, "I don't see how one can see it any other way."

If they had played for the win and ended up losing, I would have been less angry than I was. If we draw every match for the rest of the year, will you be happy? Probably not. Because we'll finish with 30 points and every team to finish with 30 points in the history of the Premiership has been relegated (I looked it up!). :wink:

As far as I see it, the following games are realistically winnable:
Boro (A)
West Ham (H) - and that's optimistic, given our form and theirs
Newcastle (A) - optimistic
Derby (A)
Sunderland (H)
Reading (A)
Birmingham (H)

That's it. Seven matches. Say we get hot and win four of them and draw another two (again, I'm being optimistic), that's 14 points. Then let's allow for 3 more draws and a shock win in our other seven matches: 6 more points. That means if everything breaks Fulham's way, we can expect 20 more points this season, which would leave us with 36 points on the season. Only two Premiership teams have ever escaped relegation with 36 points or fewer: West Brom in 2004-05 and Bradford City in 1999-2000.

So SOMEWHERE we're going to need to pick up extra points and I think it's very, very foolish to play for a draw against Bolton.

 

Roy and everybody at Fulham knows this, but you can't go for it if you don't have players who can actually get it done. Fulham had three offensive choices in Dempsey, Healy, and Bouazza. Dempsey and Healy have shown they can't get it done together.

You also want to integrate Hangeland and Andreasen into the side, and give them some confidence.

Getting a point was a must from this game. Once the strikers are in, than Fulham can go for broke and hope for the best. With starting new players to the EPL and not having any Prem quality strikers Roy probably made the right decision to go for the clean sheet.

 

Spot on...Bolton are one of the better sides in the relegation battle. They're still playing in Europe, and probably should have beaten us. A draw away is not a bad result for us, especially with no striker options and Hodgson being forced to play a 4-6-0.

I actually feel a lot better about our chances now. Hangeland looks like he might be one of the best signings by any team...between him, the rest of the signings, and all of the players coming back from injury, we'll be a much better team.

 

We didn't lose, which might be a start. But honestly we are terrible. We're like Sunderland were two seasons ago, like Watford was last year. I kept hoping we'd nick it but we had no ideas, no talent, no speed, nothing to go forward with. Just all around awful. Were Anleka or Diouf playing we'd certainly have lost.

In an attempt to salvage something......
-Its good to see Bullard play nearly the whole match
-Hageland was the best player on the pitch

 

Psssst... Anelka plays for Chelsea now. Just so you know. :wink:

 

I like the attention to detail!!! I was just giving you a hard time nman :wink:

 

Roy's no slouch. I have full confidence in him. He knows that you can't win if you can't stop the other team from scoring. We've had a whopping 2 clean sheets until last night so it's good to see the lads cling on for that point. The goals will come...we have a bunch of new strikers coming in so have some faith in our lads and in Roy.

 

I dont mean to jump on the pig-pile, but have you seen Derby play??

 

Positives:
- we passed better, and this started to look like the Tigana era;
- WE actually had the luck of the ball not going into the net;
- Roy's signings don't look horrid;
- the TV commentators were actually pretty fair to us;
- we kept possession;
- ok, ok, Baird WASN'T the antichrist last night!
- we didn't just thump the ball.

Negatives:
- there is no pace;
- there were no strikers out there (yeah, Dempsey was playing up front, but the 4-5-1 requires someone who can go it alone; this is heresy, but Dempsey just can't)
- Roy seemed to be playing for the draw the whole match;
- any possible counter-attack was immediately shut down BY OUR OWN PLAYERS PASSING THE BALL BACK!

If this were two months ago, I'd have been totally satisfied, but time is NOT on our side. I would have like to see some desire to take all three points, rather than passing the ball around and look for the perfect opportunity. Our shots were few and far between.

Let's get three points on Sunday!!