thing you may not know about ......................the omens are very good

[KCat]

Both Arsenal and Tottenham have lost here.
( third time lucky) 

In 1869 little existed here until Hughes  a Welsh man established a steel mill and coal mines.
( we have a Hughes and a Welsh man)

The oldest structures here is the Hotel Great Britain, which dates from 1883.
(first gate  receipts at Craven Cottage was was in  1886.) .....nearish :)

Punk  legend and former Clash frontman Joe Strummer included a song entitled 'Shakhtar Donetsk' on his 2001 album Global A Go-Go.
( we all love The Clash)


A near sell-out crowd has been urged to spur on the "Motherland", in what is the first game here since December following the long Ukrainian winter break. It may be minus one degree centigrade – or colder -- for the game, but the heat will be turned up when the men they call the Miners attempt to bury the Cottagers

[finnster01]

SkyBet has us down for 7:1 to win and a generous 3:1 for a draw.

The draw may be worth a punt

[CorkCity]

And "Shakhtar Donetsk" in Gaelic, translates to "Fulham win"  ;D

[Lighthouse]

In 1927 A Mr Straw walked by where the ground now is and we are now clutching at straws. Another good omen.

[finnster01]

Apparently Roy got out on the right side of the bed this morning, and he did not see his shadow either.

[The Equalizer]

I had a coughing fit first thing this morning, and phonetically it came out "Shaktar Donetsk"... spooky!

[KCat]

Beamer .....hush now  it's day time turn the light off!!!!!

[White Noise]

The ref is Norweigan and so are most of our team.

[finnster01]

The ref is Norweigan and so are most of our team.

Good point Mr WN. And last time Chelsea had a Norwegian ref Drogba et al got the best spanking of the season. Let's hope this ref crew sends all their Brazilians for an early bath and a quick wax job.

[KCat]

Rat's injured ..........................another notch
and if ................
Leonardo Leonardo no 99 playes instead ....The Dazzler has one of his numbers on his training hat :)

It's all good !!!! :)

[Fernhurst]

Just turned on this magic lantern of the internetty thing and I find you lot chundering on about omens and Fat Fred calling Danny a poof on another thread..


Cheers me right up I can tell you ;D - FOF.... bettering Ricky Gervais in the laughability stakes!

[White Noise]

Its possible to find love in Donetsk. So, not only will the Fulham faithful be coming back with a result, many of them will be married by tomorrow morning -

http://www.russian-girls-for-marriage.com/tour/donetsk/

[KCat]

You goat .....WN !!!!


Back on track ......

iT'S Fatherland Day out there .............................Danny just had a baby !!!

[KCat]

The white are playing with white shirts (we  win more in white)



Striped vs. Whites
25-02-10 12:19:11
Several hours before the Europa League Round of 32 kicks off the UEFA organizational meeting has taken place at Donbas Arena.

The meeting was taking its normal course. The kick-off remains unchanged – at 20:00 (Kyiv time). The host's side will appear in conventional orange and black gear and rivals will wear a pure white kit. As all details concerning organization have been settled, the only thing left is to anticipate the night with pleasure.

FC Shakhtar
Press Office

[Jimpav]

Their kit is similar to Hull's - we sometimes beat Hull.

[KCat]

Best of all, the old manager is rattled :


Mircea Lucescu: 'If Darijo needs to keep silence, he will do it easily'
24-02-10 16:14:09
The media activities of the return leg in the UEFA Europa League Round of 32 have been launched from Mircea Lucescu's pre-match press conference. Willian, one of key player, has kept his company.

—The winter was long enough to miss each other. I am convinced everybody is eager to see the team at Donbas Arena. And the players in their turn long for home encounter in the UEFA Europa League. It is going to be very important and hard fixture tomorrow. Our rival is in good form. They won the last six matches and succeeded to qualify for the next stage in FA Cup. They also improved their standing in English Premier League. Plus it is for the first time they beat us and most likely, they enjoyed it much. They said a win over Shakhtar was their biggest win ever in the European arena.  That is why it is going to be hard tomorrow. And of course, we will need our fans' support more than ever before. It was felt much last time. I suppose it helped the team to gain positive results. I will repeat it once again. It is very important game for us. We are eager to go further and prove the UEFA Cup win was not a pure lucky chance. Everybody wants that much. We all are looking forward to step out on the pitch and do our utmost.

—Mister Lucescu, what is a pitch quality at Donbas Arena now? We would not like to repeat the situation with Lille...
—It is not my first February in Ukraine, so now we have the best pitch I have ever seen here in this season.


The question to Willian: – In the first match you made a lot of passes to each other and forgot to send the balls to the rival's goal. Why? Will the same thing take place in Donetsk or you will score goals?
– The first game was very hard. We looked for the possibility to break the rivals' defense. But we didn't manage to do it all the time. But it was there, in London. And in Donetsk the situation is entirely different, we play at our own stadium, we will be supported by our fans. Being maximally concentrated, we will do our best to gain the positive result.

