v Fulham (a) - 5/3/22

[Proudtobeblue&white]

Got tickets for the game. An old school friend from Blackburn has lived for many years in the capital and is putting me up, and has kind of adopted Fulham as his team. I suppose Fulham is one of the smaller capital clubs, and has a family feel. New ground for me, in the away end, hope we have a good following despite being on the telly.

Ground:

Fulham St Andrew's was originally a church team, and had a few grounds before, in 1894, they leased land in grounds of the building Craven Cottage. Whilst the ground was being built, they moved again, before settling at their current home in 1896.

The cottage itself, had been around since 1780, built by Baron Craven, amid woods that formed part of Anne Boleyn's hunting grounds. By the time it opened, it could hold 50,000 spectators, although there were no stands! When one was finally built it was known as the "rabbit hutch". Their highest attendance, 49,335 v Millwall 8th October 1938.

The new Riverside development is still under construction, but is due to be ready for their return to the PL (no doubt they will win the Championship this year). Look's a fairly impressive new addition to the ground and will boost the capacity up to 30,000. See below.

We are in the Putney End Stand, and normally away supporters are allocated 1,600 tickets whilst the building work ends.

The rest of that stand is usually designated for "neutrals", which is a novel concept.

A few stats:

Head to head, we have played each other 94 times in league and cup, Rovers winning 38 times, draws 25, losing 31 times. First game against Saturday's opponents was in the FA Cup 8th January 1921 at Ewood, drawn 1-1, before we lost 1-0 in the replay five days later.

I will gloss over the last time we met on the 3rd November 2021, as an aberration. I hope that we can at least prove we are better than that!

Fulham's current record shows their Championship topping credentials:

P 33 W21 D7 L5 For 82 A29 GD53 Pts 70

Of course, whilst our talisman marksman will not be available, Mitrovic is scoring for fun for Fulham. I think it's damage limitation, and who wouldn't take a point right now?

Players/connections common to both clubs:

Tom Cairney, of course.

Andy Cole

Ian Pearce

I refuse to recognise Murphy

Ray Harford

Damian Duff

Mark Hughes

Shefki Kuqi

Billy McKinley

Chris Coleman

Watering holes:

The Crabtree on Rainville Road is highly recommended.

The Temperence on Fulham High Road welcomes away fans. The Kings Arms is opposite.

The White Horse at Parsons Green is a smashing boozer.

2000/1:

This was the year under Souness, when we gained promotion back to the PL, finishing second behind Fulham. They ran away with it finishing on 101 points to our 91. Now I'm not trying to tempt fate, but following the Fulham game we have three consecutive home games. Rumours yesterday BD on the bench Saturday...would be a boost. Sky saying BBD not back till April?

Matt Jansen grabbed 23 as our top scorer. We were given special dispensation to wear a different kit against Wolves to celebrate our 125th anniversary, and Dunny became the first player in our history to score a hat-trick of penalties in a game in the match against Rochdale in the Worthington Cup. It was also the season we demolished the old enemy 5-0 at Ewood.

Still a chance we could dream after yesterday's result....?

To all those going, let's hope we have a grand day out, whatever, let's hope it's not as embarrassing as last time.

 

 

[chaddyrovers]

great preview. 

Why change a winning team. I would stick with the same team 

Didn't Tony Gale play for Fulham before his time at West Ham then joined Rovers?

[Stonesrick]

Excellent preview Proud.

The usual watering hole for away supporters is The Eight Bells outside Putney tube station.

Edited February 27, 2022 by Stonesrick

[Proudtobeblue&white]

Can't get my images of the new stand to stick!

[Proudtobeblue&white]

5 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

great preview. 

Why change a winning team. I would stick with the same team 

Didn't Tony Gale play for Fulham before his time at West Ham then joined Rovers?

He did.

[TruRover]

Free hit in many ways but with the pressure off and Fulham’s style of play - it could be a game which falls into our hands.

I’m London based and live with a die hard Fulham fan who often has a spare season ticket - so I’ve seen a lot of them this season. When teams sit back and get physical with them they do struggle, although if they get an early goal it could become a very long afternoon as we found out a couple of months ago. 
 

Their left side of defensive is pretty shaken. Left back Robinson is there weak spot imo - although incredibly quick - is actually very limited on the ball and when pressed often gives it away. I hope that we target that. Lcb Tim Ream is decent on the ball however is very suspect when players run at him, would try and get Khadra up against him as much as possible. 
 

Attackingly their game plan is fairly simple, but very effective. Get the ball wide and overload with the fullback or their top young talent carvalho. 3/5 atb should majorly counter this but we may need the wide forwards to track back at times. 
 

Much more winnable game than people think as I think our style of play is a good match up. Having Rothwell back will be key however as we need him to be able to move the ball out of their press and break through the lines.

[tomphil]

No such thing as a free hit if you want progress but the other side of the coin most will be happy not to lose by more than 3 goals !

They've battered a few teams because they are good but really did a number on us because our style suited them. They pressed our inexperienced back line all night and played neat football in the space ahead of our midfield. A real lesson in how to dissect opposition.

So for me i'd just go and pack the middle, dig in and try and grind something out.

[DeeCee]

Can't give them too much respect but TM will. Expecting a loss but hopefully only by one goal. Draw would be a dream imo but this could be our dream season 🤦‍♂️

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, tomphil said:

No such thing as a free hit if you want progress but the other side of the coin most will be happy not to lose by more than 3 goals !

