The squad appear to have come through the New year celebrations unscathed, albeit with a few tired legs after Saturday's game. We can expect plenty of long punts from McCarthy's side. They're one place ahead of us in the table, on goal difference, as much because their draw ratio is better but also because when they have a chance on goal they more often than not take it. The performances of Kamara and Piazon against Hull has given the Gaffer a pleasant selection dilemma. Sometimes forget Kamara is only 22 and, while on a learning curve, hasn't been helped by injuries just when he seemed due a run in the team. Jokanovic will be hard pressed to justify not including him from the start for this one. When he came off the bench on Saturday Piazon played more central than as a winger (the old 'inside left position) allowing Sessegnon to move into space on the wing. And that's the way I believe we'll start: ...............................Bettinelli................. ..Fredericks......Kalas........Ream.....Sessegnon... ..............................McDonald....... ....................Cairney.............Johansen.... .........Ojo................Kamara..........Piazon....
Ipswich are one of those teams that don't make the headlines but can be an awkward team to play against, and are normally organised and have the players to get a result with minimal attacks. Just the type of team we falter against. I suspect the C58 lineup will be close, especially as I think Jokanovic may well rest some players for the Cup game and not todays game. I'd rather have Odoi at LB and Sessegnon wide left, but we know Jokanovic doesn't agree. Could be he starts with the Hull starting 11, and then changes things at half-time. Any chance of us kicking towards the Hammersmith in the first half, in the words of Jokanovic just to 'shake things up'?
I shouldn't worry too much because if you play even half as good as you did at Portman Road earlier in the season then you will win comfortably. We are bloody hopeless!
Reckon you're trying a jinx in reverse there Johnny, 'cos that's not what you're League position says.
When you are relying on 30% possession each week to win games its a bloody miracle that we are where we are!
The man we have tonight is Keith Stroud. Stroud hails from Bournemouth of all places and for some unknown reason is a life long Luton fan. He was dumped from the Premier League group of refs a few years back and towards the end of last season suspended by the EFL after his flawed penalty re-take decision in the Newcastle v Burton game. This season he's being eased back in and tonight is the first time we'll have seen him. We did have the pleasure last January however, in the 1-1 draw at Loftus Road - Chris Martin missed a penalty but then got our equaliser. Ollie blamed the result on the "referee losing control"; Jokanovic on "the state of the pitch". For all his chequered career, there's no doubting that Stroud is leader of the 'Red Hand Gang'. In 39 games last season he dished out 12 red cards and in 15 matches this season he's already on 5 reds.
Stroud, he has taken charge of 15 games and has issued 70 yellow cards!!!!!!! I'm guessing but I would think his children left home before they were 6years old and into sheltered accommodation!
We have had brief spells of being 'half decent' this season, but that seems a while ago now... and with with pretty much every midfielder queuing to get onto the treatment table we'll be very easy picking for your lot tonight.. Similar to our last few away games where we offered very little whilst trying to stay in the game. I expect Cairney (or in fact anyone wearing white) to run the midfield as we no longer have one. Also, if you fancy a browse through the views of our miserable fans on our site then please feel free.. https://not606.com/threads/fulham-v-ipswich.356691/
Two changes from the weekend, resting Kalas & McDonald (with Norwood & Kamara coming in). I'm always nervous when McDonald isn't on the pitch - hopefully Norwood gets the memo that he's playing as a DM for the evening!
If we're going to rest players id rather it was done at the weekend in the cup game rather than tonight. More important we win tonight than at the weekend imo.
Apparently Cairney hurt himself in the pre match warm ups, had treatment on it but then carried on with his warm up. Lets see of he comes out for the start and if he does how he gets on.
Dominate for almost an entire half without scoring then concede right before half time. Seems familiar.
What a 2nd half! Pleased to see AK47 starting to get amongst the goals, hopefully more to come from him.
What a terrific surprise to see and hear Zoltan Gera at half time. Obviously the inspiration for a good second half performance. And of course 4 goals in 7 minutes were just deserts, even if they were all rather scrappy.
I'm soaked to the skin, but feeling good! My initial thoughts: - The better team won. Ipswich lacked inspiration and to be honest I think 4-1 flattered them. - It was a definite red. What on earth was the Ipswich player thinking!? - It looked like a penalty, but even if it wasn't there was still contact. Don't think Lucas deserved his yellow. - Kebano was a lucky boy at the end. He was clearly fouled by Waghorn, but you can't retaliate (both getting yellow was the right result). - Ream had a good game again. He looks so composed on the ball. Odoi also looked composed; it helped that Ipswich didn't have a striker capable of bullying them. - Norwood was dreadful in the first half. Why does he always knock the ball so far away from himself, so he has to lunge in to win it back? He lacks composure and that can't be masked in that DM position. Odoi & Norwood blew their assignments for the Ipswich goal, we called the result (i.e. the goalscorer) before the ball came in. - It feels like the more confidence AK gets, the more his teammates gain confidence in him. That ball the at the end (when he should have scored a hat-trick) picked him out perfectly. AK is still very raw, but there's definitely something there to work with. - I think Kebano/AK/Piazon interact well, much better than Ayite/Ojo. It seems like Fredericks is on the verge of shouting at Ojo constantly. Just constantly - he's like the annoying (but talented) kid brother you played football with as a kid, who just didn't play as part of the team at all. - Sess needs to stop scoring quite so much, or there's no way we'll be able to keep him this month!
I too am totally soaked to the skin but it was an enjoyable evening in the end. Dominated the first half but it was oh so familiar and even more so when they scored from a set piece. I still felt we would come back and win the game, Ipswich I thought were poor and looked tired and petulant. The sending off spurred us on and we could could have scored more. We eased off them though after 4 goals when surely we should have made even more of the situation, I'm being greedy I suppose. That first half though showed we still have problems up front. We don't need to see the perfect goal, when we have so much of the possession and are dominating let's take a few shots, be more direct and get a good lead before we pass all around their box. Altogether a good performance, nice football and that's 10 points from 12 over the Christmas period. We're on the way back up.
Couldn't even get to 30% last night. It must be very frustrating to watch if your team plays that way more than once a season! Mick McCarthy said "That result would not happen if we had all of our players on the pitch." He is utterly deluded if he genuinely believes that - Fulham were poor in the first half and still should have had a couple of goals.
We finally got to see the lesser spotted Rafa Soares for the last few minutes. With the profile of the ref shown above I'm sure Spence just wanted to get sent off to get out of the rain. The sending off allowed Sessegnon and Fredericks to get forward and put pressure on the Ipswich defence. I'm not sure I'd say we turned the corner but hope it does kick start our season. But the first half was so typical of all huff and puff with no end product and a sucker punch again, so I'm still a bit weary of jumping for joy.
Having watched the highlights, take back what I said earlier about the goals. The play leading up to the third by Cairney was superb and his right footed pass across the front of the goal to Sessegnon rather good - Tom still hasn't reached the peak of last season, but he's getting there.
