MATCH OF THE PAST: FULHAM FC

[WhiteJC]

 
MATCH OF THE PAST: FULHAM FC

At their picturesque home on the banks of the River Thames Fulham have long been a favourite of the television broadcasters, and today we have six matches from their archive, from the 1960s, the 1970s and the 1980s. The sixties began with the club having just been promoted to the First Division for only the second time in its history, and our first match is home match against Nottingham Forest from November 1967. The club ended the 1967/68 season being relegated from the First Division and a second successive relegation followed the next season. Our second match sees Fulham travel to Stockport County for a Third Division match from September 1969.

Our third and fourth matches are both from the teams FA Cup run of 1975, when a team captained by the former England captain Bobby Moore made it all the way to its first – and to date only – FA Cup final. First up, we have their quarter-final match, which sees the Second Division side face a daunting trip to Goodison Park to play Everton. Following this up, we have their semi-final match from Hillsborough, another match in which they started as the underdogs, this time against Birmingham City. The FA Cup run ended in disappointment, with Fulham losing at Wembley – in a match given the sobriquet of "The Friendly Final" by the press – by two goals to nil against West Ham United.

Finally, we have two matches from the 1982/83 season when, with Liverpool running away with the First Division championship, arguably unprecedented television coverage was given to a considerably tighter battle for promotion from the Second Division, in which Fulham, under the managership of the former Newcastle United and Arsenal striker Malcolm McDonald. The first of these two matches is a home match against Chelsea from April 1983, and our final match is one that went down in infamy, as Fulham travelled to The Baseball Ground to play a Derby County side which needed a result in order to avoid relegation itself. The events of that day would come to cast a pall over the end of that season.

Fulham v Notts Forest 1967
Stocport County v Fulham 1969
Everton v Fulham 1975
Fulham v Birmingham City 1975 FA Cup SF
Fulham v Chelsea 1982-83
Derby County v Fulham 1983



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[Burt]

The "events of that day" at the Baseball cast more than a pall over the end of the season... Still rankles with me to this very day. I know they say "forgive and forget", but...

[MOR :]

Only missed the Stockport away out of all of them...

[cmg]

Thanks. Some wonderful memories there.

Great to see footage of Clarkie in a Fulham shirt. Always looked the part. What a striker he was. We have had all too few out-and-out goal scoring machines over the years (and have been able to hang on to even fewer) and Allan Clarke was probably the best in my experience.

I'm going to confess here that, despite being a height-deficient, over weight defender, I used to try to walk like Allan Clarke on the football field - slightly pigeon toed, chest out, elbows back, fingers clutching the shirt cuffs. Fortunately there was no MoD footage of my standard of football to show what a prat I must have looked.

[LBNo11]

...I have waited 37 years to see that John 'SooooperMitch' Mitchell goal against the bluenoses in the 1975 semi-final 1st leg - and it was worth the wait.

And those of you who wonder why my hero was Les Barrett, watch him play in these games.

Thanks so much for the find John, everything else I had seen before, including the first half of the semi-final, but I had never seen the second half...

[MasterHaynes]

...I have waited 37 years to see that John 'SooooperMitch' Mitchell goal against the bluenoses in the 1975 semi-final 1st leg - and it was worth the wait.

And those of you who wonder why my hero was Les Barrett, watch him play in these games.

Thanks so much for the find John, everything else I had seen before, including the first half of the semi-final, but I had never seen the second half...

LB was such a great player, I always felt he deserved to play for England but they gave up on wingers following 66. I can never ever remember him having an off day. No matter who he played against alwasy the saem flying performance up and down the wing, no matter how many times he got kicked you never ever saw him rolling around on the floor.

[HatterDon]

...I have waited 37 years to see that John 'SooooperMitch' Mitchell goal against the bluenoses in the 1975 semi-final 1st leg - and it was worth the wait.

And those of you who wonder why my hero was Les Barrett, watch him play in these games.

Thanks so much for the find John, everything else I had seen before, including the first half of the semi-final, but I had never seen the second half...

LB was such a great player, I always felt he deserved to play for England but they gave up on wingers following 66. I can never ever remember him having an off day. No matter who he played against alwasy the saem flying performance up and down the wing, no matter how many times he got kicked you never ever saw him rolling around on the floor.

Every time I watch him I'm amazed at how two-footed he was, the quality of his vision, and the quickness of his decision-making. It's a shame that wingers were out of favor with England managers during his heyday. He really was a brilliant player.

That Clarke kid might have a future also.