They've battered a few teams because they are good but really did a number on us because our style suited them. They pressed our inexperienced back line all night and played neat football in the space ahead of our midfield. A real lesson in how to dissect opposition.

So for me i'd just go and pack the middle, dig in and try and grind something out.

I think we can do that if we’re on our game. We’ve become pretty hard to score against.

[simongarnerisgod]

a freeroll game for us,pack the midfield and hit em on the break,though they are by far the best team in the division if they can`t their normal rythm going they can be vulnerable,huddersfield did exactly that

[Ossydave]

We should want this more than them, they're coasting to promotion whereas we're up against it and every games a cup final. They've not been as free scoring the past few games so there's hope for our usually solid defence. Then just a case of trying to nick one again, there's always hope. I really do wish we'd start making more set pieces count as we did yesterday, we had shitloads of corners again as well, when you're not exactly hammering goals in for fun you need to work on these constantly.

I'd take a draw and I'm calling a 0-0 on this.

Dacky simply must be on the bench if he makes it through tomorrow's game unscathed.

[Guest]

Interested to see what he does with Travis. 9 yellow cards and the suspension ends in 3 games time. It’s unlikely he’ll make it through to that, but do we want to risk missing him for our winnable 3 home games? Wouldn’t be surprised to see Johnson and Rothwell in there.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

31 minutes ago, Mellor Rover said:

Interested to see what he does with Travis. 9 yellow cards and the suspension ends in 3 games time. It’s unlikely he’ll make it through to that, but do we want to risk missing him for our winnable 3 home games? Wouldn’t be surprised to see Johnson and Rothwell in there.

We also have Davenport and Buckley that could conceivably play in Travis’s place.

[Upside Down]

Will there be a win by a slim margin or an absolute pasting???? 🤔

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

16 minutes ago, Upside Down said:

Will there be a win by a slim margin or an absolute pasting???? 🤔

We are capable of winning there but we’ll have to be on our game.

[darrenrover]

I hope everyone that is/was planning to travel to Craven Cottage have already got their match tickets.

I noticed on the club website that they were not on sale but no reference was made otherwise. I've since made enquiries and apparently we've sold out our allocation of just short of 2,000, which is an absolutely fantastic effort considering the lunchtime kick off. London based Rovers are now buying tickets amongst the west London contingent.

We'll all be leaving home about 6am on the day and not getting home until whenever (again), courtesy of SKY TV.

I'm sure that's not lost on the team and I feel that if we replicate the effort, desire and commitment of Bramall Lane and Ewood yesterday, we'll be coming back from Fulham with 3 points.

COYB!!!

[Mercer]

3 hours ago, Mellor Rover said:

Interested to see what he does with Travis. 9 yellow cards and the suspension ends in 3 games time. It’s unlikely he’ll make it through to that, but do we want to risk missing him for our winnable 3 home games? Wouldn’t be surprised to see Johnson and Rothwell in there.

Rothwell can't even get a boot on!  Think he'll sit this one out.

Mowbray should go with our strongest available eleven.  Like Chelsea with their goalie sub today, try to be too clever and it comes back to bite you on the bum.

 

[Butty]

Free hit this game. It’s all about Fortress Ewood to cement us in that top six. The top two is gone now. If we can come away from this game with a point it would be a great result. 

[roversfan99]

No game for a promotion challenger is a free hit. A hard game but not a free hit.

[yankfan]

We can give them a challenge in back.  Last time we went down a man then made tactical subs to be more attacking. The 7-0 score line was bad but we we’ve improved in the back since then. I think Zeefuik will give us more in the attack as rwb but until otherwise shown we will lose a bit defensively there. I still don’t know where our goals would come from. And as long as that’s the case it’s difficult to expect anything from this match. 

[lraC]

I am already excited about this one, as I am flying in from Spain on Friday morning and making a weekend of it. 
 

I am also treating the wife to a weekend in London on the basis that she attends the match too. My son and his partner, who I haven’t seen since December are driving down to meet us on Friday, so for starters that should be a lovely evening.

It will be the first visit to Craven Cottage for all of us and for my son, the furthest he has travelled for a match.

Given what happened at Ewood, we owe them one, so hope we can get stuck in and make it back to back home defeats for them.

Just as was the case after the game earlier in the season, if that we can go on a run after this one, then we should cement our place in the play offs.

I would definitely play the same side that started on Saturday and worry about Travis getting a yellow, if it happens. I always believe, you should try and win every game, so protecting him for me, is not an option.

I hope to get into one of the away friendly pubs and given we have 2,000 going, look forward to seeing a few familiar faces too.

COYB.

[tomphil]

I hope everyone calling it a free hit doesn't come on taking pot shots at team and manager if they approach it in that way.

We should be going there with a point on the mind at least, lets make it an unpleasant afternoon for them.

[RoverDom]

A 0-0 draw is perfectly feasible and would be a fantastic result. 

[Sparks Rover]

17 minutes ago, RoverDom said:

A 0-0 draw is perfectly feasible and would be a fantastic result. 

If you look at the odds for no goals then its probably not feasible.....very doubtful that neither team will score.

[RoverDom]

1 minute ago, Sparks Rover said:

If you look at the odds for no goals then its probably not feasible.....very doubtful that neither team will score.

Are the odds that bad? I've not looked. We're not scoring at the moment and our defence is strong so if we dug in I can see us holding Fulham out with a fair wind.