Tuesday Fulham Stuff (28/02/17)...

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Jack Grimmer post MK Dons

Defenders thoughts after MK Dons defeat

Shrewsbury Town slipped to a 2-1 away loss as MK Dons came out on top at Stadium mk.

Early goals from Kieron Agard and Paul Downing were enough to take the three points for the Dons despite a late consolation strike from Stephen Humphrys.

Jack Grimmer returned to the side after a lengthy spell out with an ankle injury and he spoke to the press after the match.

"We didn't start the game as well as we should have," he said.

"We're disappointed – it got a bit better in the second half – but it couldn't have got much worse than the first half.

"We just didn't pass the ball as well as we normally can – and even though we had a few chances but we couldn't find the finish."

Agard and Downing's goals meant Town found themselves 2-0 down after just 11 minutes – an unusual sight for Hurst's side who have been strong defensively since his arrival.

"Paul's always on about keeping the standards high – and to be fair to the boys they've done that – and they've been on a fantastic run.

"MK have got some good players so any mistakes are always going to be punished if you're not at it."

"They caught us on the break numerous times in the second half – when you're trying to score and get back in the game you have to leave yourself open – but saying that we did score we just left it a bit late."

Humphrys goal was his second for the club since arriving on loan from Fulham in January, and just after he scored there were strong claims for a penalty from Town.

"I thought it was a penalty," Grimmer admitted.

"I was very surprised when it wasn't – I think everyone was. Stephen said he went to protect the ball and the guy's just pushed him in the back and knocked him over.

"The Gaffer's said he's tired of blaming the officials – so in the future we need to go out there and get the result ourselves."

With Joe Riley picking up an injury last time out Paul Hurst's decision to bring Grimmer back into the starting XI was made easy.

"It was great to be back out there with the boys – I've really missed playing. I was back on the bench against Peterborough and I was buzzing to be involved.

"I get on really well with Joe so I'll be the first to praise him and I would be saying he'll be playing every week if it wasn't my position – it's a battle that will both keep us on our toes."

Town's next game sees them welcome 14th placed Charlton Athletic to the Greenhous Meadow – after this loss Town slip to 18th – four points clear of the relegation zone.

"I would say every game is important – the teams around us are picking up points all the time as well."

"Everyone's keeping everyone in it – at this stage of the season every game's vital – because we don't want to be scrapping towards the end of the season."


Read more at http://www.shrewsburytown.com/news/article/2016-17/jack-grimmer-post-mk-dons-3596281.aspx#udIP0FUVSZBqIGvI.99

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Fulham face fight to keep star player

Fulham face a fight to keep hold of wonderkid Ryan Sessegnon after Chelsea boss Antonio Conte watched him in action recently.

The left-back has been a revelation since breaking into the Cottagers' first team at the start of the season, and the scouts have been flocking to watch him in action.

Sessegnon is just 16 and is unable to sign a professional deal with Fulham until his next birthday in May, but he looks unlikely to stay at Craven Cottage with so many top clubs checking him out.

Blues boss Conte made a personal check during the recent FA Cup clash with Tottenham and is believed to have been very impressed with what he saw.

However he will face strong competition for his services as reports in the press claim that Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp is leading the race for his signature and hopes to nip in ahead of the Blues, Manchester City and Arsenal by securing a deal.

Fulham hope that whoever buys the youngster will agree to loan him back so he can continue his development with them, rather than be sat on the bench.


Read more at: https://www.clubcall.com/championship/fulham-face-fight-to-keep-star-player-1843221.html

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BEAMBACK: FULHAM TRIP TO BE SHOWN LIVE

Watch our game at Craven Cottage live at Elland Road.

Our trip to Fulham on Tuesday 7th March (7.45pm) will be shown live at Elland Road in our second beamback of the season, sponsored by club partner Foster's.