—Mister, are there any injured players at Shakhtar? Last year your team succeeded to beat CSKA in Donetsk after away defeat. Do you find any matches between both situations?
— I think today's situation has certain matches for last year's one. It is the first home game this year. Last year we played against CSKA after Tottenham. The first match at the home ground after a long break is always difficult. The difference lies in the fact that having lost 0—1 in Moscow, we had to score two goals here in Donetsk.  Perhaps, tomorrow it is going to be easier as we will have to score only one goal. Talking about injured players, we really have some injured ones. Rat and Adriano joined the common training sessions only yesterday. So I will make a decision on them after the tonight's training session.  
– Coming back to CSKA: both teams have just begun the season and Fulham is in full strength now...
– Anyway, we'll have the hard game tomorrow. As concerns Fulham, irrespective of the fact whether they play home-leg or away, they organize their play at the defense. It's their main advantage. The Londoners' play, except all the other things, is based on their functional state. Here we can mention both set plays and long passes to the attack line. Many things will depend on our two central defenders, on the way they will act. We should also add our two supporting midfielders, who are to defend the whole central zone. In London we didn't fully manage to do this: there were two penetrating passes that led to the rival's managing to score two goals in those situations that we studied and notified our players about it. I hope that having analyzed everything, we won't make such mistakes tomorrow. Of course we will attack a lot, there will be a lot of interaction in long attacks – naturally paying great attention to the whole-team defense functions. We'll try not to let the rivals go in counter-attacks, which will probably be the main point of their play.
– Both at the training camp and in the London match there were Pyatov's mistakes. Don't you have any doubts about the Number One post?
– I'd better not go back to it now. Our players know where and who and when made a mistake. We have analyze everything. I think, it's enough. I'd better not answer to this question. Andriy should have been more concentrated when Gera kicked. But it's not his fault, it was a chain of mistakes that led to the situation when Andriy was alone at the goal.
– Is it possible to say that Fulham is the most tough rival for your team to fight with among all the teams in the present season of UEFA Europa League?
– It was hard to evaluate our state. WE haven't played for two months, we ourselves didn't even know in what state we were. Unfortunately we didn't have the rhythm of the game the rhythm of the competition. It was obvious at the beginning of the match. in the first 10 minutes we lacked the playing experience. Then we took hold of the game and one can say that we had the initiative till the final whistle. If in London we had the advantage in the middle of the pitch, I'd like the players to shift it tomorrow to the opponent's penalty area, where the goals are scored from. Naturally, it is important for the realization to be good.
A question to Willian: – Could you compare the Tottenham of the last year and the Fulham of this year? Who is stronger?
– These teams are entirely different in style and their playing manner. Each of them has its own qualities and advantages. But nevertheless I can say that Fulham is something stronger and we'll have a difficult match tomorrow.

—Mister, if talking about Fernandinho and Adriano's unsporting behavior at the training camp, they were sent off. In the match against Fulham Srna was awarded a yellow card for nothing, actually. Do you sanction players for such episodes?
—We  had  plenty of talks with Darijo about that. He is very hot-tempered. Almost before each game I talk to him about that and ask him to change his reaction to referee's judgements. You know, he is some sort of person, if he needs to keep silence, he will do it easily. Last year, approximately at the same period he had two yellow cards. Then he didn't have any up to the final. If he needs to, he will behave himself. The same for Fernandinho. He shouldn't react to the provocation and the rival's physical play. It is the element of football at last. Adriano often gets cards for blocking the rival. Such situation took place at the training camp and he was sent off for that. And now when he wanted to block Schwarzer he got the yellow card. I think he didn't even touch Fulham's goalkeeper. It was he to my mind who should have got the penalty, because he slipped and tried to beat Adriano, falling. So, I say it once more, the card should have gone to Schwarzer. in the episode when Darijo was broken down – if Fulham player got the yellow card, the issue would probably be   settled. But Darijo began protesting and got the card for it. the referees interpret different situations in different ways. My rich experience shows that the referees from Scandinavian countries of from England prefer physical football. Referees from Eastern Europe prefer technical play. So the interpretation is different. It's naturally that the referees got used to work in such a way as the officiate at the championships of their countries. So their own championship affects their refereeing. If the referee is from the country where the matches are often held it being wet, on bad pitches, where sliding tackles and physical play are usual, he will certainly officiate at the European level in the same way.
– But tomorrow's match will be officiated by the Norwegian. Do you take this into account?
– I do not comment on the referees, but I say what really was. Ans as for tomorrow... he is very young. He is just 31. Certainly he has poor international experience. Let's hope that he'll cope with the game, let the teams do their beat on the pitch and will make the right decisions.

FC Shakhtar
Press Office

[NogoodBoyo]

Shrektar play in orange and black - the colour of bruised fruit where its easy to pop their pips when applying just a modest amount of pressure. 
Orange is a stupid colour that accentuates the white skin and nobbly knees of northern Europeans' puny white legs and makes southern legs look hairier and more neanderthal.  Black and white makes all legs look manly.

Nogood "it's all there in black and white, isit" Boyo

[KCat]

My final offering :)


Luiz Adriano, Razvan Rat and Darijo Srna are all one yellow card away from being suspended, so if cautioned on Thursday night would miss the first leg of the next round should Shakhtar progress.

[epsomraver]

Best of all the omens, the lucky FFC boxers were at the top of the pile this morning in the drawer and I haven't seen Fulham lose wearing them yet!

[Papa]

I'm currently applying for university and I've noticed a pattern that's emerged with hearing back from my choices.

I heard from Warwick on November 25, that evening we beat Blackburn 3-0
I heard from Oxford on December 18, the next day we beat Man United 3-0
I heard from Exeter on February 10, sandwiched between beating Burnley 3-0 and Notts County 4-0
I heard from York on February 17, the next day we beat Shakhtar 2-1

Well I heard back from Edinburgh today lads...