Thursday Fulham Stuff (26/09/13)...

[WhiteJC]

 
Darren is hell-Bent on glory for Fulham
DARREN BENT claims Fulham finally have lift-off this season after their Capital One Cup comeback win over Everton on Tuesday.

The Cottagers won at home for the first time since April to march into the fourth round and ease the pressure on boss Martin Jol.

Bent scored the clincher in a 2-1 win after fighting back from a goal down.

The on-loan Aston Villa striker, who came off the bench to score, said: "It was a positive performance and there's no reason why we can't now go on and have a really good season

"It was a hard game – you know what you're going to get when you play against Everton. They're a strong side and always make it difficult but I thought we showed character to come back from 1-0 down and get the result.

"The second half was probably the best we've played this season and we thoroughly deserved the win. We'll take great confidence from that performance and now it's all about Cardiff in the league on Saturday.''

Bent now has two goals in five appearances for Fulham and has vowed that there are many more to come.

The 29-year-old, who still has England ambitions, said: "I've come in and want to play games and score as many goals as possible."


http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/341018/Darren-is-hell-Bent-on-glory-for-Fulham

[WhiteJC]

 
Everton (H) – Review

Darren Bent ended Fulham's long wait for a home win by coming off the bench to complete a turnaround victory at Craven Cottage.

A number of barren records were abolished last night as Craven Cottage witnessed a home victory for the first time since beating QPR on April 1st, and in the process we also ended a twenty month spell in which we failed to win a game from a losing position. The last time we achieved this feat was, believe it or not, against Newcastle in a 5-2 romp, and the manner of which we achieved the feat against a weakened yet strong Everton side indicates it could be the catalyst from which we can gather some momentum in our important forthcoming fixtures.


Fulham won from a losing position for the first time since January 2012
With Cardiff and Stoke visiting the Cottage in our next two fixtures, and Jol under increasing pressure after dropped points late against West Brom and a turgid second half performance at Stamford Bridge, a poor performance and result against the visiting Toffees would have given our fans further justification to reinforce the growing emergence of vitriol aimed at the team and more prominently, Martin Jol. Following a poor opening half in which Steven Naismith frequently took advantage of our high defensive line by buzzing around the constantly troublesome Romelu Lukaku, and slotting in the opening goal after receiving an acute through ball from the technically impressive Gerard Deulofeu, the whites emerged after half-time to produce our best forty-five minutes this season.


Romelu Lukaku was a persistent threat
The aforementioned Deulofeu did not deserve to be on the losing side, he seemed impervious in the first-half as he found space in between our midfield and attack, our midfield combination of Parker and Karagounis struggled to contain the away sides fluid movement as McCarthy and Oviedo allowed the Barcelona loanee the freedom to control the tempo of the game in an advanced role. Fortunately for us, this trend reversed following the interval, as Pajtim Kasami gained more confidence in his number ten role with our deep-lying midfield two taking a foothold in the game.

We yearn to see Jol change games, and for the second time in the league cup this season a substitution has directly impacted the game through scoring. It took Bent all of just three minutes to cleverly elude the awaiting pack and give Karagounis the option to play the ball short to the former England marksmen, who shot through Joel Robles' legs to complete a transformation not only in personnel, but in mentality from half-time. This was the sort of enthusiasm we wanted to see in the second-half at Stamford Bridge, instead of toiling away and resting on our laurels, thus inviting opposition pressure.


Darrent Bent scored his second Fulham goal to put the Whites into the 4th Round
Emerging in the second half with fresh impetus and desire, we saw the results of this in the build-up to our first goal. Hangeland winning the ball by pressing in a midfield area, the industrious parker then gave a platform for Kasami to drive at the Everton defence, something he showed glimpses of against both Chelsea and West Brom, and through a fortunate break the ball fell to Berbatov, who calmly slotted the ball low to Robles' left and in doing so scored his first goal at the Hammersmith End. The thought of momentum being pivotal was shown within the cacophony of forty-five minutes, as Everton struggled to regain their previous dominance. Despite late pressure, and a sprawling save denying what should have been a certain goal from Seamus Coleman, we ended the game well and gained an entertaining and much needed victory.

So what can we take from the game? Darrent Bent stretched the Everton defence and allowed Kasami and Berbatov to operate in space, and as a result giving the midfield two more room to manoeuvre. These three must start on Saturday. Both Kacanaklic and Taarabt were quiet, more so the latter, and should fear the returning Ruiz, Duff and Mesca taking their spots. Parker was fantastic once more, and Karagounis did himself no harm, Amorebieta impressed once again in his albeit brief appearance and debutant Elsad Zverotic looked industrious and comfortable on the ball. Stockdale made impressive saves and despite his mistake gifting Chelsea the lead on Saturday, should remain in goal for the time being.


Scott Parker was combative in midfield and showed leadership in a deep-lying role
Whether or not this is another step on the road to Wembley remains to be seen, and we await tonight's fourth round draw, but in the much wider context of our season the importance of this result, more so in doing so from a losing position and jeers being audible at the half-time whistle, cannot be underestimated. We have four important fixtures forthcoming, all of which are winnable. We can now go into the Cardiff and Stoke home double-header on the back of a confidence boosting victory, and should be aiming for maximum points from these two games.

