Scotland will take on Nigeria at Craven Cottage, home of Fulham FC, on Wednesday, May 28, as Gordon Strachan's side look to extend their unbeaten run to six matches. http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scottish_fa_news.cfm?page=1986&newsCategoryID=6&newsID=13133
Rumour has it that our boys will be playing Italy at the Cottage on May 31st. Considering I'm the only FFC fan in my family and friends I find it very difficult to get people to come to the Cottage with me, I might just have a chance to get over to that one.
Been confirmed FI - Fulham is delighted to announce that Craven Cottage will play host to an international friendly between Italy and Ireland on Saturday 31st May (7.45pm). http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2014/march/20/international-football-at-the-cottage
It appears that the Scotland vs Nigeria game at the cottage is under investigation for match fixing. It seems it has been flagged after suspicious betting patterns or a player has been approached and has reported it to the authorities. It'll be intersting to see what happens in any case. I might throw a fiver on a 6-6 draw. http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/12017/9328149/national-crime-agency-investigating-ahead-of-scotlands-friendly-with-nigeria
For a game that's being investigated for match fixing, Nigeria goalkeeper's howler seems a tad bit suspicious. https://vine.co/v/MdJ2YX32P2U
After 10 minutes I was convinced the Nigerian keeper was definitely a 'match fix', after 90 I was convinced he just wasn't very good. Not exactly related to match fixing but thought selling whistles (with green lanyards I might add) at Putney Bridge was a bit iffy. And as for those 'vuvuvoo' things, whaaa! it was a great atmosphere in the ground though; 20,000 crowd with the jocks filling the Hammy end. i know it was a friendly and the Nigerians were trying out a few players before cutting their squad down to the World Cup numbers but for me they had too many showboaters in the side. Scotland should have won comfortably; they made some good openings and fluffed even more. That said both their goals were gifts and their only decent one was ruled out by Mr Probert for a challenge on the keeper which was perfectly fair. In fact Mr Probert strutting about, presumably promoting his global image, was the only thing that spoiled what wasn't a bad game of football. One of the reasons I went to the game was hoping to see Ross McCormack of Leeds but not to be. However, on the Scots side there were a couple of players that we could have a close look at. The left back Andy Robertson from Dundee United looke more than decent in his 70 minutes. Midfielder and playmaker Charlie Mulgrew from Celtic looke really composed and accomplished, although he did fade a bit in the second half. And up front Chris Martin of Derby County, who came on at half time looked very strong.
Bit of a flat game really with Italy not fielding the ‘big guns’. They treated it very much as a training event, being content to hold the ball and never made as much of their wings as they should have done. At times the Italia passing was a tad sloppy though and the Irish were able to create quite a few chances. And how they didn’t actually win the game only Stephen Quinn will know, when he hit the bar from 6 yards with an open goal in front of him with only 10 minutes left. One of the reasons I went to the game was in the hope of seeing Anthony Stokes (Bandit where are you!?). But not to be - he never appeared. He was announced as a sub although the guy behind me doubted this since he apparently was up in Court in Dublin last Thursday on an assault charge. No Stephen Kelly from the bench either. The player that particularly caught my eye was Anthony Pilkington of Norwich, despite being subbed after an hour. Big, strong and good feet.
