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Jack and Loz at the Cottage - Blog 73

Started by Friendsoffulham, February 19, 2018, 09:52:56 AM

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Friendsoffulham

Jack and Loz at the Cottage - Blog 73

Date: 17th February 2018

Opposition: Aston Villa

Score: 2-0

Weather: the Cottage looked at its beautiful best in the spring sunshine

Atmosphere: amazing

Opposition fans: the Villa fans were out in force although bearing in mind Margot Robbie, Example and Richard Osman were all in the home end we were surprised not to see either of Villa's celebrity fans David Cameron or Prince William

MOTM (football): such was the completeness of the team's performance it was hard to pick a MOTM for Saturday's game. For his intelligent effort, ceaseless running and superb assist Ryan Fredericks edges it over the ever excellent Messrs McDonald and Ream

MOTM (non-football): it was lovely to see Luis Boa Morte back at the Cottage. It would have been nice to hear him speak though

Pub: due to the continued (and possibly permanent) closure of the OSP, the plastic glasses at the Crabtree and the busyness of the Blue Boat we went to the Chancellors

Xtra: we were lucky enough to be interviewed by Fulhamish Pod before the match and will feature in an upcoming episode. It's much harder being quizzed about Fulham than writing about it!

Friday was the start of the Chinese Year of the Dog. The dog is popular, loyal, hard working and patient. But the Dog's success comes from his speed, strength and agility. The Dog is affectionate, gentle and docile. But the Dog has teeth. The Dog is proud and content alone. But the Dog is a pack animal and if the pack is well formed and well trained the members will fight to the death for each other against a common foe.

With all due respect to Wolves who play fantastic football and whose likely success in the Year of the Dog is no coincidence, potentially the best match of the Championship season was going to be the clash of the two most in form sides in the league: Fulham v Villa - two teams out of place, two teams on their way back to their best, two teams with a lot to lose.

Following the disappointing but hard fought draw with Bolton last week, Saturday's match really was a season decider for Fulham - lose and hopes of automatic promotion would be over, win and we could dare to dream a little more. Villa are a big club with a long, proud history. The current side is undoubtedly one of the best in the Championship with power up front, skill in midfield and a streak of pure evil at the back.

The first half was cautious and cagey, genuine end to end stuff with chances missed by both sides. Fulham lived dangerously with a succession of back passes keeping Marcus under pressure. Slav showed his displeasure with his most vociferous arm waving display to date and some furious shouting that probably only Mitro could understand. Villa were clever, marking Sess out of the game, but niggly in the tackle and poor at keeping the ball in play. Such was the intensity of the competition that the 45 minutes seemed to pass in 20. The 0-0 score line at half time was fair and, as enjoyable as a romping win is, it was good to watch Slav's side tested by a worthy opponent.

The second half started as second halves so often do with a storm for Fulham to weather. This was one was strong but brief and our defence, impressively coached into one of the best in the league in recent weeks, stood firm and our three midfield musketeers, reunited in full fitness for the first time in months, began to turn the screw and proceeded to dominate.

The first goal came from the right, from the foot of the hard tackling, fast running, expertly dodging Ryan Fredericks but it could just as easily have come from Matt Targett who was almost as good down the left. The reason both full backs were able to get so far forward so often is due to the bulwark provided by Kalas and Ream behind them and the control Tom Cairney had over the whole of the space between the boxes and the use he made of it. He showed his pedigree with his superb passing and he also seems to have acquired a new desire to fight for and keep the ball which is refreshing to see after his West Ham wobble in January. We won't forget those moments in which he looked away from the Cottage but if he plays for the rest of the season like he did on Saturday we will forgive him.

As we've said before, there is something about this season and they way luck has come our way. Floyd Ayite's goal is another example of this. The Villa goalie had had too much energy drink at half time or was in a blind rage at discovering one of his team mates was having an affair with his wife, and made a howling error. Floyd, who we wouldn't normally say has the coolest head in the team, did the rest and made it look remarkably easy.

After that Villa simply ran out of ideas and our attack, led by the increasingly impressive Mitrovic, carved them apart again and again. The goalie recovered quickly and kept the score line from becoming embarrassing - in all honesty we should have won by more. Slav got his subs right and we suspect we will see this combination of Mitro, having worn down the defence, being replaced by AK who will finish them off, often in the weeks to come. So much for our promotion rivals - in the end what could have been the game of the season was an anti climax from an entertainment point of view.

Random musings:-

- as we said above this wasn't Ryan Sessegnon's best game. He found the Villa right back hard to deal with. But despite this he did what he does best and popped up in the box to score the first goal. It really is a privilege to watch him improve game by game and speculate as to how good he is actually going to be. In the meantime his humility and loyalty to the club are simply heartwarming

- if Tom Cairney has acquired a new toughness who has he learnt that from? Obviously from his grittier compatriot (and indeed the only true Scot out of the pair of them) Kevin McDonald who is still, we think, the de facto captain of the team, the real leader of the pack.

- we have to mention him because no player has ever been treated the same way by Fulham fans but really Jn T*y was barely worth the jeers. The once feared pitbull is past his prime. Slow, anonymous and a shadow of his former self we doubt we'll see him at the Cottage again

Random dogs:-

In celebration of the Chinese New Year here are our suggestions of who is who in the Fulham pack:-

Marcus - a strong and handsome boxer

Ryan Fredericks - can only be a greyhound

Tim Ream - a busy, bustling golden retriever

Kalas - a (nearly) always alert pointer

Targett - a lurcher, nearly as fast as the greyhound

Kevin - a German shepherd, always in control and a little bit fierce

Tom - the intelligent border collie who runs the show

StefJo- a bundle of energy like a Jack Russell

Sess - our English fox(hound) in the box

Floyd - the bouncy, sometimes over enthusiastic springer spaniel

Mitro - strong, powerful, somewhat scary - a mastiff

AK - a big, endearing and often effective Newfoundland

Piazon - an elegant and precise Afgan hound

Odoi - the ever popular, ubiquitous and athletic terrier

On Saturday we saw what Slav has trained and coached our diverse pack of Fulham players into - a unit which will fight for him and the fans and each other for promotion. We saw Mitro respond to the fans' chants after the first goal; we saw Kebano cheering on his teammates as he warmed up. All the players (and Slav) thanked the fans on social media for our contribution to the win. Fulham Football Club is in a great place at the moment - United we will prosper.

Aston Villa are a good team and we brushed them aside. This match was only the start of a difficult run but we have shown the league what we can do. Fulham are now unbeaten in 10 games and only 2 of those were draws. This is a team to be reckoned with. This is a team which means business. This is a team which can go all the way.

https://werdsmith.com/p/M5gQAXDMh4

Southcoastffc

I really enjoys these blogs - well written, amusing and reasonably accurate!  Keep up the very good work please.  :clap_hands:
The world is made up of electrons, protons, neurons, possibly muons and, definitely, morons.

Colton F.C.



Baston White

Brilliant summary of the day!!
Look forward to reading more.