Like your name - madness! Good to hear though. Sounds like Berbs should gotten at least one, but I'm pleased Hugo scored, he needs a boost.
Bet you won't be back, I reckon you handle losing (while making an arse of yourself) worse than you do banter!
Really good game of football. The first half we were excellent, pressing the ball high up the pitch and should have been more ahead. Second half, newcastle pushed much higher up the pitch and we had to work very hard to keep them at bay. Feel for Schwarzer at the moment, his positionning recently has been questionable at times, he will be disappointed by their goal, that said it was a great finish. Sidders was very good tonight and Rodders had his best game for us yet. Baird was excellent in the holding role. Mention should be given to Hangeland who was back to his best tonight and earned my man of the match. Brilliance by Berba at times but he should have finished his chance, if nothing else but for my fantasy football team !! 3 points very well earnt and much needed. COYW
Certainly brings back memories - my claim to fame was in my (later) playing days being likened to Keith Weller (not for wearing tights I should hasten to add !)
With relief, happiness, pride and a few other emotions it’s pleasing to start with all the positives first, and jump straight to my MOTM - Hugo. He probably wasn’t our best player on the pitch but I think he deserves the choice because of the threat he caused throughout; not least the number of balls he won in the air and his running off the ball. Just as in some previous games there was clear evidence why he shouldn’t be played on the wing, tonight there was undoubted evidence that his strength is at centre forward. Oh, and he got the winning goal which ought to unanimously give him the vote. As I suggested there were other leading candidates. Hangeland bust a gut and was back to his old self (but for some wayward passes). Hughes was immense (especially in the nervy last ten minutes) and did well in the air against much taller opposition. Duff showed all his experience and was also the ‘old Duffers’. Sidwell was everywhere and kept some of their top guys quiet (most of the time and I‘ll come back to that). Berba was exquisite - some of his passes are so intuitive (I’ll be waiting for the Opta stats on how many he completed with interest, although that will only tell the basic story and won’t reveal how many of them created an opening on goal). The man I’m saving though is Riether - and how thankful am I that he was able to play. Apart from his goal line clearances, his surging runs, his crosses - well, he didn’t put a foot wrong In the first 20 minutes we were sublime and could (should !) have been three or four up. For the rest of the half we were comfortable but started laying off their midfield and this continued into the second half which gave then the upper hand. We were especially weak on the left where we gave Simpson far too much space. For some reason we stopped playing a fast inter-passing game and resorted to long, hopeful balls and the gap between the front players and the midfield was huge. Kaca (who started brightly but faded) and Riise (who was poor throughout - was he carrying an injury?) were responsible for leaving the space on the left. Sidwell and Baird (who had a solid first half but faded) were responsible for allowing the gap to appear, by retreating too deep. All four were guilty of not closing men down. Dejegah, when he came on for Kaca, was naiive defensively (lunging in and missing tackles) but showed some threat going forward (with more premier experience and confidence he could be okay). Petric wasn’t on long enough to judge. And the man I’m saving this time is Schwarzer. I won’t even mention their goal. His kicking was dreadful (worse than normal) and as for his flaps at the ball in the air … I’m simply going to leave it by saying he gave me the heeby jeebies all night. But hey, we battled all night and showed a real determination to win. And my goodness we did just that. Well done the whole team, especially the ones I criticised - it wouldn’t be Fulhamish if we were perfect !!
Berbatov worked, and showed his class. 1-on-1 in the box would have been 2-0. And another good performance from Aaron Hughes COYW
Good to have Hangeland back. Looks like he's playing for a new contract by all accounts. Sidwell had his best game for donkeys and Berbatov - as above - was simply outstanding. Hugo will miss more than he scores but a decent header - allbeit a free header. Duff was up for this one played the crowd. Also played his part in both goals and does so much defensive work it must be noted. Dejegah's got a lot to learn at this level. Ok going forwards but at the back looks a major liability. Kaca will get fitter. Schwarzer has looked poor on the ball all season. His distribution is lacking and i'd say needs serious practice. We should have had this game killed off in the first half hour in truth but it doesn't work like that and Krul made some decent saves, then as you'd expect, they had a go and had they scored and not hit the crossbar to take the lead it may have ended differently. I still can't stand Pardew. No credit. We rarely get rolled over at home (minus Sunderland), he knows that but never mentioned. A 3 points crucial going into Saturday.
Some of the old guys next to me were saying that his legs have gone. And his distribution is a sign of that. Not surprisingly Jol mentioned his age and that goalkeepers can play longer but equally drop very quickly.
you / they have a point. He has looked so shakey with ball at feet. Some of his decisions last night were bizarre. Was his position a little wrong for Ben Arfa's goal - not taking anything away from him? He's still makes top saves but the jury is out for me.