On the day that the much-derided Michael Jackson statue has been removed from Craven Cottage and returned to our previous owner, it was nice to get a reminder that we're not always bad.



http://bartrambytheriver.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/everton-h-review/

[WhiteJC]

 
Burn On Target For Blues

Dan Burn was on target as Birmingham City knocked out holders Swansea City in the Third Round of the Capital One Cup on Wednesday night.

After a goalless first half at St Andrew's, the unmarked Burn put Blues in front with a header from Paul Caddis' cross.

Matt Green and Tom Adeyemi then increased Birmingham's advantage, before Wilfried Bony replied for Swansea in injury time.

Blues will play Stoke City in the Fourth Round.


http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2013/september/26/burn-on-target-for-blues?

[WhiteJC]

 
Fulham Fans Should Get Real About Martin Jol

When a new chairman or chairwoman comes into a club they often have their own ideas on how things should be run on and off the pitch, which means whoever is the manager at that point is in danger of losing their job. In the case of Fulham under the new ownership of Shad Khan, it appears to be a minority of fans rather than a know-it-all businessman or woman that would do way with the current boss, Martin Jol.

This was exemplified plainly at their home game against West Bromwich Albion over a week ago, which left them in their usual area of 13th place. It's usually the opposite although I wouldn't be surprised if Khan was or will eventually be on their side going by the past actions of owners. The members of the Craven Cottage faithful that want Jol out of the club for not getting them to where they 'rightly deserve' are forgetting a few things.

Never won a major honour

Although The Whites have been established in the top tier for 12 straight years now, and reached the Europa League final three years ago after a remarkable spate of victories against much bigger clubs such as Juventus and Hamburg on route to it, Fulham's highest top-flight finishes are 7th and 8th.

They have never won a major honour throughout their entire history as London's oldest club and have spent the majority of their lifespan in the lower leagues, so we are not talking crème de la crème here. But that is not what some impatient and narrow minded 'supporters' would have you believe going by some of their behaviour.

Stiff competition

In terms of size, it's arguable whether the club that are currently residing in 18th place in the Premiership (them) are even Premier League standard when you think of the likes of Leeds United, Nottingham Forest and Wolverhampton Wanderers plying their trades in the divisions below. Whether fans thought that Fulham should have built on the dizzy heights of 7th, 8th and a European final then challenge for the Champions League I don't know.

But those calling for Jol's head should remember that there's stiff competition out there. You never know, with Khan's backing they could do a 'Manchester City', but it's highly unlikely.

Jol has done well in his managerial career including his spell at Tottenham Hotspur. It was him who got the ball rolling for the The Lilywhites, transforming them from the average mid-table side that they had been for the best part of a decade to coming within a whisker (and a rumoured dodgy lasagne) away from qualifying for the Champions League in 2005-06.

Only picked up under Redknapp

He guided them to another fifth place finish the following season. Despite being sacked in October of the 2007-08 campaign, his fate was virtually sealed after two games when his chairman Daniel Levy was spotted in a Spanish hotel with Jol's eventual successor, Juande Ramos.

It proved to be a knee-jerk reaction on Tottenham's part as they, despite winning the League Cup, ended up in 11th place, while then only gaining two points from their first eight games the following campaign, which ultimately led to the dismissal of Ramos.

The club only picked themselves up again under his successor Harry Redknapp who actually got them into Europe's premier competition, with a little help from Gareth Bale of back-of-the-newspaper fame whom Jol signed in his time at the club.

What do those dissenting expect from the club?

This praising up of Jol is not to say that someone else couldn't come in at Fulham and achieve a similar degree success with the club i.e. getting them to 12th place like the man who looks a cross between Humpty Dumpty and a Mafia boss did with them last season. But what do those dissenting voices in the Fulham crowd expect from their club?

Saying ''you could do a lot of worse than Jol'' is a compliment, but I would rather say ''you won't get many better than Jol,'' because, disgruntled Cottage supporters, you won't.

A club of Tottenham's size (much bigger than yours) were bottom a year after Jol was gone—what makes you think the same wouldn't happen to you should you treat him the same way?


http://www.kettlemag.co.uk/article/fulham-fans-should-get-real-about-martin-jol?

[WhiteJC]

 
Martin Jol confirms Maarten Stekelenburg still out

Fulham manager Martin Jol has revealed that Maarten Stekelenburg will remain missing through injury for Saturday's home clash against Cardiff City.

Jol also confirmed that Ashkan Dejagah and Matthew Briggs will not be fit for the visit of the Bluebirds.

The Dutchman did say that Aaron Hughes and Bryan Ruiz would face late fitness tests, which could see them in the squad on Saturday.

Stekelenburg was injured in Fulham's opening-day win over Sunderland, while Dejagah has made just one appearance so far this season, in the League Cup win away to Burton Albion.



http://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/fulham/news/jol-confirms-stekelenburg-still-out_107321.html