I'm gutted. I watched the second half and I have no idea how we didn't win. The last Spurs goal was a kick in the teeth. Penalty shout aside we should've won that. Having said all this, from what I saw in the second half it was a far cry from the languid performance I was expecting. We can take heart from the amount of pressure we applied, but Bobby and Clint really should've won it for us. Ruiz played well too, in my opinion. COYW!
Despite the disappointment, there were a lot of positives to take from the game: Jol firing up the players to give a good second-half performance. Roll-on Sunderland away! My one concern, apart from the lack of points (not helped by Goalkeeper Walker) is that we've still got a full-back problem, on both-sides.
Well once Hughes is back Baird can do a job on one of the sides for us, but Grygera's injury hasn't helped one bit...
Grrrrrrrrr. We just didn't deserve that. Apart from the Walker incident (and that ref is not exactly renowned for giving penalties), we must have had more shots in the second half than the rest of the season put together - indeed I understand we're the first team in 5 years to have 13 shots on target and still lose. Some consolation, not. Friedly and that fantastic tackle by Knight on Dempsey kept them in the game. Even in the first half when we mis-placed too many passes and were a tad too methodical (read, slow), the goals were against the run of play. Without seeing a replay I'm not going to comment on their second. Not so the first - Riise !! Their were so many positives, it pains me to re-visit his play but his positioning is poor and he just doesn't read the game - a total liability I'm afraid. And that is disappointing. Dembely by contrast was immense throughout. And give Jol credit for geeing them up at half time. Hangeland was back to being Hangeland second half. Bobby started worrying their CBs. Ruiz showed up well and maybe should have been given more time. I've not always been his most avid fan but I can't help but reflect that our biggest piece of bad luck today was the injury to AJ.
Agree completely Bidley, we dominated most of the possession. Very disappointed to go into the break 2 down, because I felt we controlled a lot of the first half. You basically cannot let Lennon have that kind of space. Gutted for Grygera and hope his injury is not as bad as it sounded real time, that said Kelly looked excellent when he came on. As for the second half, brilliant performance, but for some excellent goal keeping and last ditch defending we would have walked away with the 3 points. Thought Dembele was class and his passing good, Murph's was superb and BZ came to life in the second half, as did Demps. Agree about Ruiz, some lovely through balls but needs to work on his set piece deliveries. Some better luck and more clinical finishing we would be on 16 points now, with the Everton game and today. I really think the team is getting used to Jol's system. COYW
Very encouraging display from the team. They really dominated the game and all that report by BBC on problems is non-sense. We should have won based on the effort and chances we had but hey... COYW
Agreed about Dembele and Kelly (with the exception of his shocking 'cross'). Dembele seems to be working his way out of the dribbling-into-nowhere phase he was in and he's fast becoming a real asset. I think Kasami and Ruiz aren't getting a look in purely because of him.
Biggest disappointment for me was letting in the Lennon goal just before half time. If they only had a 1-0 cushion and we played like we did after half time, then it would be more pressure on them. It's strange that this season we seem to play better in the 2nd half, yet are still vulnerable to late goals, that has to be sorted out, otherwise we will lose confidence when going late in game with a slender lead. I'd be more worried if we weren't making the chances. But not taking them today against Spurs was down to a lot of good goalkeeping and a lot of bad luck, rather than poor finishing. December has some tough fixtures but may be we will get the luck required to beat the top teams.
Just want to say you were hard done by today lads, I saw the Spurs lot on their board shouting they should've had a penalty - bollocks. I thought it was outside the area. Walker handled that and obstructed any play for you lot and whether he meant it or not it's a stone cold pen. Looking forward to our boxing day game, always a good day playing Fulham and even better it's on Boxing Day this year!
Great performance in the second half, Dembele a class apart from the rest, spurs players included. Zamora clearly lacking in confidence, he is still the best player I've seen with his chest, but he is scared to shoot - I say give him a game in the reserves where he will score and rebuild his confidence. Our system makes no sense, we have no width. Riise's best days are long gone, he was known for his attacking skills before - now he is neither a defender or attacker, just a fat lump who likes to complain. Briggs offers more. We can't keep relying on Murphy, like Riise his days have passed. There is a quota he looks to fill every game: 1 hospital pass 1 reckless lunge Today, as usual, he got both- right on target. However I'd rather see Murphy do that than Etuhu embarrass himself with woeful passing and positional stupidity. There is hope, but we need to start playing with width. Too often the players are cutting back and playing it central.
Cheers Drog. Their penalty was neither here nor there, ours cancelled it out, and if we'd have put away half our chances we would've beaten them 10-3! So glad the our game with you lot is on Boxing day. We always turn up against you so it's bound to be a good game.
I must say, I'm thankful to the Spurs fans who came over here with a bit of grace. I went over to their board to congratulate them and I was greeted with a torrent of arrogance, abuse and delusion. According to them "the gulf in class was clear throughout" and they thoroughly deserved the win due to their "silky skills". Already talking like they're in the Champions League.
we've been in the CL recently and we do have silky skills, far more than many current CL teams. We're not being over boastful, it's simply the way it is. We're not in Barca's lge of course, but plenty of other teams don't have players as skilful as Bale, Modric, Lennon and VDV.
Yeah will be a good day looking forward to it! Yep, notcied that aswell. Couple of them are very arrogant and over rate their team, the neutral know what happened and think Fulham should've knicked it and were hard done by. They were better in the first, you in the second.
I always kid the Spurs fans I know about when they get 4 straight wins they tell me how they are going to win the Premier, the Cups, the CL, European Super Cup, the World Club Championship, but after 3 straight defeats they are back phoning the Samaritans.
All good points, but let's not forget who was the last London club to feature in a European final! I think Bidley's point was that some Spurs fans - none who have posted on the Fulham board since the game - were talking about Sunday's match as if Spurs outclassed Fulham from start to finish. As you and others have noted, that was far from being the case. I don't think any of us are claiming that pound for pound, player for player, Spurs aren't a better side than Fulham, merely that on the day it was closer than the scoreline suggested.
