[Archived] Fulham Preview

[Blue blood]

Brilliant result. That may well kickstart a climb up the table, and puts us in a vastly stronger position in terms of staying up - both in terms of the table and confidence.

Fulham, despite their poor run of late hadn't been playing that badly, so for rovers to keep going till late on, especially with so many injuries, is really encouraging. Robbo, Roberts, Pedersen all showing what they CAN do. If they can only do that on a regular basis...

A few more results like this and we may enjoy the end of the season rather than worry and stress all the time.

[gumboots]

I was trying to stay calm, do the ironing and other jobs but I couldn't. I'm still shaking after hearing that free kick right at the end. Daughter at ground had just one word - YES!!!!!!!!!

[BRFC1995]

just had quick look on toontastic forum, suicidal geodies tonite.................sure a motivation for sam is seeing barcodes go down

[cravenblue]

stoke newcatle and pompey all away this weekend, and arse playing extra time, fingers crossed forsaturday

[RibbleValleyRover]

Still plenty of twists and turns yet you feel, but you can't downplay the significance of this result. Its looking like whether we stay up or not will be in our own hands.

[colin]

F**k me! have we won?

[emerton]

Has made my day!

Great start to the morning - shame it wasn't televised in AUS!

[Tom]

Why do posters make such statements when the game has only just started.?? fantastic result Rovers and to you Big Sam well done. You have made me and so many other true Rovers fans so happy. Well done to our amazing support tonight; you so helped us win.

As I said people can't wait to stick the knife in sometimes almost like they want to be able to say I told you so if we go down.

Massive win now if we can back it up with the upcoming home games we should be ok.

Chuffed for Roberts he deserves it, he may have missed a few but he has put as much effort in as anyone this season and provided us with considerably more than Roque whilst being technically half the player.

[Ossydave]

Well Arsenals players are 'visibly tired out' according to the commentary, suppose every little helps.

[gumboots]

As I said people can't wait to stick the knife in sometimes almost like they want to be able to say I told you so if we go down.

Massive win now if we can back it up with the upcoming home games we should be ok.

Chuffed for Roberts he deserves it, he may have missed a few but he has put as much effort in as anyone this season and provided us with considerably more than Roque whilst being technically half the player.

Highlights on Sky soon so looking forward to that. I had the feeling we'd win tonight, but would never have said so beforehand as I always seem to jinx things if I'm confident.

[alexanders]

Brilliant victory tonight - warnock is my new hero, he fights a lot and saved us x 2 + won the midfield a lot.

Arsenal in ET - might be tired on saturday playing against us. Hoping for a draw there !

I watched the game on telly and I have to say - we had 12 men out there on Craven Cottage, splendid support from the away travellers!

Rovers till I die made my day !

[Dan]

The Roberts goal was Shearer like!

[LDRover]

Ill be delighted if I'm being ripped to pieces for that comment later on TCO.

Good job we got knocked out of the cup though, the free weekend has done wonders for us.

I can be such a pillock sometimes...

Get in rovers!!! A result that, after many false dawns, really could turn the season.

[Tom]

I even said myself at one stage Gumboots that the highlights didn't look worth watching. I'll pretend I didn't say that and was confident all along though

[Blue blood]

It's unsuprisingly le arse's first team out there so either we don't play their strongest team or their players should be more jaded than ours. Hopefully roma will beat them just to knock their moral as well.

Looking at the table, we're only 2 points clear but, we're also only 2 points clear of dragging another couple of teams back into the mix as well. All in all the table is looking a lot more promising, and it is utterly within our own hands now.

[sam_rovers]

Its not a coincidence the minute andrews went off we started playing better. I've never yelled at the TV so much in my life.. great win... feel a lot better about staying up now

[Tango]

