[Archived] Fulham Preview

[ebenrocks]

what a game. First half i thought we had an absolute shocker, but in the second we OWNED it.

Robinson - 8

thought he had a really decent game considering he had just come back from injury... im abit of a robinson critic but i was pleased with his performance today (especially the last second save!)

Ooijer - 7 (Loved the Hallelujah/Andre Ooijer song by the way)

did as well as Andre always does, put in some good tackles but did get a little bogged down under pressure a couple of times.

Samba - 9

Super Samba. fantastic performance i thought. Messed up once, but on the whole another brilliant performance from the big man. Won every header and was keeping good order in defence. Samba has become one of the vital members of our team. Amazing that hughes got someone of his quality for £350,000.

Nelsen - 4

Sorry but he very nearly lost it for us today. Stupid mistake which gifted Fulham the opening goal and his mistake at the end could have cost us a massive 3 points. Not impressed.

Givet - 7

I really hope we can keep hold of Gael in the summer. I think he is a very very good player who keeps a fantastic hold on the left. Takes a good throw in too. Would be a big shame if we missed out on him imo.

Diouf - 10

DIIIIIIOOOOUUFFFFFFman of the match for me. Worked harder than any player on the pitch and inspired our fight back. I've been a bit scathing about diouf in the past, but im converted. absolutly fantastic. If he can play like that for the rest of the season we'll have no worries staying up. Fulham couldnt deal with his strength. What a buy by big sam.

Andrews - 5

To be honest i didnt really notice him doing anything. He fell over once... thats about all i remember

Tugay - 7

Not bad, spread play well and put in some good passes. Was showing his age though and missed out on a few tackles coz he couldnt keep pace.

Warnock - 6

I though Warnock had a bit of a shocker today. Wasnt impressed. Gave the ball away too many times, balls to nowhere. Good shot to hit the post but all in all a pretty terrible performance from him, especially in th first half

Pedersen - 8

A really good game from peds i though. Put in some good crosses and got away from his man really well on the wing. Was impressed, one of hs best performances of the season.

Roberts - 7

Took his goal well but in the first half he was awful. i was tearing my hair out over his mistakes. Secong half much better and used his strength well in the box.

Really really good game. Rovers did us all proud tonight

[American]

It's 2004-05 all over again!!!! Only thing missing was Johnny Stead!!!!!!!!

And the next match was against one of the big 4 and we won 1-0....

What a match and what an atmosphere. Even the old man next to us, the only one in our area sitting in the first half, was up on his feet jumping up and down during the second half.

Guy next to me was complaining that we were running the ball into the corner and "that never works" but I reminded him of City and he might have seen the light!

[martmitch]

watched this on an unfortunately chinese speaking stream, was horrified to see us 1 down by the time I had got the ruddy thing going, some right mickey mouse defending from the replay I saw, apart from that defense were pretty solid albeit with a few 'holy sh*t they must score' moments, givet is class I really hope we keep him. They didnt take their chances in the first half, neither did we. I swear every corner I've seen diouf take recently it goes straight to the keeper, this is over the hull game, everton and today pretty much every time straight to keeper, also thought we were just hoofing it long ball too much especially in the first half.

Now the positives - hats off to warnock 3 strikes from the top drawer, a post, a comfortable save and an excellent save denied him at least one deserved goal, looking at home in midfield with givet at left back, at least helps our midfield problem. The turning point for me was sam bringing on mccarthy for andrews and going 4-4-2 EARLY in the second half not waiting until the game was nearly over to shake things up, that was the difference for me. For once we can thank the offside rules player active/inactive rules as without it diouf would have been given offside when the initial ball was played, was definitely onside when samba squared it for him, didnt see any fulham defenders protesting either, and roberts... great finish, really used his strength to hold and turn his man, powering the ball in, dare I say hes made up for missing that sitter against everton, just a few more to go jason!

So pleased we walked away with all 3 points, really thrown us a survival lifeline, up the rovers!

[grizfoot]

Just watched the full game on Sky. Brillian result and a good performance. How unlucky was Warnock not to score, three superbly struck shots.

Fair play to Jason Roberts, been criticised in the past but that finish tonight was infatic.

Looks real good looking at the league table for once, the dizzy heights of 15th.

If tonight's performance is anything to go by we could give Arsenal a real game this weekend, they looked poor against Roma and had to endure extra time.

[bubblerrovers]

Just got back from the game, A BIG WELL DONE to the fans, never stopped singing even after we went one nil down we out sang the fulham fans throught, great atmosphere

[greco]

unfortunately i didnt have the the time to watch the game today, so does anyone know, where i can watch some highlights of the game..?

[broadsword]

I'm so hyped I could rip the arch out of Wembley.

Have some of that!

[tony gale's mic]

There's no way we're going down this season. Not a chance.

I was revising for my finals in the library during the game and following the match on the bbc website/texting my friend. After we equalised I texted him with "I bet Roberts is going to f**k up a chance in the final minute"...imagine my delight when I was proved completely wrong!

[Majiball]

What a night!, proper roller coaster ride.

Next stop 3 points at the emirates, its high time I won my on going bet with a mate.

