Fulham Preview

[Alan75]

Preview by Eddie

For a first home game of the season we face a Fulham side that has changed little during the transfer window from the side that we played in our last game of the 2003-2004 season. Apart from losing perhaps their best, if not certainly one of their most influential players, they have had a few relatively minor comings and goings. Perhaps the one piece of good news is that this year we need not fear the chance of Andrew Cole scoring a goal against his old club.

Our encounters will Fulham over the past few seasons seem to have always turned out to be significant, and are almost always good indicators of the state of our season. Just last year our 2-0 away win was the turning point in our fight against relegation, the time when Souey’s Sissys turned into Hughes’ Heroes. While our emphatic 4-0 win at Craven Cottage a couple of seasons ago was when Souness’ side perhaps reached its greatest point, and the only game any of us will remember Hakan Suker for.

In many ways though, our clubs are the total opposites of one another. Though we can both consider ourselves to be two of the smaller sides in the division, based on fan base, stadium and media coverage, they are the flashy Londoners and we are the unassuming boys from Lancashire. When promoted they claimed that they would soon be challenging the likes of Manchester United for the title, we just hoped that we would stay up. Harrods United have always been the slick team, nice to look at but never quite fulfil either the potential or the hype. We go about our business and no one really cares, apart from when we’ve done something horrible like upset an arrogant Portuguese man.

Hopefully this season we can continue to separate ourselves from the likes of Fulham, teams who are exactly what the media and the rest of the Premiership would like them to be. We may not always be pretty, nor pack the stadium, but hopefully this year we will see a continuation of what we achieved last term, and that would include getting results.

See fans views and predictions HERE