Craven Cottage Newsround

Woops.  We’re not going to Wembley.  As Jan Lastuvka may have said several times yesterday, I didn’t see that one coming.

In a fairly even game we were undone by two Robbie Keane thunderbolts and a pair of soft and late Dimitar Berbatov strikes.  In between this Paul Robinson made a number of very good saves, repelling the Whites at important moments and maintaining Spurs’ lead.   It could have been so different.

A rocking atmosphere suggested we were in for a fine afternoon, but Spurs took the early initiative, a long punt seeing the totem-polic Mido outjump Christanval while the much taller Zat Knight looked on.  Keane met the flick with a slingshot volley from 18 yards that sped past Lastuvka.  Great technique, poor defending. 

Fulham recovered somewhat, with full-debutant Smertin battling away, Davies looking busy and the midfield generally having the better of things.  Robinson made two good saves from close in, and it felt as though an equaliser was near.  In the second half Colemen threw on Montella, Dempsey and Collins John, and between them they made life difficult for Spurs:  Dempsey shimmered along the right wing, stepped over repeatedly and laid off to Volz, whose screaming drive was nudged over the bar by an acrobatic Robinson; John, showing pace and determination for the first time this year, fired just too high in another chance, and Montella seemed to be making space up there.  But the chances came and went.  

At the other end Keane executed a better version of his first goal for 2-0, out of the blue but somehow unsurprising.  Berbatov nabbed a messy third, hitting the post and then having too much time to roll the ball past Lastuvka, and by then the wheels were off.  I saw the fourth on tv on the way out of the ground, and only learned that Montella had been sent off this morning.   I never leave early, but this was a crushing defeat, wrenched from a promising situation and silly dreams of going to Wembley.  Half of me thinks at least it wasn’t the league, but half of me really wanted that cup.

So to the players.  Lastuvka again couldn’t be blamed for all the goals, but again let a lot of goals in.  Perhaps I was wrong, perhaps his reactions and positioning are poor and he makes shots look harder than they are.  Or perhaps our defence is playing so badly that teams are getting time to shoot well against us.  Volz was back at right back, a sensible move, but while he played well it didn’t help us.  Christanval and Knight didn’t have the best of days; it’s starting to look as though we need five at the back with Christanval sweeping.  Franck continues to be our best player in my view.    The midfield did pretty well, Diop and Smertin both looked a little rusty but were decent more often than not, and while Radz didn’t have a great game he still gave their full-backs a bit to think about. Davies passed well, got around, and continues to look like a good signing.  And Helguson and McBride did pretty well up the pitch, feeding off long balls too much, but what’s new there?   Dempsey looks like he’ll be a good player on the wing (perhaps he’ll start against Utd?), Montella, now facing a ban, did his bit, and Collins John was all over the pitch.   All alright really, but we got tonked.   It’s tempting to put this down to ‘one of those things’, forget about it and move on, but there lingers a suspicion that something’s very wrong at the back.  

Man Utd visit next week and we can only hope that the early kick-off levels things somehow.