Bournemouth v Fulham - anyone going?

[ImperialWhite]

Only my second ever away match in 3-4 seasons following Fulham, pretty poor showing... (first was Wolves, which was a fairly dire experience). Still, with any luck I might get to see my first Fulham hattrick!

[FatFreddysCat]

Only my second ever away match in 3-4 seasons following Fulham, pretty poor showing... (first was Wolves, which was a fairly dire experience). Still, with any luck I might get to see my first Fulham hattrick!

Or even your first Fulham attack (away from home)

[ImperialWhite]

Ha ha, quite.

It's funny, they wrote a letter to the 3 people (or whatever it was) who went to Stoke, but despite the loss it was actually quite an entertaining match. They ought to be writing letters for the poor souls enduring 0-0s away every other week!

[ImperialWhite]

Thought I'd give a quick report (I'm no writer, so it'll be brief and poorly written I'm afraid!).

All in all I had a grand day out - I'll definitely try to go on more of these away day adventures. Lots of us there (possibly more of us than there were of them, although it was hard to tell). Nice and loud at the start, but their good defending and our occasional spurious passing, and not least the scoreline meant it was fairly quiet towards the end.

Good game overall - obviously disappointed with the scoreline (I've yet to see Fulham win away, maybe I'll break my duck at Pompey), which possibly reflects on Fulham more poorly than the performance deserved. That said, I was so impressed with the way Bournemouth played, and I definitely think they have a shout of getting to the playoffs if they have a good season. They were very organised, and despite our superior technique and greater possession they were extremely tough to break down. Think Fulham v Shakhtar Donetsk but in reverse. We had lots of good attacks, but struggled to get a shot off cos our players were marked well and in numbers. Anton Robinson's goal was an absolute peach, and certainly easier on the eye than Zamora's. 

That said, we had many more chances than they did. If we'd not brought on Eddie Johnson at the expense of Zamora we could have had loads more. I didn't see the Brentford game, but EJ had a shocking game today. His touches were terrible - against a better side he would have lossed the ball. He lacked confidence in the box, and played needless passes when he should have had a shot and I think he missed a one-on-one with the keeper. Konchesky had a great game going forwards, but was beaten at least a few times for pace when defending - wouldn't necessarily be against against a move to Liverpool if we got a decent sum for him. Duff and Davies had a good games. Murphy was pretty good.

The ref had a fairly poor game I think. Maybe it's because it was a friendly, and because we were the bigger club, but he did seem to favour Bournemouth. They were getting away with an awful lot (including one awful two footed sliding tackle on Riise from behind which I'm sure would be a yellow in a competitive fixture, was not given at all!), where as we seemed to be giving away free kicks like sweets. I realise that stuck in a corner it's often hard to tell, but it did seem that Zamora was unfairly be called offside in the first half - possibly because he had so much more pace than the centre backs.

Other thoughts; I think the kit looks great! Wasn't a fan when I saw the pictures, but if I wasn't so skint I'd probably get one now. More simple than our last kit - which I like - and the sponsor logo is hardly noticable, which I very much approve of ('trade forex like a pro'  :020:). Get's the IW seal of approval. Bournemouth and Boscombe are really picturesque - not normally a big lover of seaside resorts, but I'd recommend a visit.

[Fernhurst]

IPW --- No need to apologise before you start....... enjoyable read which was pretty much spot on.

I was also impressed with Bournemouth and at times it was diffilcult to tell which team was Premership!

Watching the game carefully I wondered where the incoming Boss man would wan't to make a start if improvements are to be made.
My first thought was  MIDFIELD where we need more pace and craft. Although at this stage we looking for fitness and sharpness, Bournemouth appeared to find our ponderous build up play fairly easy to deal with. Spurs put 4 past them the other day. Although we made a couple of good chances, we never looked like we would take them apart.
Bournemouth gave us a good workout on a beautiful pitch, but we will need to move the ball faster and with more quality if we are going to get off to flyer at Bolton.