A Stoke viewpoint-Words fail me.

[Travers Barney]

)  Fulham are a surprisingly hard team to like

Like Tony Pulis, I was looking forward to watching players of the quality of Berbatov coming to the Britannia under Martin Jol's apparently cavalier, fun-loving Fulham side. The big Dutchman's threw the increasingly tiresome 'rugby team' jibe at us after the game, which has become fairly standard from sour managers who visit ST4 and don't have it all their own way. It was in this case however a statement of bare-faced hypocrisy. For while Fulham under Jol have a reputation as being Arsenal-lite purveyors of the beautiful game, and the absence of Brede Hangeland undoubtedly made them more vulnerable to set pieces, it was they who were the 'nasty' team on the day. They committed cynical fouls to stop our attacks (Senderos' trip on Etherington in the first half springs to mind) and stray arms whacked our players in the face – Berbatov himself nailed Nzonzi with an eye gouge so blatant that Giant Haystacks would have been embarrassed. Other Fulham players, meanwhile, seemed to be under orders to go down and stay down whenever the opposition attacked – two or three of them did this regularly, by far the worst offender being Karagounis, who often appeared to be cheating purely for the sake of it – at 35, he should know better.

I seem to write every season that for a supposed nicey nicey 'family' club, Fulham always turn out to be pretty damn unlikeable when we play them. Since John Paintsil's embarrassing collapse to try and get Ricardo Fuller sent off in our first season up, we've had to put up with moaning from Hodgson, Danny Murphy's goblin-faced antics on and off the pitch, and Mark Hughes' OCD handshake phobia. Yet managers and players come and go, but that whining, sly cynicism seems imbued in the club, a malevolent force that can't be shifted. Perhaps Craven Cottage was built on an ancient Indian burial ground, like the Overlook Hotel in The Shining.

You are the caretaker, Mr Jol. You have always been the caretaker...


Thats what they think about us........I'd rather lose to Chelsea than Stoke....never thought that I'd say that about any other team.

coyw

[cebu]

I'm amazed that the city of Stoke hasn't produced more fiction authors in its history.   092.gif

[Muz]

flabbergasted


(what a great word)

[ffcbulgaria]

"You have to get them on the back foot and play your football in their half. We did that in the second half but we needed lot of forward players to try and do that. It was disappointing that we still couldn't score.

"You can't let them force their style on you but that is what we let them do in the first half. I admire Stoke for their style. It's not my style but it's a style. Even Charlie Adam looked bigger than last year!"

he even said he admires them...
glad the guy who wrote all that bulls hit took the 2 minutes to check on the post match comments from our team :D

even Riether didn't complain :) he just pointed out we expected long balls and they tried 150 of them

[leonffc]

I haven't seen any of the game but I imagine he was right about Karagounis. This fella could be an embarassment if he keeps rolling about. And the fella has a point about the pantsil incident too.
Thats enough defending him. Every one of their supporters seem to revel in Pulis's game plan. They are ultra defensive of him and his dull tactis. God knows what the sunday league is like up there

[Travers Barney]

Leon I was thinking about what their Sunday League must be like too....the local A&E must be overwhelmed around mid-day on the Sabbath.

I used to marvel about the likes of Terry Conroy and Fulham supporting Alan Hudson when they wore the red and white stripes.....now a victory against Stoke City under Pulis is as sweet as any victory against any of our London rivals.

coyw

[Scrumpy]

Blimey, talk about a one eyed view of the match!

I'll tell you what I noticed on Saturday; their fans are becoming seriously bored of the Pulis system. They managed about 3 songs all afternoon, and were generally just sat there looking glum. 'Where's  your famous atmosphere?'

It really is anti-football, so as soon as the results dry up a bit, the fans are straight on the players backs. Because without the result, they have nothing.

I was proud of the way we tried to pass it around for the entire 90 minutes. Sometimes that takes bottle to do. A different type of bottle to flying into a 50-50 challenge, but bottle all the same.

[tomcolemanfry]

Bloody hell, you'd have thought they'd be the ones that lost to some sort of horrible injustice after that reaction!

I agree with Scrumpy, their fans sung five times, one round of Deliah after the goal, and a lot of groans seemed to come whenever they hoothed the long ball forward. They really are a very ugly team to watch week in, week out and I feel sorry for their support. As much as we tried to play football, we just kept getting bullied off the ball.

To say Jol is the caretaker is taking things a bit too far, have they looked at their league positions over last season and the current season?