Big, big result that and one that, overall, we deserved. The first 10-15 minutes were Harem Scarem stuff as Rovers' defence was all over the place, but we came back stronger toward the end of the half, though the long-ball tactics only yielded a few half chances. Allardyce obviously had it in mind that Gera and Pantsil were weak links on Fulham's right-hand side. I don't think Gera touched the ball during the game but Pantsil seemed solid and not a lot came from all our play down the left apart from the odd corner. Second half we were much better from the off - the ball stayed on the ground for a bit, and Tugay even got some passes to go to his team-mates, with Warnock having a volley brilliantly saved by Schwarzer. Fulham did have a few pacey forays forward on the counter but the balls into the box never found white shirts. Rovers' goal came from a Pedersen throw-in, nodded out and then back in again, Samba's header dropped to Diouf whole couldn't miss from a yard. There was only one winner from then on, Warnock had another volley incredibly saved by Schwarzer - very definitely a contender for "save of the season" - and Roberts also forced Schwarzer into a smart save. The turning point of the game was however, I think, when Aaron Hughes went off injured for Fulham, who had largely had Roberts in his pocket up until then. The winning goal came from some good midfield passing (extremely surprising given the previous 85 minutes) with a lovely ball played in for Roberts who spun Kallio (Hughes' replacement) and smash it past Schwarzer. Bang. He may not be much use in a one-on-on situation, but his strength and running all night were excellent and, if you need someone for an instinctive hit-it-as-hard-as-you-can finish, Roberts is your man. Robinson made a good save in the last few seconds though Nelsen should never have lost the ball to Nevland in the first place. All-in-all a pretty good performance bar the first 15 minutes and a commendable result given that's only Fulham's third home league defeat of the season. Onward and upwards!

[alexanders]

Its not a coincidence the minute andrews went off we started playing better. I've never yelled at the TV so much in my life.. great win... feel a lot better about staying up now

You couldn't focus on praising the effort from our players instead of slathing one of them?

Shameful behaviour.

[sam_rovers]

You couldn't focus on praising the effort from our players instead of slathing one of them?

Shameful behaviour.

I call it as it is... its shameful to support someone/thing blindly

[Blue n White Rover]

Its not a coincidence the minute andrews went off we started playing better. I've never yelled at the TV so much in my life.. great win... feel a lot better about staying up now

Or why not look it at the fact the minute we went to 4-4-2 and bought McCarthy on. Andrews f***in tries every game, he may not be the most gifted and talented player in this football team but give credit to the lad he plays his heart out for us.

Give him a break FFS and enjoy the victory.

Always someone who has to mention him or Robinson.

[The Rover of Finland]

Kallio is not CD. Hughes´s injury made a big deal for Rovers. But don´t we really have a better man take free kicks than EHD or Benni?

[Tom]

And just for the hell of it

1 Man Utd 27 12 1 0 30 5 8 4 2 18 7 36 65

2 Chelsea 28 7 5 2 23 8 10 2 2 25 8 32 58

3 Liverpool 28 8 6 0 22 8 8 4 2 23 12 25 58

4 Aston Villa 28 5 7 2 20 15 10 0 4 22 14 13 52

5 Arsenal 28 7 5 2 18 11 6 5 3 23 15 15 49

6 Everton 28 5 5 4 20 16 7 4 3 16 12 8 45

7 West Ham 28 7 1 6 19 17 4 5 5 15 17 0 39

8 Man City 28 9 0 5 30 12 1 5 8 15 24 9 35

9 Wigan 28 6 4 4 13 12 3 4 7 14 15 0 35

10 Fulham 28 8 3 3 22 12 0 7 7 3 13 0 34

11 Bolton 28 6 2 6 14 15 4 1 9 16 25 -10 33

12 Tottenham 28 5 5 4 15 9 3 3 8 18 24 0 32

13 Sunderland 28 5 3 6 16 16 3 5 6 12 20 -8 32

14 Hull 28 3 3 8 15 29 5 5 4 19 21 -16 32

15 Blackburn 28 3 5 6 15 21 4 4 6 17 23 -12 30

16 Stoke 28 7 4 3 17 13 0 4 10 10 31 -17 29

17 Newcastle 28 4 6 4 20 22 2 4 8 14 23 -11 28

18 Portsmouth 27 5 2 7 18 22 2 5 6 11 22 -15 28

19 Middlesbrough 28 4 6 4 12 15 2 2 10 8 25 -20 26

20 West Brom 28 5 2 7 19 27 1 2 11 6 27 -29 22

[OhmiBRFC]

Just spoke to a mate who went (no coach tickets left when I went down yesterday) he said the atmosphere was awesome and lots of hugging to randomers again like there was against Hull!

I think we'll stay up now, finally out of the dreaded bottom 3 now. Bring on Arsenal!

[Paul Mellelieu]

Did we have a good following for tonight's game?

[savage8]

Brilliant picture of Roberts on the Beeb