Someone once told me a theory about the difference between aging outfield players and aging keepers. Outfield players, as they get 'past it', have a general decline which shows itself all the time - they are a yard slower, half-a-second slower to react, etc, all the time. It's why combative midfielders like Bryan Robson start picking up more yellow cards for mistimed tackles towards the end of their career, and why strikers like Ian Rush suddenly see the goals drying up when they are older. They lose that half a step and someone else consistently gets there before them. By contrast, when keepers start showing signs of aging, they remain capable of making saves every bit as good as in they heyday. What changes is that they are no long able to do so consistently. They have some games where they look just as good as before, and other games where the good stuff is intermixed with an increasing amount of 'uncharacteristic' errors. Does anyone else think that's what we're seeing now from MS? He's my favourite Fulham keeper and he's been as important to us as anyone else in the Roy-Hodgson-and-beyond era, but maybe it's time to look to replace him. I know he wants to keep playing first team football up to the 2014 World Cup, but I'm not so sure that it's a good idea to let him do it here anymore. Either in January or the summer, Jol might have to decide whether Stockdale or Etheridge are ready, and spend some money if they aren't.
What an exciting game. It will take a while for my finger nails to grow back. We were damn lucky to get all three points considering Newcastle hit the woodwork at least twice by my count - Petric nicked the outside of the frame once. Great game Berbatov and Schwartzer, though his distribution was poor (again). Hopefully this will give the boys a bit of confidence going into Saturday's game against QPR. I'll add I think the combination of Berbatov and Rodallega worked well. Yes, Hugo's touch is quite clumsy, but his workrate, pace and physical presence was unsettling for Newcastles back four, creating space for Berbatov and the others. Hugo may not have the technical ability, but his workrate can't be matched by any of our other strikers. - Captain, you posted just ahead of me. I'm not sure we're seeing decline yet in Schwartzer. I though the was good for us last night, minus some of those passes out of the back. In the second half, a number of good hard shots were drilled on goal and he comfortably held them all, a sharp contrast in this era when 'keepers like to punch nearly everything. He commanded the area, dealing well with a bunch of crosses, so I don't see much to complain about.
Good write up C58. I agree with every thing except for the Rodallega part. He just doesn't do it for me. He seems to have 1 good game in 7. For me his only good asset is he gives us speed to go pass the last player, its probably the reason Jol plays him on the wing, but most of the time his control is poor, his passing is poor, and his hold up play is poor. But he did score the goal and that's what strikers have to do. I've been going on about Schwarzer's kicking for a while, but in his defense I thought that Ben Arfa's shot took a nick off Riise(?) to make it swerve and dip. We do have to be looking at a replacement, there were rumors about Stekelenburg in August, but I doubt he'd come here.
I haven't seen anything of it yet, but I was listening on the radio. Steve Claridge - who's generally quite good on technical striker/keeper things - thought that Schwarzer was at fault for the goal. The way he described it, Schwarzer assumed a cross was coming and moved into position to deal with one. That left a gap for the shot which Ben Arfa spotted and exploited. If that analysis is right, it's got to go down as another error from Mark. The fact that he did a lot of good things well is what we should expect from a keeper of his quality on the way down, if my friend's theory is correct. He's not becoming a bad keeper, but he might be becoming a less consistently excellent one. Part of me wants him to stay, and part of me wants us to get someone else in before he tarnishes our memory of just how good he is/was. Most of all, I want the best possible keeper for Fulham, whether that's Mark or someone else.
As I still am in the land of Aus, and will be there untill the New Year,i have not been able to watch the last few games, which since my departure has seen us slide down the table,something that did not surprise me,having Sender ~ loss in the side, but with BH back in the defence,I, and I am sure many other fans will breath a sigh of releif,hope he stays,and Jan will see us adding to the squad. HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL.
Was Kerim Frei injured as he wasn't on the bench ? Could have been a good impact sub. Nice Christmas decoration and lights on the Cottage balcony. Does anyone have good suggestions for winter gloves, the ones I had on last night were Thermal but steamed up inside and turned my fingers to ice.
What a great result for us. I can't deny I was so relieved at the final whistle. If we win at the weekend and Stoke lose we go 9th. That's how insane the Prem is this season!
Cracking game lads. I thoroughly enjoyed except for the result of course. I felt we deserved a point but such is life. I think both sides will move up the table as the season wears on. You have a bit of a habit of pushing upwards from lower positions in recent years. I'm hoping we can do likewise. On a different note where is that young Swiss/Turkish lad you have Frei? I was very impressed by him last season, would love him at our place as we are desperate for some pace and trickery down the left. I thought he was all set to be a superstar this season but heard he went on loan? Whats the crack there or am I just overestimating his abilities.
Cheers WP. We had chances to put the game to bed before half time so it was quite even, as you say. Frei went on loan as he was coming back from injury, but Cardiff didn't play him so we brought him back. He played against Chelsea and Tottenham but didn't really impress, I think he's still getting up to speed. He's still one of our better youngsters but the emergence of Kaca, Dejagah's arrival and Duff's enduring quality has limited his chances somewhat, but he'll get his chance again.
In reporting on last night's game, our friends at the Guardian have again praised the team - Here is the full article - http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/dec/10/fulham-newcastle-premier-league-report
