POST MATCH: Forest

[SerbianLad]

Well, we were the home team, against a,struggling side. Take the lead and... Hardly any real positive football in the second half. Park the bus, not against a Man City, or Arsenal. But relegation candidates. I'll take the win, but  I thought we were better than that.

They've actually been pretty good since Dyche came in. Not sure about the exact place, but I'm pretty sure they were in an European spot in a table that showed results since Dyche came in. And as I've already said in multiple posts, they've had a lot of rest, while we started all 10 of our starters from today against Newcastle in midweek too.

[hopper]

Lukic will look back on that one and wonder how he missed the target, not sure if Kevin's attempt to flick it somewhere put him off

In his defense, it was on his weak foot, but tbh I still think he should hit the target at least. However nice to see him get in to more forward positions recently which resulted in his two goals in the Newcastle games and with some other chances like the one today. He's been making good runs more frequently recently.

Yeah seems like Lukic is playing more advanced atm and offering a lot more going forward which has been good to see.

[Dodgin]

Good to get the three points, soft penalty but about time, opposition was poor, second half bit worrying until TC and Josh came on.  Hopefully West Ham will be as bad as Forest.

[The Rock]

Wish we could play teams like Forest and Burnley every week.

6-7 errors from us but so disciplined and it would be tea time tomorrow before they'd have another shot on goal.

[Carborundum]

Reading these comments it feels like one of those rare games we all saw it exactly the same.  Something of a collector's item that.  I usually love this thread because proper football people point out things a different pair of eyes can't see.  This game was a totally open book.

I'm just happy we head to Christmas with three points, no serious worries, plenty to fret about naturally, that's football after all, but in decent shape.

As to the game, two players stand out.  Kenny Tete, for his indomitable will to win.  Kevin for doing exactly what we bought him for - creating the devilment in the box that no other outfield player of either side could muster.  He's infuriating in the sense that with his particular gifts he could have scored or set up a couple more tonight. But he's sucked Luiz into a mistake that's won us three precious points.

Final thought. I started the evening worrying Neco Williams might have learned how to defend.  Perhaps he has, but he's also  completely forgotten how to attack. Playing for Sean Dyche can to that to a full back. 

[SerbianLad]

A random bit of praise, but well done Berge for getting that yellow. Only Lukic seems to be making fouls like that. Berge, TC and Iwobi(when he plays in the middle) usually don't make a foul like that in those situations. When the whole team isn't positioned well because we made a huge passing mistake, it's better to take one for the team and get booked than to let the opposition have a great chance to score. ESR made a mistake, the whole team was out of position and Berge made an excellent foul. Got booked, but at least they didn't have a chance to score there.

[Whitesideup]

Anyone watching from home have an opinion about King getting flattened late in the second half? Forest player never made any attempt to play the ball and just took King out, the ball was well past and I thought he would have been through on goal.

Also at the game but if referring to the incident on the touchline, then this is one of the most ridiculous refereeing decisions I can imagine. Why would King throw his whole body into the hoardings to con the ref into a free kick when he is going past the player? Or is Taylor going to argue this is "shoulder-to-shoulder"? Then our new tactic should be to get Traore to run around at top speed barging shoulder-to-shoulder anyone within 5, maybe even 10, yards of the ball ... Btw - didn't like some in the crowd booing when Traore came on. We should absolutely not do that to our own player. 

[Angus Telford]

MOTM Jiminez for me, works hard week in, week out, one of those consistent 8/10 players.

Thought we were otherwise pretty crap, saved by the fact Forest were woeful.

Subs were better - King, JKA and Cairney all very good IMO.

[jayffc]

Anyone watching from home have an opinion about King getting flattened late in the second half? Forest player never made any attempt to play the ball and just took King out, the ball was well past and I thought he would have been through on goal.