[Apprentice to the Maestro]

I haven't seen any of the game but I imagine he was right about Karagounis. This fella could be an embarassment if he keeps rolling about. And the fella has a point about the pantsil incident too.
Thats enough defending him. Every one of their supporters seem to revel in Pulis's game plan. They are ultra defensive of him and his dull tactis. God knows what the sunday league is like up there

So you are happy to take the word of an opposing supporter who clearly gets some things wrong to support your prejudice? That's done some damage to your credibility.

[leonffc]

I haven't seen any of the game but I imagine he was right about Karagounis. This fella could be an embarassment if he keeps rolling about. And the fella has a point about the pantsil incident too.
Thats enough defending him. Every one of their supporters seem to revel in Pulis's game plan. They are ultra defensive of him and his dull tactis. God knows what the sunday league is like up there

So you are happy to take the word of an opposing supporter who clearly gets some things wrong to support your prejudice? That's done some damage to your credibility.

What are you talking about?
I've seen karagounis rolling around 'in agony' through out his career and it's not the sort of thing I want to see from anyone wearing a Fulham shirt. Why am I being prejudice?
IF you read what I said, its says I imagine. Not that I believe him but I imagine that it could be true.

[Apprentice to the Maestro]

I haven't seen any of the game but I imagine he was right about Karagounis. This fella could be an embarassment if he keeps rolling about. And the fella has a point about the pantsil incident too.
Thats enough defending him. Every one of their supporters seem to revel in Pulis's game plan. They are ultra defensive of him and his dull tactis. God knows what the sunday league is like up there

So you are happy to take the word of an opposing supporter who clearly gets some things wrong to support your prejudice? That's done some damage to your credibility.

What are you talking about?
I've seen karagounis rolling around 'in agony' through out his career and it's not the sort of thing I want to see from anyone wearing a Fulham shirt. Why am I being prejudice?
IF you read what I said, its says I imagine. Not that I believe him but I imagine tha

I haven't seen any of the game but I imagine he was right about Karagounis. This fella could be an embarassment if he keeps rolling about. And the fella has a point about the pantsil incident too.
Thats enough defending him. Every one of their supporters seem to revel in Pulis's game plan. They are ultra defensive of him and his dull tactis. God knows what the sunday league is like up there

So you are happy to take the word of an opposing supporter who clearly gets some things wrong to support your prejudice? That's done some damage to your credibility.

What are you talking about?
I've seen karagounis rolling around 'in agony' through out his career and it's not the sort of thing I want to see from anyone wearing a Fulham shirt. Why am I being prejudice?
IF you read what I said, its says I imagine. Not that I believe him but I imagine that it could be true.

Why not wait until you actually see him in a Fulham shirt to judge him? Some players come from places where they expect the rolling about and, I agree, it is embarrassing. Most learn that we don't like it at Fulham and learn to stand up. Give him a chance to settle in and adjust.

[leonffc]

I haven't seen any of the game but I imagine he was right about Karagounis. This fella could be an embarassment if he keeps rolling about. And the fella has a point about the pantsil incident too.
Thats enough defending him. Every one of their supporters seem to revel in Pulis's game plan. They are ultra defensive of him and his dull tactis. God knows what the sunday league is like up there

So you are happy to take the word of an opposing supporter who clearly gets some things wrong to support your prejudice? That's done some damage to your credibility.

What are you talking about?
I've seen karagounis rolling around 'in agony' through out his career and it's not the sort of thing I want to see from anyone wearing a Fulham shirt. Why am I being prejudice?
IF you read what I said, its says I imagine. Not that I believe him but I imagine tha

I haven't seen any of the game but I imagine he was right about Karagounis. This fella could be an embarassment if he keeps rolling about. And the fella has a point about the pantsil incident too.
Thats enough defending him. Every one of their supporters seem to revel in Pulis's game plan. They are ultra defensive of him and his dull tactis. God knows what the sunday league is like up there

So you are happy to take the word of an opposing supporter who clearly gets some things wrong to support your prejudice? That's done some damage to your credibility.

What are you talking about?
I've seen karagounis rolling around 'in agony' through out his career and it's not the sort of thing I want to see from anyone wearing a Fulham shirt. Why am I being prejudice?
IF you read what I said, its says I imagine. Not that I believe him but I imagine that it could be true.

Why not wait until you actually see him in a Fulham shirt to judge him? Some players come from places where they expect the rolling about and, I agree, it is embarrassing. Most learn that we don't like it at Fulham and learn to stand up. Give him a chance to settle in and adjust.