You can cheer United on from the Gowing Law Centenary Pavilion or Billy's Sports Bar, meaning Elland Road is the place to be for those unable to make the midweek trip to Craven Cottage.

Tickets are priced at just £10 for adults and £5 for juniors under 16* - and ticket prices include a pint or soft drink of your choice on the night.

Food will also be available to purchase, so come straight from work to watch the game live at Elland Road and enjoy a bite to eat with us!

Offers on the night:

Burger and chips - £5

Pizza and chips - £5

Two pints of Foster's, John Smith's or Strongbow - £6


Doors will open at 5pm ahead of the 7.45pm kick-off, with all the build-up shown across the big screens. A Leeds United legend will also be on hand to warm up the crowd in the Pavilion with his pre-match thoughts and analysis.

These events have proven to be hugely popular in the past and supporters wishing to attend are encouraged to book in advance in order to avoid disappointment.


https://www.leedsunited.com/news/club-news/21675/beamback-fulham-to-be-shown-live

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Why Nigel Clough expected Lasse Vigen Christensen's last-gasp shot to secure Burton Albion the win

Nigel Clough was all ready to celebrate Lasse Vigen Christensen's last-gasp winner against Blackburn Rovers on Friday night - and he, like much of the Pirelli Stadium crowd, was surprised to see the effort stay out.

Having withstood a fired-up Blackburn side for much of the potentially crucial clash between two of the Championship's bottom six, Albion came within a lick of paint of stealing all three points in injury time, as Fulham loanee Christensen's curled a fine strike past Jason Steele in the visiting goal and against the inside of the far post.

The entire crowd seemed to draw a breath in unison as the ball rolled agonisingly along the goal line, hit the opposite post and then rolled back again, before Steele got back to claim it and keep the game all square.

It was a rare sight - and Clough says he would have expected the slight slope behind the goal in front of the Don Amott Stand to help the ball over the line and send his side to a third straight home win.

Instead, the Brewers moved up to 19th by the end of the weekend, with the Albion boss admitting that a dramatic victory on Friday night would have been unwarranted, such was Blackburn's impressive display.

Asked if he had seen many incidents like that before, Clough said: "No - especially with the way it slopes down behind the goal.

Nigel Clough was all ready to celebrate Lasse Vigen Christensen's last-gasp winner against Blackburn Rovers on Friday night - and he, like much of the Pirelli Stadium crowd, was surprised to see the effort stay out.

Having withstood a fired-up Blackburn side for much of the potentially crucial clash between two of the Championship's bottom six, Albion came within a lick of paint of stealing all three points in injury time, as Fulham loanee Christensen's curled a fine strike past Jason Steele in the visiting goal and against the inside of the far post.

The entire crowd seemed to draw a breath in unison as the ball rolled agonisingly along the goal line, hit the opposite post and then rolled back again, before Steele got back to claim it and keep the game all square.

Lasse Vigen Christensen came agonisingly close to sealing a 2-1 win for Burton Albion at home to Blackburn Rovers on Friday night

It was a rare sight - and Clough says he would have expected the slight slope behind the goal in front of the Don Amott Stand to help the ball over the line and send his side to a third straight home win.

Instead, the Brewers moved up to 19th by the end of the weekend, with the Albion boss admitting that a dramatic victory on Friday night would have been unwarranted, such was Blackburn's impressive display.

Asked if he had seen many incidents like that before, Clough said: "No - especially with the way it slopes down behind the goal.

"Once you hit the goal line, it usually just slopes down into the back of the net. We thought it was in, and we were about to do a lap of the pitch at that point.

"It's very cruel that it didn't go in. But as I say, it would've been undeserved, because Blackburn Rovers played very well."


Read more at http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/why-nigel-clough-expected-lasse-vigen-christensen-s-last-gasp-shot-to-secure-burton-albion-the-win/story-30165618-detail/story.html#0iJe52216vQIlQvC.99

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Fulham boss comments about 'Moneyball' man on Whites board
Joka turns diplomat on summer row where he criticised the club's approach to signing new players

Slavisa Jokanovic half sidestepped GetWestLondon's question whether he had made his peace with the Fulham recruitment process.

