Tuesday Fulham Stuff (03/11/15)...

[WhiteJC]

 
Fulham's first visit to Turf Moor in six years

Burnley play the second of a double header of home games tonight with the visit of Fulham who will be playing at Turf Moor for the first time since December 2009 when both clubs were in the Premier League.

At the time of that last visit, Fulham were very much an established Premier League club having been promoted in 2001 and were then under the charge of current England boss Roy Hodgson and the ownership of Mohamed El Fayed.

Burnley's start to the first Premier League season had dropped off slightly; we were now drawing our home games rather than winning them. Relegation meant we were in different divisions again and that was maintained in 2014 when, as we went up, they were on their way down.

Now, back in the Championship, we are set to play them at this level for the first time in fifteen seasons with both teams going into the game in some form.

From our point of view, it's four wins and a draw in the last five since the home defeat against Reading, but we've won eight of the last eleven and moved ourselves into third place in the table.

Can you continue our recent run of good results? "We take nothing for granted," says Ewood goalscoring hero Scott Arfield.

"The one game at a time mentality stands us in good stead because we know how tough this league is to get out of. It worked two seasons ago and it's working every game. I don't know if people really do that but once the Blackburn game was done, it was on to Huddersfield and then the same for tonight."

He warned: "Fulham have been on the television a few times and they move the ball very well and with the two boys up front they've got goals in the team, but it always comes back to us and with what we've got in the dressing room we feel we can play against anyone and pick up the three points.

"The character we've got in the dressing room means that when we go in front we're hard to break down at times. Once we get that goal the togetherness always shines through as well as ability but you need to do the tough things to get the freedom to play."

Arfield is an ever present in the team this season. He's now clocked up 96 league appearances for the Clarets out of a possible 98 since joining us and he's been back in his more favoured wide position recently since the beginning of October when Joey Barton came into the side.

He'll almost certainly be in that position again tonight in what, given that the club have reported no injuries, will be an unchanged team.

Kevin Long, who suffered a cruciate ligament injury at Newcastle on New Year's Day on his Premier League debut, has been passed fit to return with Dean Marney not far behind, so he can be added to the squad from tonight.

We should line up: Tom Heaton, Tendayi Darikwa, Michael Duff, Michael Keane, Ben Mee, George Boyd, Joey Barton, David Jones, Scott Arfield, Sam Vokes, Andre Gray. Subs from: Matt Gilks, Matt Lowton, Kevin Long, Stephen Ward, Fredrik Ulvestad, Matt Taylor, Michael Kightly, Rouwen Hennings, Chris Long.

Fulham come to Turf Moor tonight in some form. They are unbeaten in five games since a 3-0 home defeat against Wolves and have scored four goals in each of the last two games against Reading at home, where they came from two behind to win 4-2, and at Bristol City where they were 4-0 up after just 36 minutes. Given that their first goal against Reading came after 50 minutes, when that third went in at Ashton Gate they'd scored eight times in 76 minutes.

They also got a four against QPR back in September, winning that home game 4-0 in front of the television cameras and dissenting QPR players.

Their 26 goals in total is six more than we've scored and is the highest in the division, three more than next highest Middlesbrough. However, all the teams above them in the league have conceded less than the 20 goals they've conceded and only six teams have a worse defensive record.

They owe a lot to their front two Ross McCormack and Moussa Dembélé. Both have scored seven times in the league which means they are averaging a goal per game from their front two.

This recent form is the best they've shown since relegation last year. They started last season with a shocking run of results that cost Felix Magath his job. After a period as caretaker, Kit Symons landed the job permanently and by the end of the season they'd climbed to 17th but were well clear of the bottom three, finishing 11 points ahead of Millwall.

They picked up only two points from their first goal games this season but things have changed since and they've lost only two of the ten games since and their recent run of away games includes a very creditable 0-0 draw at Middlesbrough as well as the win at Bristol last weekend.

Fulham have no new injuries and could be boosted by the return of Scott Parker. They also have fit again Matt Smith pushing for a starting place after he was named as a substitute at Bristol City and coming on for the last few minutes.

Their team last Saturday was: Andy Lonergan, Richard Stearman, Dan Burn, Tim Ream, Ryan Fredericks, Tom Cairney, Jamie O'Hara, Ryan Tunnicliffe, James Husband, Moussa Dembélé, Ross McCormack. Subs: Joe Lewis, Luke Garbutt, Matt Smith, Alex Kačaniklić, Sakari Mattila, Cauley Woodrow, Lasse Vigen Christensen.

Last Time They Were Here
Mid-December 2009, Burnley, after a great home start to the season, had dropped to within four points of the drop zone and Fulham were just outside the top half of the league, but a Burnley win would take us above them in the table.

We came into the game on the back of away defeats at West Ham and Portsmouth and, in the end, we did well to get a point from a 1-1 draw against a very well organised but a not very ambitious Fulham team.

It was played in front of our smallest crowd of that season with the away stand virtually empty with suggestions that Fulham must have forgotten to put the tickets on sale.

Owen Coyle had given Kevin McDonald his first start at Portsmouth with Andre Bikey having dropped back into defence to cover for suspended captain Steven Caldwell, but with Caldwell back we reverted to the team that had played at West Ham.

