Great game, and especially the comeback. For me Parker MOM and Kasami following close for his work-rate. Well to all and now for the 3 points on Saturday.
No sign of C58 or the Captain yet... I can only imagine the Captain is still doing cartwheels around his neighbourhood and C58 is in a state of shock.
Cardiff come with a reputation so there will be low tolerance of any issues. He'll soon know about it if he cheers a Cardiff goal. Cardiff had some terrible fans years ago, hopefully they are better nowadays.
Cheers COYW. After our positive display last night and Cardiff's loss, I've got a good feeling we'll win and keep a clean sheet. Who knows, I might even convert my mate!
I've seen nothing of the game yet, so I didn't feel I had much to contribute, Bidley. Rest assured, there was much jubilation when I told my boys the score over breakfast this morning. As for cartwheels down the street, I'm not sure the pavements round my way would stand up to that!
Funny how there are certain games you look down the fixture list and think "I'll avoid that one." QPR last year, Portsmouth for a few years before that. This year, for me, it was Cardiff. I travel home from Fulham via Paddington Main Line out to Oxford and quite a number of times that I have been on the same train with a bunch of Cardiff "supporters" who have been pretty awful company. The Met police are normally on the train with them until Reading but they hand over to Thames Valley at this point and get off the train (and are never replaced by TV Police) so the last leg of my trip is normally a transport of delight with a few hundred semi-drunken, loud, swearing Welshmen.
It was indeed Hans Seger, our goalie coach. Because that was something like the fourth kick from Stockdale that had gone flying over Berba's head (and on this occasion out of touch).
Been convalescing Bidley, having discovered that cartwheels are neither appropriate to an under-lit Bishops Park nor my age. Mind you I reckon I could mange the pre-match warm up exercises a tad more energetically than JAR. As for shocked, yes I was when I saw the starting line up. It was plain bizarre having two players - Kaca on the right and Taarabt on the left - starting out of position. And it showed in the first half when we were far too narrow and consequently had/made few options when on the ball. We weren’t bad in that half but neither were we good. In effect the same as we have been recently - impotent. The second half began more positively with us playing higher. The real change came on the hour though. First Amorebieta coming on for JAR (nuff said about him already) and shortly after, Bent for Taarabt (who for all his jinking about was ineffective and as others said is clearly not fit). Amore was a revelation and his forward passing …terrific. Bent started pulling their defence around with his runs and was…terrific. All of a sudden Berbatov took an interest and not only did we have momentum we had threat …terrific stuff. Not least because it was maintained (unlike the stop start - I know you’ll forgive me Bidley - that we’d become used to). Some other terrific displays as well. Stockdale with some fine saves; Zverotic showing a good football brain and that he can use both feet effectively; Hangeland back at his determined best and showing some fancy footwork in the second half that must have had Tarby drooling; Senderos for sticking to his job; Parker for all round competence; Kasami for his energy in the second half. And Bubble (as the fans around me like to call Karagounis). What enthusiasm. I’m not saying he was MOTM, just that he was…terrific. I think the only one I’ve ended up leaving out is Kaca. A bit unfairly because although he combined well a couple of times with Zverotic he was lost on the right and struggled to get back into the game when he moved to the left for the last half hour. So in the end it was a bit of a shock Bidley, seeing a balanced Fulham side (in the last half-an-hour anyway) playing for each other and in a way I knew they could. And I loved every minute of it!
The fun factor hath returneth! On the first half performance, no we weren't exceptionally good, but I could see we had more zip about us and that bit extra desire. A good game for us in all. And everyone is right to single out Kasami. From being ostracised for having a poor attitude, to being a regular engine for us is remarkable, and deserves mentioning again and again.
