The first one is in, although not yet confirmed by the Club. 8th July v Wealdstone (Away) Presume this is an U23 fixture.
I know it's hard but I'm always gutted they don't name them early I would definitely try and arrange my summer holiday to where we are going with a bit more notice!!! I would like to make it clear I don't mean I'm going on holiday to Wealdstone.
https://www.dayoutwiththekids.co.uk/things-to-do/south-east-and-london/greater-london/wealdstone Just saying it could make for a fun weekend.
Being cynical, we are just customers to the Club, they don't see us as fans, and since they make no money out of away friendly games I doubt it even registers. Gone are the days when a little mini tour of Scotland or somewhere was the norm and you could book journeys in advance.
According to the local paper we've lined up a friendly against QPR, but no date is given and ... it's behind closed doors! Source: http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/spor...s/revealed-reason-fulham-qpr-playing-13145774 They say it's at Motspur Park, which is presumably because a new pitch is being laid at the Cottage. And of course a whack of the money Mr Khan spent last season on developing the training ground included a pitch, at Jokanovic's insistance, which replicated the surface at Craven Cottage (dips and all).
Cookie - according to this website we're going to an Austrian 'camp' between 17th and 22nd July. West Ham are there (or next door anyway) at the same time so guess we'll have a kick about with them then. http://www.footballcampstyria.com/en/camps-2/camps-2017/
The Club is now in a position to announce details regarding the initial phase of the First Team’s pre-season preparations. The squad will fly out to Poznan in Poland on Monday 3rd July for five nights, in which time we will play two fixtures, against Piast Gliwice on the Wednesday at the Remes Hotel in Opalenica, and FC Zlin three days later at Stadium Groklin. Each game kicks off at 5pm local time, and fans will be able to buy tickets on the gate for each of these fixtures.
According to Ali Mac at last week's FST meeting with the Club there are more friendlies on the way - "The first team will then [after Poznan] undertake another pre-season European tour. The Club will then round off their pre-season preparations with a home friendly at Craven Cottage on Saturday 29 July (kick off 3pm). Further details will be available on the Club’s official website in due course." Wonder if the one on the 29th will be Crystal Palace, again? Or Celtic?
The Club have just announced that it will be Wolfsburg. A Europa repeat would be a nice confidence booster.
Reminder that this game is up on Saturday. And another has been confirmed for the U23s - Chesham United on Wednesday 2nd August (Away) (kick off 7.30pm)
Piast Gliwice 0 Fulham 1 (Friendly) The Gaffer is obviously doing the same as last year and using these games as an exercise in easing people into match fitness. He started with a very young group of players and introduced the first team sparingly. The surprising good news is that our winner was from a penalty - Kebano in the first half. The team was: Rodák (Button 46'); S. Sessegnon (Fredericks 46'), Madl (Sigurdsson 46'), Djalo, Opoku (Odoi 46'); Christensen, O'Riley (McDonald 46'), De La Torre; Thorsteinsson (Sone Aluko 46'), Williams, Kebano (Floyd Ayité 46') Unused subs: Norman, Ream, Johansen, Cairney Only saw the last 20 minutes on FulhamTV so just a few observations: * bit concerned no sign of Bettinelli (Button in the air was poor) * great to see Steven Sessegnon and Matt O'Riley starting * we missed a barrowload in front of goal - where's that striker (or two)? Here's a link to the Club's match report: http://www.fulhamfc.com/first-team/2017_2018/friendly/piast-gliwice
Just had another thought/observation. No sign of Richard Stearman in Poland, so might be some more money heading to the war chest.
The Club have now confirmed this second set of "awayday" friendlies. "The group will fly out to Graz in Austria on Tuesday 18th July, where they will face West Ham United at the Sportzentrum Graz-Weinzödl (pictured), home to Grazer AK, two days later (Thursday 20th July), kick-off 7pm local time. They will then take to the skies once more and head to Germany, where SV Darmstadt will host us at the Merck-Stadion am Böllenfalltor on Saturday 22nd July (3.30pm local time)."
