Saturday Fulham Stuff (06/12/14)...

[WhiteJC]

 
Christmas At The Cottage

With visits from First Team players, gifts from Santa and live Christmas-themed entertainment, it can mean only one thing – it's Christmas at the Cottage.

Make yours a White(s) Christmas over one spectacular fun-filled day (and evening!) at our home match against Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday 20th December (kick-off 3pm).

We have embraced the festive season, offering a huge choice of ways to make the most of the day with us.

With kids tickets just £1, look out for Santa and Fulham's very own Billy the Badger, as well as the Christmas Choir on Stevenage Road and lots of giveaways for all junior supporters throughout the day!

What's more, there are many festive-themed Matchday Hospitality packages also available to purchase, providing access for supporters to meet members of the First Team after the match. Find out more online.

Don't miss the best Christmas at the Cottage event yet!


http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2014/december/05/christmas-at-the-cottage?

[WhiteJC]

 
Sky Bet Championship: Watford thump 10-man Fulham 5-0 at Craven Cottage

Troy Deeney scored a hat-trick as Watford thumped 10-man Fulham 5-0 at Craven Cottage in the Sky Bet Championship on Friday night.

The Hornets had lost their previous four matches to slip from top of the table to seventh, but they rediscovered their early-season form in style while putting a dent in Fulham's recent revival.

Troy Deeney scored a hat-trick as Watford thumped 10-man Fulham 5-0 at Craven Cottage in the Sky Bet Championship on Friday night.

The Hornets had lost their previous four matches to slip from top of the table to seventh, but they rediscovered their early-season form in style while putting a dent in Fulham's recent revival.

Daniel Tozser's curling free-kick looked destined for the top corner until Bettinelli flung himself across goal to make a superb one-handed save.

Then Bettinelli was beaten after rushing out to meet Deeney as he chased a long ball over the top, with the striker nodding the ball over him towards an unguarded net. But Konstantinos Stafylidis had read the danger and bailed his goalkeeper out with an acrobatic clearance on the goal-line.

However, Watford grabbed a deserved lead after 15 minutes when Abdi took over free-kick duties and drilled a low shot through Deeney's legs and underneath the jumping Fulham wall, with a slight deflection leaving Bettinelli wrong-footed.

Fulham's evening went from bad to worse three minutes later when Bettinelli clipped Matej Vydra as the Czech striker attempted to round him, earning the Hornets a penalty and the home goalkeeper a straight red card.

Gabor Kiraly was summoned from the bench to face Deeney's spot-kick, but he was promptly sent the wrong way as the Watford skipper celebrated his first goal in six matches.

With the Fulham defence all over the place, Deeney took his tally for the season to six when he latched onto Gianni Munari's header back into the box and prodded the ball through the tracksuited legs of Kiraly eight minutes before the break.

Any ambitions Fulham had of an unlikely comeback were ended six minutes into the second half, when Abdi collected Vydra's pass and took a couple of steps forward before unleashing a powerful, curling drive from 25 yards into the top corner.

Deeney completed his hat-trick deep in stoppage time, racing clear to beat Kiraly and cap a welcome return to form for the Hornets.



http://www1.skysports.com/football/live/match/313999/report?

[WhiteJC]

 
Bettinelli sees red as Fulham are thrashed by Watford

Night to forget for Cottagers as Hornets run riot to end losing streak

Fulham 0-5 Watford

Marcus Bettinelli was sent-off as Fulham were hammered at home by Watford.

The England U21 keeper saw red for bringing down Matej Vydra as the visitors claimed bragging rights in Friday's London derby thanks to Troy Deeney's treble and a brace from Almen Abdi.

The Hornets made a storming start and could have been ahead inside three minutes, but Bettinelli pulled off a spectacular save to keep out Daniel Tozser's free-kick.

Gianni Munari flashed a header across face of goal, while Kostas Stafylidis produced a last-ditch goalline clearance to deny Deeney.