The gaffer, who is a one-game-at-a-time commenter when it suits, shocked everyone in the summer as he rounded on the system Fulham insists is the way forward.

Craig Kline, the subject of his verbal attack, was added to the board last week along with son of owner Tony Khan, and anyone who's followed the saga knows Jokanovic's ire at a man bent over a statistics database ticking boxes, and watching potential targets go by.

At first, it was thought Serbian Jokanovic had misheard the question when he spoke of not recruiting now.

But he knew all right.

"I understand you very well, but I'm not thinking about recruitment," he said. "I am thinking about this period and what will happen to the other end.

"It's many new people on the board, or not, and we need to cooperate to try and make still better job is what I will say about recruitment.

"But right now I'm not exactly thinking about recruitment, I'm thinking about this season.

"It's not time to surrender, there are 39 points in front of us, and we have to be ready for this set of five games, with four at home."


http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/fulham-boss-comments-moneyball-man-12660081

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'He's made his bed and he has to sleep in it' - Derby striker Chris Martin dropped by Fulham

Derby County striker Chris Martin was dropped by loan club Fulham at the weekend.

Martin was not in the squad for Saturday's 2-2 draw with Cardiff City in the Sky Bet Championship.

Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic confirmed that the Scotland international had been left out, according to getwestlondon.

Martin has not started since the victory over Wigan Athletic on Feburary 11. He was on the bench for the next three games, before being omitted from the 18 against Cardiff.

Derby wanted to bring the former Norwich City man back to the club during last month's January transfer window but there was no recall clause in the deal, with Fulham insisting that the player completed his season-long stay.

Martin, who has scored 10 goals in 25 appearances for the Cottagers, ended up signing a new contract with the Rams ahead of his return in the summer.

Fulham forward Sone Aluko has had his say on the situation surrounding his team-mate.

"It's an interesting situation," the former Hull City man told getwestlondon.

"At the end of the day, we're footballers and when you go out on the pitch, all that other stuff is forgotten.

"You just want to score goals and he's done well.

"Ultimately, he's made his bed and he has to sleep in it."



Read more at http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/he-s-made-his-bed-and-he-has-to-sleep-in-it-derby-striker-chris-martin-dropped-by-fulham/story-30166393-detail/story.html#IrSO5WJvk1tLE3wk.99

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Spat on by a child, racially abused by own fans and locked out of boardrooms: Leroy Rosenior tells the story of his life in football

    Rosenior enjoyed successful playing career with Fulham and West Ham
    He was the target of persistent racial abuse by two opponents during a game
    Many years later, Rosenior accepted an apology from one of those aggressors
    He had stints in charge at Torquay, where he won promotion, and Brentford
    As a manager, he has witnessed racism in the form of limited opportunities
    The 52-year-old wants his autobiography 'It's Only Banter' to provoke debate

Fulham were losing at Elland Road with time ticking away when Leroy Rosenior and Paul Parker ran to retrieve a ball as it rolled out of play for a corner.

As they approached the fence before a terrace crammed with Leeds fans the team-mates froze in horror.

'There must have been about 10,000 people,' said Rosenior. 'All focused on me and Paul, all going "Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!" and doing Nazi salutes. I remember it all in slow motion.


Rosenior wants his autobiography 'It's Only Banter' to challenge the dressing-room e225301632.jpg[/img]
The good times in football far outweigh the bad for the former player and manager

'There was hatred in their eyes. If they could have got through that fence at that moment in time I could have been a dead man. It has stayed with me. One of the scariest things I've seen from a crowd of people.

'Paul went on to a great career and I had a decent career and I think it drove us on. It wasn't going to stop us. You could either get out — believe me I was on the verge — or you built up your defences. It's only banter.'

