Saturday Fulham Stuff (15/10/11)...

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Baird challenges Sam to be a starter

AFTER spending last Saturday morning scoring two goals for Fulham's academy side, Sam Wilson will be turning his attentions to the FA Cup with Eastleigh this afternoon.

The livewire 17-year-old striker will be included in Ian Baird's squad for the visit of Oxford City in the third qualifying round.

With Fulham promising to keep tabs on the former Wildern schoolboy between now and the new year, Wilson's challenge is to continue working hard and force his way into the Spitfires' starting XI.

"It's been an interesting couple of weeks for Sam at Fulham and now he's got to knuckle down now and force himself into our side," said Baird. "He comes from good stock and the lad's got a good chance, but Fulham can only watch him if he's playing. He needs to get his mind focused on getting into Eastleigh's first team."

The Spitfires have a clean bill of health to face a buoyant Oxford side sitting second behind AFC Totton in the Evo-Stik Premier Division.
But Baird will be without on-loan defender/midfielder Henrik Breimyr whose parent club, Aldershot Town, do not want him cup-tied.

It means Breimyr has played his last game for the club, at least for the time being, because he is jetting off to Cyprus on Monday for Norway's UEFA Under-19 Championship qualifiers.

"Henrik will be a loss, but we won in the last round without him, so we'll hopefully be alright," said Baird.

"But it'll be difficult. Oxford City beat us in pre-season and played well and we had them watched last week when they beat Swindon Supermarine 7-1 and they were obviously very good that day.

"They've got experience up front and right round the side.

"As long as we do things right and don't give stupid goals away we've got a good chance but, of late, we've made a habit of kicking ourselves in the proverbials.

"We're in a higher league than them, but they're only five places below us on the pyramid. So are we favourites tomorrow? Possibly not."

Loan winger Graeme Montgomery can play tomorrow but, as of yesterday, Baird had still to talk to Aldershot about the possibility of extending his Silverlake stay.

Experienced midfielders Shaun Wilkinson and Ian Herring will be in contention after coming through a mid-week run-out at Aldershot in the Hampshire FA Senior Cup.



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13 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW STOKE VS FULHAM

Andrew Johnson hit a hat trick in that game and leapt 167 places in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index to 33rd

Bobby Zamora also hit the net in that game and rose 52 places to 22nd in the Index

Johnson's hat trick goals were his first in the Premier League this season, despite having got 88% of shots on target. Zamora has had 77% of shots on target this season and with Fabio Capello looking at alternative striking options in Wayne Rooney's absence both can stake a claim for an England place. Only Rooney and Aston Villa's Gabriel Agbonlahor are ranked higher as English strikers in the Index.

Johnson now joins the list of 6 players who have scored 3 goals or more in a single game this season, along with Edin Dezeko, Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, Sergio Aguero and Demba Ba

Danny Murphy's penalty pushed him up 8 places to 13th – Fulham's highest ranked player. Murphy has won 85% of tackles this season and covered 74.9km across his 7 appearances, scoring twice

Fulham's final scorer Clint Dempsey is the joint 3rd highest in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index for shots on target, having had 15 so far

Fulham's hosts Stoke City suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Swansea City in their last outing, covering 120.7 km in the process

Ryan Shawcross covered the most distance for Stoke, with 11.7km
Their struggle this season is apparent in the fact their goalkeeper Asmir Begovic is their highest ranked player in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index.

Begovic has now made 38 saves in the Barclays Premier League, the 5th highest of any goalkeeper and is the 4th ranked goalkeeper overall behind Joe Hart, David de Gea, and Tim Krul

Ryan Shawcross is their next highest ranked player in 71st place. The defender has won 80% of his tackles this season and made 10 clearance and 10 interceptions

Record signing Peter Crouch has hit 55% of his shots on target since joining, scoring once




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