Bettinelli was called into action again when Tozser tested him from distance, but Watford eventually found a way through on 15 minutes when Abdi's free-kick went under the wall and nestled into the net.

The Cottagers were left with a mountain to climb 90 seconds later. Bettinelli brought down Vydra in the box and received a straight red from referee Paul Tierney.

Deeney stepped up to send Gabor Kiraly the wrong way from the spot to double the visitors' advantage.

The Hornets skipper added a third nine minutes before the break when he latched onto Munari's header to tap the ball past Kiraly.

Abdi piled more misery on the hosts at the beginning of the second half when the midfielder curled an unstoppable shot into the top corner that left Kiraly rooted to the spot.

Deeney completed his hat-trick in stoppage-time when he raced clear to slot home from 12 yards.

Fulham: Bettinelli, Grimmer, Bodurov, Burn, Stafylidis, Parker, Fofana (Williams 61), Christensen, Ruiz (Kiraly 19), McCormack, Rodallega.

Subs (not used): Hutchinson, Zverotic, Roberts, Dembele, Hyndman.


http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/sport/football/match-reports/bettinelli-sees-red-fulham-thrashed-8238046?

[WhiteJC]

 
Manager Reaction

Kit Symons rued Fulham's slow start as Watford went on to score five goals on a disappointing evening for the home side at Craven Cottage.

The Hornets were already a goal up when Whites goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli was sent off for a professional foul, with Watford captain Troy Deeney dispatching the subsequent spot-kick.

The men in yellow were in control from there on, adding three more goals to their tally, but the Fulham Manager was at least pleased to see his side continue fighting until the final whistle.

"We started very poorly in the game," he admitted. "I think you've got to give Watford some credit, they came out all guns blazing but we had a very poor start to the game. I've got no arguments about that at all.

"We got the warning sign, Marcus made a fantastic save from the free-kick that we gave away stupidly before they scored. And then we didn't heed the warning from that, gave away another silly free-kick in a very bad area. The wall jumped, it went underneath the wall [for 1-0].

"And then the sending off, obviously. 2-0 down, 10 men, with a large chunk of the game to play, makes life very, very difficult. But we hadn't played well up until then.

"But I know what this team can do and if we'd continued with 11 men I would've still fancied our chances to get something out of it. But obviously down to 10 and 2-0 down, it's a real mountain to climb. We conceded a sloppy third goal before half-time as well.

"I said to the players at half-time, what we can't do now is feel sorry for ourselves and let our heads drop and people need to play with passion and play with pride for the shirts they're wearing. They needed to show character and I think we did second half, to be fair.

"It was a wonder strike for the fourth and with the last kick of the game it was real sloppy defending for their fifth one, but overall second half, being a man light, our players showed character and I was proud of them for that."

It was Fulham's heaviest loss at home for some time, and Symons admitted it shows that there is still plenty of progress that still needs to be made.

"You've got to try and learn from it," he said. "Every game – win, lose or draw – you've got to learn from it. There's quite a lot we can learn from tonight and it's obvious there's a lot of hard work and a lot of improvement still to be done.

"I think you take it for what it is. It was a bad start to the game and then 2-0 down with 10 men, it was always going to be very, very difficult for us from there. Although 5-0 is a heavy, heavy defeat, it wasn't a capitulation, certainly second half I thought the boys showed real character.

"You can get 5-0 defeats where people down tools a little bit. I'm pleased to say the one small crumb of comfort I can get from the game is that that didn't happen to the team tonight."


http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2014/december/05/manager-reaction

[WhiteJC]

 
Symons demands that Fulham learn the lessons from Watford hammering

Kit Symons' Fulham side had a night to forget and the Whites boss was spared further grilling on their 5-0 defeat to Watford by the fire alarm.

Almen Abdi had given the Hornets the lead before goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli was sent off for brining down Matej Vydra.

Troy Deeney scored from the resulting penalty and bagged his second eight minutes before the break after a mistake from Lasse Vigen Christensen.

Abdi scored his second and Watford's fourth from 25 yards that left replacement goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly with no chance.