Rosenior, 52, has called his auto-biography It's Only Banter. The title is designed to challenge a dressing-room excuse he grew to detest during a life in football as player, coach, manager and broadcaster.

The book should provoke thought inside the football community. He hopes, too, that he does not appear ungrateful. 'There's no bitterness,' he said. 'For me the good times in football far outweigh the bad.'

There was the buzz of goals on debut for Fulham and West Ham, an international cameo with Sierra Leone, promotion as Torquay manager and pride when son Liam followed in his footsteps to Craven Cottage.

Rosenior was born and raised in south London, where he was a close friend of Paul Gadd, son of the disgraced rock star Gary Glitter.

Rosenior's parents Willie and Gladys had arrived from Sierra Leone in the Fifties.

Willie, an electrician, was almost killed in a racially motivated attack with a bottle in a pub in Tooting but Leroy insists he was 'blissfully unaware' of the simmering racial tensions of the time. At least until his football took off.

His book is a social commentary as much as a football biography and opens with a powerful account of one of his early games for Fulham when he was the target of persistent racial abuse by two opponents. 'I took to the field a young man with something to prove,' he wrote. 'I left as a young black man with something to prove.'

Many years later, Rosenior accepted an apology from one of those aggressors and declined to name and shame them. 'I didn't write the book to dig people out or label them racist,' said Rosenior. 'Everybody makes mistakes.

'It wasn't a rare occurrence, it happened regularly. That one had the most profound effect on me because it was the first.'

He was spat upon by a child at Portsmouth and refused entry to a boardroom when player-manager of Gloucester City.

While he was at QPR, the racial insults from the ranks of his own fans were so hurtful that his parents and sisters stopped attending games.

All the time, the silence of his team-mates was deafening. 'Lots of players went through it,' said Rosenior. 'Not just in games but also in training from their own managers and peers. Many players disappeared from the game because of it. We lost a lot of good players.'

He likened football in the Seventies and Eighties to the slave trade because the 'white establishment' would admire black players' physique but belittle their intellect and attitude.

As a manager, he has witnessed racism in the form of limited opportunities. In three-and-a-half years at Torquay, he excelled and won promotion to League One playing attractive football which helped him land a job at Brentford, where he lasted only five months and required a police escort to make a safe exit past furious fans.

'They were having a go at me,' said Rosenior. 'But not once did anyone say, "You black this or you black that". They didn't see the colour.

'We didn't do the job. We didn't have the resources but the point was we weren't winning games. I was on a level playing field. I have the utmost respect for Brentford supporters.'

Progress of sorts. Brentford was the first of three short, sharp shocks which drew his managerial career to a close.

There were two games in charge of Sierra Leone. The first, a 1-0 defeat against Togo, ended in disaster when the helicopter shuttle from Freetown to Lungi Airport crashed after the match. Among the 22 dead were Togolese officials including sports minister Richard Attipoe. Rosenior had travelled in the same aircraft days earlier and Togo's players were scheduled on its next flight.

The next game ended in a 6-0 defeat by Mali after which he had to buy his own plane ticket home because the Sierra Leone FA had run out of money.

Then, there was an infamous 10-minute return to Torquay at the behest of chairman Mike Bateson.

'Mike was trying to sell the club but couldn't get the price he wanted,' said Rosenior. 'So he asked me to come and keep the team ticking over for a couple of days a week. There was no contract and we only had about three players but we had a press conference with a few cameras and I said it was good to be back.

'I was walking out of the press conference when Mike rang and said, "You're not going to believe this, I've sold the club".'

The takeover was duly completed and Rosenior became the answer to a trivia question.

'I was watching Have I Got News For You when my face appeared, the 10-minute manager,' he said. 'In reality it was more like four days but from the press conference to the phone call was 10 minutes and it's fine by me.'