Fulham 7 Peterborough 1 (U18) (Friendly) No report from the Club yet. And it's really quite annoying that they don't publicise these matches - where better to be than Motspur Park on a Sunny Saturday Lunchtime. Anyway, the team started: Wickens, Drameh, Armsworth, Garrido, Spence, Francois, Hilton, Santos-Clase, Thompson, Tahir, Abraham And our goals were scored by, Francois x 2, Santos-Clase, Abraham and Thompson in the first half. Then Carvalho and Fry, who both presumably came on as subs, in the second. Note: That's Timmy Abraham's first goal for the Club. Watch this space!
Wealdstone 1 Fulham 0 (U23) (Friendly) Realise a fair few of the U23 regulars are in Poland and it was a very hot day for your first match. But a bit disappointing since by all accounts we showed little pace and few threats on goal. Should be interesting to see what our Club reporter has to say. The team was: F.Norman, Felix, Martin, Andrason, Davies, Jenz, Pearce, Harris, Adebayo, Humphrys and Elstone Subs: Mundle-Smith, York and Kelly
FC Zlin 2 Fulham 2 (Friendly) The Gaffer started this one with a strong team but as ever is easing the lads in, using these training games for match fitness. So much so that we played the last 10 minutes with ten men. And the opposition got their two goals in that period. Not sure the fact that we were a man down played a huge part in them scoring though and rather it leaves big question marks about the CB pair on the field at the time. The team was: Button (Rodak 45'); Fredericks (Sessegnon 68'), Madl (Opoku 68'), Ream (Djalo 45'), Odoi (Sigurdsson 45'); Cairney (Vigen Christensen 58'), McDonald (O'Riley 58'), Johansen; Aluko (Williams 68'), Kebano (Thorsteinsson 45') and de la Torre. Unused sub: Norman "Kick-off got underway in torrential rain with the conditions leaving the pitch heavy for much of the first-half. After 15 minutes the first big chance fell to Fulham when Cairney picked out Ryan Fredericks with an inch perfect pass allowing the right-back to put the ball into the box for Aluko, but unfortunately FC Zlin played it out for a corner. Cairney was again at the heart of things following some nice build-up play around the FC Zlin box the midfielder unleashed a low drive which narrowly missed the far post. And it was the captain who was integral to the first goal, Cairney sliced open the Zlin defence with a sharp pass allowing Sone Aluko a one-on-one with goalkeeper Stanislav Dostal and the Nigerian international beat him with ease giving the Whites a deserved lead on 29 minutes. Jokanović made four changes at the break with Marek Rodák, Ragnar Sigurdsson, Marcelo Djalo and Jon Dagur Thorsteinsson replacing David Button, Michael Madl, Tim Ream and Neeskens Kebano. As the weather improved and the sun came out, Rodák was called upon almost instantly to fend away a tame effort from the edge of the box. On 58-minutes Fulham made three substitutions with Lasse Vigen Christensen, Matt O’Riley and Michael Madl replacing Cairney, Stefan Johansen and Kevin McDonald. Moments later de la Torre had an effort saved from the edge of the box. Ten minutes later there was another triple substitution with Steven Sessegnon, Jerome Opoku and George Williams coming on for Fredericks, Denis Odoi and Aluko. The Fulham defense was severely tested when Bartolomeu put in a cross for FC Zlin but Ubong Ekpai had his shot cleared off the line by Madl. The game then went from one end to the other and Luca de la Torre was able to chip the goalkeeper from a tight angle to double the Whites lead on 72 minutes. Goalscorer de la Torre came off with ten minutes to go and Zlin capitalised by punishing 10-man Fulham when Bartolomeu’s effort found the back of the net. FC Zlin were growing into the game and Diop broke free down the middle and beat Rodák to level the scores on 83 minutes. Soon after the goal Bartolomeu could have stolen the lead for Zlin but his header just glanced wide of the near post."
Here's a link to a neat, quite lengthy match report from our Club guy: http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2017/july/10/dominant-display-from-u18s
The young man himself - got the build of his brother and the same goal scoring knack, although according to the Club reporter he did miss one or two on Saturday.