With the last kick of the game, Deeney made it five to round off a disastrous night for the Whites.

Symons said: "You've got to try and learn from it and there's quite a lot we can learn from tonight.

"There's a lot of hard work and a lot of improvement that needs to be done.

"We started very poorly. Watford came out all guns blazing. We had a very poor start to the game.

"Marcus made a fantastic save from the free kick that we gave away. We gave away another free kick [and Abdi scored].

"It went underneath the wall and then we had the sending off. When you're 2-0 down with 10 men from then on it was going to be difficult."

Watford looked like they could score every time they went forward, even when Fulham had 11 men, but Symons felt that the sending off cost the Whites the chance to come back into the game.

"I know what this team can do," he said. "If we'd continued with 11 men I'd have fancied our chances.

"Down to 10 and 2-0 down then it's a mountain to climb. I said to them at half-time that we can't feel sorry for ourselves.

"People need to play for pride. I thought we did in the second half. It was a wonderful strike for the fourth. I thought the players showed a good character."


http://www.london24.com/sport/football/clubs/fulham/symons_demands_that_fulham_learn_the_lessons_from_watford_hammering_1_3876261

[WhiteJC]

 
U18s Visit Reading

Fulham Under-18s begin a busy schedule on Saturday that sees them play the first of three games in the space of eight days.

With the commencement of their FA Youth Cup campaign at Crewe Alexandra on Wednesday and a trip to Arsenal the next Saturday to follow, it's Reading away this weekend for Kevin Keen's young charges.

The sides have actually already met in the Barclays U18 Premier League this season, with Fulham running out 3-1 winners at Motspur Park.

Dennis Adeniran, Joshua Walker and Stephen Humphrys were on target for the Whites that day, and a similar result on Saturday would be most welcome.


http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2014/december/05/u18s-visit-reading?

[WhiteJC]

 
Abbreviated View from South Texas — Fulham v. Watford
by HatterDon

First of all, I hate them damned Dirty Yellows. The Hatter in me has never had any good thoughts about that crew, and today didn't change my mind.

Having said that, I've seldom seen such a textbook display of quality passing as we saw from Watford. Long, short, back, forward, sideways — all of them clear, smooth, and accurate. With that passing acuity against a 10-man squad, it was always going to get ugly early. And so it did.

From the beginning it was obvious that something was not right with Betts. His crap decision making almost cost us a goal early on when Budurov had to jump in and concede a free kick. He completely lost his rag in giving up the penalty. Since when does an early red card become the better option? Whenever the keeper is sent off, two players suffer. With the exception of his weak distribution, our young keeper has impressed me so far this season. Today, it looked like he left his brain hanging on a hook with his civvies.

Fulham throughout looked confused and out of sorts. Watford looked like a calm, top table side, even given their four game losing streak, and man did their finishing match their passing. That 4th goal was stunning. Fully six Hornets caught the eye, but I'm not going to mention any of them. They'll be in the playoff picture at least with this squad. Fulham? I've seen some great performances from the Whites this season, but today was about dispirited mediocrity. Down 2-0 inside 25 minutes is tough, but a resolute side would have stopped the bleeding and made Watford pay for every yard of turf. Today we never looked like causing even a single threat.

This season, there have been several Fulham players who caught my eye from time to time. Today, the only two players in white I thought put in a decent shift were Grimmer and LVC. The rest looked lost.

I still think we're going to finish in the top half. I never thought we would be relegated. I never thought we were going to get promoted, but I really had hoped that we were going to stop playing like our manager was Martin Jol.

Oh, and my hat is off to the 2-300 Fulham supporters to stuck around for the bitter end. With the place apparently half full at best, there never was much atmosphere to dissipate with early exits.

There's obviously no HatterDon Man of the Match in this abortion, but I'm also not going to single out any one person as responsible for this debacle. I'm hoping there's a bunch of players looking hard at themselves and asking, "Couldn't I have done more tonight?"


http://www.friendsoffulham.com/wordpress/?p=493