They nearly scored with the first attack through a goalkeeping error, but Brian Jensen soon made up for that with two smart saves, the second of them from Damian Duff who had fluffed the early opportunity.

It was 0-0 at half time but Fulham looked by far the more assured of the two sides, but their unwillingness to commit players forward was probably costing them.

Having started the second half much better, it soon went wrong when Steven Fletcher needlessly gave away a free kick in the centre circle. Chris Baird, who was to become a Burnley player over four years later, took the kick quickly for Bobby Zamora who got past Caldwell too easily and finished from a tight angle.

It was the first time we'd conceded the first goal in a home game since going 2-0 down to Crystal Palace in the previous season, but we were level within ten minutes when Wade Elliott scored with a goal very similar to the one that Robbie Blake had netted against Man United in the first home game of the season.

We went on to have our best spell of the game but Fulham were so organised we weren't able to break them down and had to settle for the point.

The teams were;
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Graham Alexander, Andre Bikey (Kevin McDonald 78), Chris Eagles (Fernando Guerrero 86), Wade Elliott, Robbie Blake (David Nugent 56), Steven Fletcher. Subs not used: Diego Penny, Christian Kalvenes, Joey Gudjonsson, Steven Thompson.

Fulham: Mark Schwarzer, John Paintsil, Brede Hangeland, Aaron Hughes, Paul Konchesky, Damian Duff, Chris Baird, Jonathan Greening, Clint Dempsey, Erik Nevland (Zoltan Gera 77), Bobby Zamora. Subs not used: David Stockdale, Danny Murphy, Bjorn Helge Riise, Chris Smalling, Kagisho Dikgacoi, David Elm.



http://www.clarets-mad.co.uk/feat/ed13/fulhams_first_visit_to_turf_moor_in_six_years_873938/index.shtml?

[WhiteJC]

 
The Sean Davis Column

Anyone listening to the live commentary against Reading will have heard myself and Gentleman Jim getting a bit carried away in the second half, but rightly so I think! You look at it now and it just shows how big it was Ross McCormack scoring that goal straight away after Reading got their second. It was such a massive swing and that just shows you what fine margins there are in football. That little bit of magic from Ross, and the team seemed to get confidence. We were on the front foot after that, scored some great goals in that game and it was just a fantastic performance. Reading will be a bit upset they didn't get anything from the game but after that Ross goal we played brilliantly, and we carried that on in Bristol when we scored four again.

With the second half against Reading and the first half against Bristol City, it meant we'd scored eight goals in under 90 minutes. It can happen like that, goals can come in flurries. I'm happy for Moussa Dembélé because he's now got four in two games, and it was good to see Ryan Tunnicliffe get on the scoresheet as well because he does a lot of hard work off the ball and he does all the dirty stuff, so it's nice for him to get a goal. He got one at Charlton as well so it was a good month for him.

The wing-back formation worked a treat on Saturday. A lot of managers I've played with have tried to do that; Harry Redknapp tried it at Pompey very successfully, and obviously we did it for a spell at Fulham. It does enable you to get possession of the ball in midfield, but you need the right players to adopt that system, and I think we have got the right players, so it's definitely something that the boys can adapt to. One man who took to it with ease was James Husband, who has been fantastic since coming into the team. He's always up and down, he's comfortable on the ball and he reminds me a lot of Luke Shaw, so that's probably one of the biggest compliments I could pay him.

Watching the highlights from the Bristol game, you could see how frustrated the goalkeeper Andy Lonergan was at the end conceding that goal. Defenders and goalkeepers and holding midfielders pride themselves on keeping clean sheets, so that was a good sign for me that they were frustrated at conceding a goal in the last minute even though the game had been won. The last few weeks have been great for us I think, taking seven points out of a possible nine and going unbeaten throughout October. It's funny in football, you go from 2-0 down to Reading to suddenly pushing yourselves up the league.

The next match will be a good test for us as we've got a tough, tough game away at Burnley. They're in fine form as well and Turf Moor is never an easy place to go to. I can remember going there and losing 2-1 the year we got promoted, and going there again and getting sent off in a 3-0 defeat in the FA Cup. (It was never a red card, mind you. I thought it was a decent challenge but the ref had it in for me from the beginning of the game!) So it's never been an enjoyable place for me to go but we'll go there high on confidence and optimistic we can get something from the game.

Burnley won't be looking forward to playing us at the moment. It's got the makings of a good game, but they're a very powerful side and I think it will be a good test for our defence. We'll have to keep Andre Gray quiet as he's gone there and he's scoring a lot of goals. You know Sean Dyche's teams are very strong, organised, with a lot of energy and commitment. So we're going to have to go there and be hard to beat, start well and create chances for our strikers like we have been doing. We're doing well at the moment so it would be good if the lads can ride this wave.

We're back at the Cottage on Saturday when Birmingham City visit, and Gary Rowett's done a fantastic job there. They had a disappointing result on the weekend when they lost to Wolves in the derby, but they've had some good results away from home so it's going to be a difficult game. Hopefully we'll be going into that game with our unbeaten run still intact and the lads still high in confidence. It would be nice to see another four goals so me, Jim and Sammy can get celebrating again up on the gantry!

Tickets for Saturday's game against Birmingham City are still available to buy, priced from just £25 for adults and £15 for juniors.


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