Also at the game but if referring to the incident on the touchline, then this is one of the most ridiculous refereeing decisions I can imagine. Why would King throw his whole body into the hoardings to con the ref into a free kick when he is going past the player? Or is Taylor going to argue this is "shoulder-to-shoulder"? Then our new tactic should be to get Traore to run around at top speed barging shoulder-to-shoulder anyone within 5, maybe even 10, yards of the ball ... Btw - didn't like some in the crowd booing when Traore came on. We should absolutely not do that to our own player. 

Agreed IF true. Adama really has not even been bad for us on the whole. Guy literally had the Second most assists last year (7) in a season where the team achieved the highest ever points they've ever scored in the prem.

We Got him for nothing and he seems a nice guy who the team like and who puts in plenty effort. Has been less effective this year than last having fallen down the squad list, but people go way overboard on Adama for reasons I don't really understand tbh. Fine that he's not the most clinical and sometimes inconsistent when in and out the team, but has proven useful many times in his time here. What does booing our own player, who we need as an option with chuk and Iwobi away even achieve? Morons.

To boo such a player, especially with the teams winning.... Some people really are 1. Spoilt and 2. @rseholes, quite frankly.

[Southcoastffc]

A random bit of praise, but well done Berge for getting that yellow. Only Lukic seems to be making fouls like that. Berge, TC and Iwobi(when he plays in the middle) usually don't make a foul like that in those situations. When the whole team isn't positioned well because we made a huge passing mistake, it's better to take one for the team and get booked than to let the opposition have a great chance to score. ESR made a mistake, the whole team was out of position and Berge made an excellent foul. Got booked, but at least they didn't have a chance to score there.

Yes, when he did that my immediate thought was 'Stefjo lives on!'

[hopper]

Anyone watching from home have an opinion about King getting flattened late in the second half? Forest player never made any attempt to play the ball and just took King out, the ball was well past and I thought he would have been through on goal.

Also at the game but if referring to the incident on the touchline, then this is one of the most ridiculous refereeing decisions I can imagine. Why would King throw his whole body into the hoardings to con the ref into a free kick when he is going past the player? Or is Taylor going to argue this is "shoulder-to-shoulder"? Then our new tactic should be to get Traore to run around at top speed barging shoulder-to-shoulder anyone within 5, maybe even 10, yards of the ball ... Btw - didn't like some in the crowd booing when Traore came on. We should absolutely not do that to our own player. 

Agreed IF true. Adama really has not even been bad for us on the whole. Guy literally had the Second most assists last year (7) in a season where the team achieved the highest ever points they've ever scored in the prem.

We Got him for nothing and he seems a nice guy who the team like and who puts in plenty effort. Has been less effective this year than last having fallen down the squad list, but people go way overboard on Adama for reasons I don't really understand tbh. Fine that he's not the most clinical and sometimes inconsistent when in and out the team, but has proven useful many times in his time here. What does booing our own player, who we need as an option with chuk and Iwobi away even achieve? Morons.

To boo such a player, especially with the teams winning.... Some people really are 1. Spoilt and 2. @rseholes, quite frankly.

I'm not in Hammy End, but I definitely think the booing would have been related to the Taylor non call for the foul on King. the players seemed pretty incensed with that too.

There was a lot of animosity to Taylor throughout.

[Count Flapula]

Our passing was so sloppy for long periods but a great win nonetheless.

Actually thought ESR was really good first half but totally faded after the sloppy back pass. He did the same against Burnley but thankfully neither costed us. So pleased to see he has turned a corner for us overall though and heartening to see him try and affect games more often.

Tete MOM for me - immense defending second half particularly.

TC coming on definitely helped us regain a foothold and wrestle control back of the midfield after we started getting way to passive and nervy from second half KO. He's definitely still a horse for certain courses in the PL, but conditions do need to suit.

Cuenca's defending was good and liked his forward run first half, but his distribution was particularly sloppy for his standards, especially second half. Hopefully the regular game time will sharpen him up, same as Kevin.

