Saturday Fulham Stuff (15/08/15)...

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Cup Date Confirmed

The Club can confirm that our Second Round Capital One Cup match against Sheffield United at Craven Cottage will take place on Tuesday 25th August (7.45pm).

Tickets prices and details of when tickets will be available to purchase will be confirmed in due course.


http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2015/august/14/cup-date-confirmed?

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Match Preview: Fulham v Brighton and Hove Albion

Fulham and Brighton & Hove Albion will have been looking to get their seasons off to a good start, following disappointing campaigns last year.

And they can be fairly pleased with how things have turned out so far, they are both unbeaten and still in the Capital One Cup.

The Cottagers picked up a single point after the opening seven games of last season, but a hard-earned draw at Cardiff City on the opening weekend has set them well on the way to bettering that.

There has been a lot of transfer activity at Craven Cottage over the summer but the players seem fairly settled under Kit Symons, following their draw in Wales and progress beyond a reasonable Wycombe Wanderers in the cup thanks to a goal from Alex Kacaniklic.

Brighton's 20th-place finish last season was a far cry from their play-off position the previous year, but they have got the ball rolling early to ensure that does not happen again this campaign.

Kazenga LuaLua has been the man of the moment for Chris Hughton's men with winning goals on the opening day against Nottingham Forest, as well as in stoppage-time of their hard-fought victory over League One Southend United in the Capital One Cup.

Three of the last seven meetings between the sides have ended goalless and a debut for new Brighton signing Uwe Hunemeier could ensure a fairly tight affair this time around.

Last season was the first time the sides had met in 18 years and honours were shared, as Fulham won 2-1 at the Amex before losing 2-0 at home.


Read more at http://footballleagueworld.co.uk/match-preview-fulham-v-brighton-and-hove-albion/?#rjMGk8dzRAZgXLPx.99

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Fulham U21s fall to narrow defeat at Arsenal
by DAN on AUGUST 14, 2015

Fulham's Under 21s fell to a narrow defeat at Arsenal tonight despite a resilient defensive display at the Emirates Stadium.

The Whites, who beat Brighton and Hove Albion 1-0 last Friday to win their opening league fixture, were on the back foot for much of the contest as Arsenal dominated possession and will be bitterly disappointed to have left north London with scant reward for their endeavour. Peter Grant's side held out until just four minutes from time when a flowing Arsenal move was expertly finished off by Gedion Zelalem, who steered a low shot beyond Jesse Joronen after swapping passes with Alex Iowbi and Glen Kamara.

Fulham had largely stifled Arsenal's attacking threat until that point, although Joronen – who looked in fine form on his first appearance for the Under 21s since suffering cruciate ligament damage whilst on loan at Accrington Stanley last season – made three outstanding save to preserve parity. He made a fine reflex stop diving away to his left to push aside a Stephy Mavididi shot from Tafari Moore's cross after half an hour and did superbly to turn a volley from debutant Jeff Rene-Adelaide onto the crossbar. With twenty minutes to go, Ben Sheaf's instinctive snapshot was palmed away by Joronen, but the Finnish international was eventually beaten by that composed finish from the highly-rated Zelalem.

Grant had set his side up to frustrate the Gunners, deploying Emerson Hyndman as a deep-lying midfielder alongside Josh Smile at the base of a three-man central midfield. Captain Dean O'Halloran ran determinedly from a wide position all evening, but lone striker Aaron Redford was largely anonymous. O'Halloran drilled Fulham's best chance wide in the first half shortly after Josh Smile had hit a shot straight at Matt Macey, but the clearest opening came for substitute Stevie Humphries who headed an inviting cross from the impressive Jordan Evans wide.

ARSENAL UNDER 21s (4-2-3-1): Macey; Moore, Bola, Bielik, Pleguezuelo; Zelalem, Kamara; Sheaf, Rene-Adelaide (Eyoma 90), Iwobi; Mavididi (Fortune 69). Subs (not used): Iliev, O'Connor, Mourgas.

GOAL: Zelalem (86).

FULHAM UNDER 21s (4-3-3): Joronen; Sheckleford, Evans, Pinot, Burgess; Hyndman, Smile (De la Torre 60), Cole; O'Halloran (Humphries 75), Weymans, Redford (Kait 53). Subs (not used): Rodak, Elworthy.


http://hammyend.com/index.php/2015/08/fulham-u21s-fall-to-narrow-defeat-at-arsenal/?

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Report: Tim Ream's QPR move in doubt as Bolton Wanderers consider Fulham bid



Looks like Ream will move to London - it's just a question of where in London.

As of the afternoon of Friday, August 14, Tim Ream - the New York Red Bulls 2010 Defender of the Year - is still a Bolton Wanderers player. Technically.

It was reported this week that persistent suitor Queens Park Ranger had finally figured out what Bolton was asking for (around $2.7 million, including future considerations, according to The Bolton News) and submitted an acceptable bid. The Trotters' head coach, Neil Lennon, made clear he had moved on to consider what he'd do with the squad and budget space cleared by Ream in a mid-week press conference:

We think it's good for the club, good for the squad, or otherwise we wouldn't be making this decision at the moment.

All we were waiting for was official announcements from QPR and Bolton to be assured the deal was complete.

We're still waiting for those announcements. QPR manager Chris Ramsey admitted he felt "jittery" about the pending deal, but was hopeful it would be completed. But the notion a deal would be done by the weekend appears to be wrong.

What's the hold up? Fulham, according to The Bolton News. The paper's chief football writer, Marc Iles, reports Fulham has not given up hope of landing Ream, despite having a bid knocked back earlier in the week. And Iles points out there is incentive for the player, at least, to wait and see whether the Cottagers can table an offer to Bolton's liking: unlike QPR, Fulham is not potentially hamstrung by Financial Fair Play considerations, and may be able to provide Ream with a higher salary.

There is also, of course, the possibility that the presence of a second active bidder for the player sparks a bidding war - and that is Bolton's incentive for allowing Fulham to spin out negotiations a little longer than had been anticipated.

All the clubs involved have plenty of time: the transfer window in England does not close until September 1. So Ream's London dreams may be on hold for a while - however, Iles reports Bolton is hoping to finalize a deal this weekend and announce it next week.


http://www.onceametro.com/2015/8/14/9156495/report-tim-ream-bolton-wanderers-qpr-fulham-transfer-delayed

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Team News

Kit Symons is still waiting to find out the severity of the injury suffered by Jack Grimmer at Wycombe Wanderers on Tuesday.

The defender was the victim of a nasty challenge at Adams Park and, after treatment, had to be stretchered from the field of play.

"Jack Grimmer is actually seeing a specialist today so we'll know more about that once he's seen him," Symons revealed in Friday's pre-match press conference.

"Hopefully there'll be some good news but it was quite a nasty injury so it's going to be a period of time, but it's just finding out how long and what actual damage is done on that one."

The 21-year-old is Fulham's only new injury concern ahead of Saturday's encounter with Brighton & Hove Albion, as a number of players continue their recoveries, while Ryan Tunnicliffe is available after serving a suspension.

"The other longer term ones are progressing nicely – Scotty Parker, Fernando [Amorebieta]," he stated. "Adam Taggart and Sean Kavanagh are both back in training now, they've trained a couple of days.

"Larnell Cole also so he'll feature for the Under-21s tonight. That's it injury-wise so we've got a relatively clean bill of health."


http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2015/august/14/team-news