A decade on, Rosenior is a leading presenter at Premier League Productions, the TV company which beams Premier League around the world from IMG Studios in Middlesex.

He will not rule out a return to coaching and son Liam, 32, is taking his qualifications while playing at Brighton, but the question of opportunity persists.

At the country's top 92 clubs, there are three black managers: Chris Hughton at Brighton, Keith Curle at Carlisle and Marcus Bignot at Grimsby.

'We need to find an all-round solution,' said Rosenior. 'It would be nice to see more people from ethnic minorities in positions of authority within football.

'I had to go to Torquay, one of the smaller clubs, and I've always told my kids they'll have to do a little bit better than everybody else.

'One thing we can't do is sit on our hands.'



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4265512/Leroy-Rosenior-spat-abused-locked-out.html#ixzz4ZxppwLJT
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Most wanted: These 2 Fulham players will be men in demand in the summer

Fulham have been one of the Championship's surprise packages this season and they sit poised on the outskirts of the Play-Off places, ready to make a late push for promotion.

The gap is currently at five points to sixth place Sheffield Wednesday, but the Cottagers do have a game in hand, which could close the gap to just two points.

Fulham's fixture list isn't kind for the remainder of the season, and they still have to play most of their fellow promotion challengers.

Slavisa Jokanovic has done a great job this season to turn around Fulham's fortunes after their disastrous campaign last year, where they were battling relegation.

The Serb has transformed the way Fulham play and added in some much needed quality to the side that nearly fell out of the Championship last season.

Fulham have some quality players in their side, some of whom could probably play in the Premier League if Fulham don't get there this season.

Here, FLW's Chris Wilson will look at TWO Fulham players who will be in demand in the summer...

Tom Cairney


Cairney arrived at Craven Cottage from Blackburn Rovers back in 2015 and it took him a while to settle in, but he has now and he is producing some fine performances.

Cairney has established himself as one of the Championship's top midfielders this season ,and this is sure to attract huge interest from Premier League clubs in the summer.

Midfielders who have the attacking drive from midfield that Cairney has, are hard to come by and Fulham have one, meaning they will have a fight on their hands to keep hold of him in the summer.

Ryan Sessegnon


Sessegnon has taken the Championship by storm this season, and he is widely regarded as one of the most promising youngsters coming through in the country at the moment.

At just 16 years of age, Sessegnon has established himself as a first teamer at Fulham and he is only being kept out the side by the good form of Scott Malone.

Lots of teams are now looking for the country's most promising youngsters to bring through, and Sessegnon certainly falls into that category, so interest from top clubs will most likely be afoot in the summer.



http://footballleagueworld.co.uk/most-wanted-these-2-fulham-players-will-be-men-in-demand-in-the-summer/

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They Could Break Into Top Six – Leeds United Legend Highlights Danger Team

Leeds United legend Eddie Gray believes that Fulham are potentially capable of breaking into the Championship playoff places.

Garry Monk's Leeds side took another big step towards nailing down a playoff spot when they edged out Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 at Elland Road on Saturday thanks to a Chris Wood goal.

Leeds United legend Eddie Gray believes that Fulham are potentially capable of breaking into the Championship playoff places.

Garry Monk's Leeds side took another big step towards nailing down a playoff spot when they edged out Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 at Elland Road on Saturday thanks to a Chris Wood goal.

And Gray highlighted Fulham from the teams looking to put a late run together to break into the playoff spots as one of the very few capable of doing so.

"Fulham are one of the sides capable of maybe catching one of the teams in the top six", he said on LUTV.

"There's not that many teams outside the top six now that I think are capable of catching the teams [in the top six]", Gray added.

Leeds are next in action away at Birmingham City on Friday night before they then make a Tuesday night trip to London to take on Fulham at Craven Cottage.


http://www.insidefutbol.com/2017/02/27/they-could-break-into-top-six-leeds-united-legend-highlights-danger-team/327840/