Fulham V Wigan

A win is a win, but I still cringed when the possession stat was shown just before Dempsey's goal. 75-25 to Wigan? WTF?

 

So glad to be back home in the FUSA chat...man that was fun! And three sloppy points away is still three points! See y'all next week!

 

That Possesion stat kept me on the edge until Dembele's goal. Kept thinking with that amount of posession it was only a matter of time till Wigan got on the board. But I'm happy to take all three away in a very Fulhamish win.

 

Thanks Heather for posting the highlights. So glad to look at the table and see the team lumped in that group close to the top 10 and further away from the bottom.

 

My dad always says that in sports it's better to be lucky than good and that was certainly true of this match. It's hard to get too excited about beating a team on a 6 match losing streak- but then again, believe it or not, we hadn't won at Wigan in 5 matches and with our away form in general 3 points from anyone is reason to be ecstatic.

Schwarzer looked better than he has recently, but we could've walked away with only a point if not for the woodwork. Obviously, Wigan dominated the possession, but they don't have a great finisher, came up against a keeper that played well and had some bad luck. I think there were a few positive takeaways from this one other than an away win, though.

We scored twice against the run of play and once on the counter. Neither of those happen too often, to say the least.

Overall, it was a pretty ho-hum game, but both goals came from moments of brilliance.

1) As much criticism as Captain Danny gets, his pass to set up Dempsey's goal was brilliant, Zamora's run to get it was equally good and his choice to flick it to Dempsey rather than take a decently free shot from a poor angle turned out to be just right. Not to mention a good finish by Dempsey, of course. Excellent team play.

2) As much as the first goal was a product of great team play, the second was great individual play and Dembele at his finest, weaving through defenders and unleashing a calm, collected finish under pressure.

Yes, it's Wigan- but it's nice to look at the scoreboard and see an emphatic win in a game you were outplayed overall. Hopefully, this will build up confidence and the boys can get some revenge against Krakow and beat Spurs on the weekend. After that there'll be two weeks of rest to hopefully get everyone fit.

~ Steve

 

Just wanted to mention that Dempsey's goal was his 36th in the premier league. He is now tied with the inimitable Brian McBride for the most goals ever by an American in the top flight English football. Well done Deuce!

 

A great result for the Mighty Whites(loved the kit btw)! Futbol is about results. Although we had stretches where our passing game was on, we mostly frustrated Wigan's disjointed attack with some help from the posts. Clint continues to show his amazing ability to be in the right place at the right time, not just on his goal but at other times throughout the match. Now let's put a boot in the spurs!!!