[Harry Balls]

First ever away game for me and it honestly felt llike a home game! Outnumbered 10-1, we still managed to out-sing them for the vast majority of the game. Pats on backs all around guys!!! Amazing atmosphere and an amazing result.

Was delighted to see the players rush over to the Putney stand at the end of the game. Just shows they really do care about the fans and we really can make a difference.

Will be at the Arse on saturday, so lets hope we can recreate todays atmosphere then too...

By the way, Givet is a class act. Hope to god we can hold onto him.

[SouthAussieRover]

Get in there.

Won myself $50 too

[Drunx2002]

Just back.

Big shout out to all the fans there this evening.

Superb support all the way through. If we didn't drag the team back into the 2nd half I'm not sure what else did!

[ThatRabbitsDynamite]

Definitely feels good to come home from work and see that we have won and pulled ourselves out of relegation. Now let's just keep out of that relegation zone and work on trying to climb the table even more.

I resemble that remark! I can only dream about being in attendance for such an emotional match. It must have been delightful.

[waynerovers]

just got home from a good night out, we were one nil down when i left home, cant descibe how good it feels to come home and found that we won, so so happy, up the rovers

[tonyoz]

Fair assessment by Hodgson on the bbc:

"I've got to say I thought Blackburn played with a lot of energy. We were struggling to match that energy.

"There have been a lot of games for us recently and players are beginning to look tired.

"They've played the long-ball game very well and forced us back.

"I can't say they didn't deserve to win the game, I can't say that we did enough to win it. We lacked a bit of energy but the lads put up a brave performance.

"We simply met a Blackburn team with more energy than us, more strength than us and as a result they were able to get the three points which were so vital for them. We'll just have to wait for ours."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/e...rem/7922053.stm

[Poita]

Anyone come across a link for the match highlights yet?

[Iceman]

Now iccers doesnt give a crap about all this long ball rubbish. If it wins us matches and we avoid the drop, then im happy. Hopefully the gooners are tired after going to penalties. I reckon 39 points might well keep us up, but its been a crazy season. This drama is not good for the health hey Mrs Gumboots and Roversmum lol

[neekoy]

Now iccers doesnt give a crap about all this long ball rubbish. If it wins us matches and we avoid the drop, then im happy. Hopefully the gooners are tired after going to penalties. I reckon 39 points might well keep us up, but its been a crazy season. This drama is not good for the health hey Mrs Gumboots and Roversmum lol

Who is iccers?

Great win

[gumboots]

Now iccers doesnt give a crap about all this long ball rubbish. If it wins us matches and we avoid the drop, then im happy. Hopefully the gooners are tired after going to penalties. I reckon 39 points might well keep us up, but its been a crazy season. This drama is not good for the health hey Mrs Gumboots and Roversmum lol

No it's definitely not. My nerves were jangling from the moment we equalised because my daughter texted saying "If we lose this now..." and i was hoping so hard I could hardly breathe. It took me ages to calm down after the match. I even stayed up to watch the full highlights even though I got only 5 hours sleep before going to work for a 12 hour day. Who cares though? It was great!!!

[Cocker]

Who is iccers?

Great win

Start talking about yourself in the third person and give yourself a nickname and your there

Great result last night. When Sam spent most of yesterday banging on about we must not lose and a draw will be alright I was a little worried. I got even more worried when we were drawing and he brings on Mokoena to help things.

Thankfully it was a happy ending for all

[Ossydave]

For all those who say the players don't care, you should have seen them rush to the Putney Stand after the game to acknowledge us. Diouf and Nelsen threw their tops in and Robinson chucked his gloves.

Diouf did against Hull too, quickly becoming a fans favourite despite all the moaning from some quarters when he signed

[jim mk2]

Suddenly the world seems a better place but we're still on a knife-edge and defeat at Stoke and we're back in the mire.

[Paul Mellelieu]

unfortunately i didnt have the the time to watch the game today, so does anyone know, where i can watch some highlights of the game..?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/premier.league.goals

[MCMC1875]

WHERE'S WAGGY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Parsonblue]

A great second half fight back by the team. I thought that Big Sam acted quickly in the second half to change things around and once we took Andrews off and went to 4-4-2 we completely dominated the game. Diouf and Givet both looked class acts tonight. Givet was rock solid on the left while Diouf caused all sorts of problems once he was moved to the right wing after Andrews had departed. However, for me the man of the match was Stephen Warnock. But for some brilliant goalkeeping he could have had a hat-trick and his block on Johnson was crucial as it prevented us from going two down. He was full of running in midfield and helped Tugay to link the play much better than I have seen him do so before in this position.

The support tonight was fantastic. The fact that seven official coaches went down shows that free transport makes a major difference. Usually, at Fulham, we take one coach. Indeed, for the past couple of seasons we've been reduced to just one or two coaches for most London games. Hopefully the club will do free transport again this season - Stoke would be good - as the extra backing certainly seemed to make a difference.

I think tonight also showed the difference it makes having an experienced manager in charge who can adapt his tactics accordingly. When plan A didn't work, Sam had a plan B that did. This is something that we didn't see under the previous management and the reason why we now have a chance of Premiership survival.