Actually thought Raul looked better tonight - get the feeling he's been playing with a knock for a while now but he won a lot of battles against 2 absolute bruisers of a CB pairing and some of his flicks came off. Probably should've scored at least one of the 2 headers but he did well. JKA definitely shows flashes of quality and agree with those who say he should get more minutes, which may also help Raul manage his fitness better as he fades badly after 70 mins normally.

Thanks for not ruining Christmas Fulham!

[bog]

It's nice to feel confident that our penalty will be converted. Never felt that with Mitro. Last one I reckon was Berbatov.

Don't forget Danny.

Or McCormack in the Championship.

Or Jimmy Langley. Mind you he did miss one for England when he hit the post.

[Bill2]

Our passing was so sloppy for long periods but a great win nonetheless.

Actually thought ESR was really good first half but totally faded after the sloppy back pass. He did the same against Burnley but thankfully neither costed us. So pleased to see he has turned a corner for us overall though and heartening to see him try and affect games more often.

Tete MOM for me - immense defending second half particularly.

TC coming on definitely helped us regain a foothold and wrestle control back of the midfield after we started getting way to passive and nervy from second half KO. He's definitely still a horse for certain courses in the PL, but conditions do need to suit.

Cuenca's defending was good and liked his forward run first half, but his distribution was particularly sloppy for his standards, especially second half. Hopefully the regular game time will sharpen him up, same as Kevin.

Actually thought Raul looked better tonight - get the feeling he's been playing with a knock for a while now but he won a lot of battles against 2 absolute bruisers of a CB pairing and some of his flicks came off. Probably should've scored at least one of the 2 headers but he did well. JKA definitely shows flashes of quality and agree with those who say he should get more minutes, which may also help Raul manage his fitness better as he fades badly after 70 mins normally.

Thanks for not ruining Christmas Fulham!

Very good summary.

[susiescw]

I was watching from home and was shocked that there was no reaction from the ref to Josh King getting wiped out. I also felt very confused about some of the yellows particularly the Raul yellow for trying to block the throw, is this not allowed? I just hope the number of yellows issued in that game is not indicative of a theme i.e. give the middle teams lots of yellows to undermine their choice of players late in the season as the yellow cards just seem to build and don't appear to 'run out' unless I'm wrong which I may well be   

[alfie]

Leno had a couple of shots to deal with. But their keeper never touched the ball. I mean not once,  in the whole match did we force him to save anything. Apart from the penalty,  which Kevin won, running away from goal. I think that might be the most negative 1-0, in Premier League history.

Well that's not true, finger tip save that the ref gave as goal kick.

[SP]

Looking forward to reading Terry's View From having been told by one of their fans that we should be singing in the park after the game.

Think they should also consider dropping the abusive songs about the referee, it really is crazy when he's making the key decisions.

[SerbianLad]

https://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2025/december/22/marco-s-forest-reaction/

Marco summed it up well. Same as what I said, they created nothing, we created somw very good chances. Not our best performance at all but the win was very much a result we deserved. Mentions other thing I and a few others have mentioned, like the fact that Forest is a pretty good team or the fact that they had rest why we were fatigued from the midweek game.

[McBrideOfFrankenstein]

I think our game plan and buildup wasn't that negative, it was was more a matter of making the exact wrong choice a shocking number of times in their final third after a promising move. Kevin especially — if he hadn't won the pen I think we'd be saying more about his repeated tendency to shoot into the legs of two defenders when there is an obvious pass.

[SerbianLad]

I think we didn't play as negatively as some are saying. It was more a matter of making the exact wrong choice a shocking number of times in their final third after a promising buildup. Kevin especially — if he hadn't won the pen I think we'd be saying more about his repeated tendency to shoot into the legs of a defender when there is an obvious pass.

First half we were clearly the more positive team. The only way they created their chances in the first half (and pretty much in the second too) was when we made silly passing mistakes. We were well on top of them in the first half. We didn't play our best game obviously but I'm very surprised with the criticism.