TBH I thought there were signs of it when he made his debut but he was as good as gold against Sunderland. All I was saying is that it wouldn't have surprised me if he was trying to influence the ref a little, especially against that lot

[Lighthouse]

To get back to the point.

Senderos and his cut eye produced from a flying elbow. So if Fulham were doing it they were not half as good at it as Stoke are.

Still if you watch Stoke every week then you must have to pretend you are watching football even if it is simply Wimbledon of old. Dull and nasty.

[Admin]

We had enough talent on the day to at least get a draw at Stoke, if not a cheeky win. Bottom line is we turned up with a very negative attitude and mindset towards the game. Everyone was poor including Jol's tactics. Teams will only start winning at the Britannia if they get the ball down and play football. Unfortunately they fall straight into Stokes bullyish ways and it never happens.  

[Bassey the warrior]

I haven't seen any of the game but I imagine he was right about Karagounis. This fella could be an embarassment if he keeps rolling about. And the fella has a point about the pantsil incident too.
Thats enough defending him. Every one of their supporters seem to revel in Pulis's game plan. They are ultra defensive of him and his dull tactis. God knows what the sunday league is like up there

It's not that surprising really. They were nowhere before he came. They're now an established Premier League side who had a good run in Europe last season. Without him they're going straight back down so they'll have to put up with the rubbish football he has his team play.

[A Humble Man]

If you are a Stoke supporter you either support another team or justify what you have got.  To them they have have a strong and determined team who worry the opposition by getting the ball forward quickly and getting the ball in the box as often as possible.

We played like that under Adams and I do not remember many of our fans being critical.

[BestOfBrede]

If you are a Stoke supporter you either support another team or justify what you have got.  To them they have have a strong and determined team who worry the opposition by getting the ball forward quickly and getting the ball in the box as often as possible.

We played like that under Adams and I do not remember many of our fans being critical.

hmm, old 4th division campared to playing that way in the premier? - completely different Guv!

[Rupert]

If you are a Stoke supporter you either support another team or justify what you have got.  To them they have have a strong and determined team who worry the opposition by getting the ball forward quickly and getting the ball in the box as often as possible.

We played like that under Adams and I do not remember many of our fans being critical.

hmm, old 4th division campared to playing that way in the premier? - completely different Guv!

No, he doesn't remember that many of us being critical, because there were not that many of us around to be critical 

Seriously, though, Adam's methods were not universally accepted at first, not least by the players, Morgs makes it clear in his book that it was only after beating Carlisle at the Cottage that he realised the system was going to work, and he was only persuaded to go with Adams' ideas after being threatened with being left to rot in the reserves if he continued to object to them.
We the fans were less critical because we had been on a downward slope for fifteen years, and simply winning on a regular basis was such an unusual experience that we would have accepted any style that delivered. Once the good times started to roll, we all got a lot more fussy about the style of football that was served up.

[A Humble Man]

If you are a Stoke supporter you either support another team or justify what you have got.  To them they have have a strong and determined team who worry the opposition by getting the ball forward quickly and getting the ball in the box as often as possible.

We played like that under Adams and I do not remember many of our fans being critical.

hmm, old 4th division campared to playing that way in the premier? - completely different Guv!

No, he doesn't remember that many of us being critical, because there were not that many of us around to be critical 

Seriously, though, Adam's methods were not universally accepted at first, not least by the players, Morgs makes it clear in his book that it was only after beating Carlisle at the Cottage that he realised the system was going to work, and he was only persuaded to go with Adams' ideas after being threatened with being left to rot in the reserves if he continued to object to them.
We the fans were less critical because we had been on a downward slope for fifteen years, and simply winning on a regular basis was such an unusual experience that we would have accepted any style that delivered. Once the good times started to roll, we all got a lot more fussy about the style of football that was served up.

You have captured in a very erudite way what I was trying to say.  Stoke cannot afford a squad that can survive in the Premier League unless they play a system, no matter how ugly, that make it as difficult for the opposition to score.  Fulham fans have become accustomed to a cultured passing game that did not work at all on Saturday but will give Chelsea and most teams in the Premier League a good game. 

What I am trying to say we have suffered two fluke results that give no lesson for how our season will pan out.

[ron]

I'm amazed that the city of Stoke hasn't produced more fiction authors in its history.   092.gif

The Stoke area brings Arnold Bennett to mind..

....whereas that piece of writing makes you think "Gordon Bennett" !