Fulham vs Ipswich Town

Back at the Cottage to start 2018 against the Tractor Boys. The first team's New Year's resolution should be to improve their home form to something closer to normal. It's no secret that our away form has been superior for the better part of two seasons now. There are any number of reasons for that, but to earn promotion and stay there, we have to start taking care of business at Stevenage Road. Ipswich are almost our mirror image, results wise, which would explain why they're one spot ahead of us in the table. We're starting to get into the rematches now that we've passed the halfway point of the season, so it's easy to forget we got our first win of this campaign against them in August on goals from Kebano and Rui Fonte, plus a clean sheet with Button between the pipes. They were second at the time, but things have evened out and now, all things being equal, we should beat them at home. Which, of course, probably means we'll struggle. Or maybe not. As we've learned, nothing is as it appears on paper in this league. Mick McCarthy's still in charge there. The last two have seen them get a goalless draw with QPR and a 2-1 loss to Derby County, both at home. What's that mean for us? Probably nothing, except we need to play better than we did at Hull to get a result. Which we should get. Happy New Year everyone!

 

Earn 3 points this afternoon and it will be 10 out of 12 points in the past 10 days and w/a little help from Wolves (at home versus Brentford), back into the Top 10 and clumped in w/the group currently battling for 5th & 6th. COYW

 

Some changes to the lineup today:

Bettinelli
Fredericks, Odoi, Ream, Sessegnon
Norwood, Johansen, Cairney
Ojo, Kamara, Ayite

Subs: Button, Kalas, Soares, McDonald, Piazon, Kebano, Fonte

Odoi moves over to CB instead of Kalas, Sessegnon moves back to LB, Norwood replaces McDonald, Kamara starts up front instead of Sessegnon. Can't say that I can argue with any of that given what we saw against Hull. Hopefully it works well enough to get the double over Ipswich.

 

Holy Cow. I get up to run to the kitchen, chat along the way, and bam 4-1! Wish I was watching this one.

 

Just what I was thinking.

 

I had a similar experience. I had to run my son over to a friend's house. I left at 64 minutes. I complained on the drive over that Fulham was dominating but couldn't score and I felt like they were going to lose. Ten minutes later I'm back home and Fulham is up 3-1! Then just as I start listening again it is 4-1!!!

 

Highlights from Ipswich Town:


Since September I've been looking forward to the January transfer window so that we could get a striker. Yet with scoring an average of 3 goals a match over the past four I wonder now if we might be better served by another option at LB so Jokanovic has more options with how to play Sessegnon. I also think another option at CB or possibly a defensive mid-fielder to help shore up the defense would be good. I know this goal scoring pace is not sustainable, but I'm no longer sure that a quality striker is the one missing link.