Craven Cottage Newsround

Sky Sports recycling the Official feature on Paul Konchesky. Typical footballer talk, nothing much said of interest.

The BBC is determined that we should not get carried away with Roy’s Revival:

Some selected cuts:

Fulham need to beat a London club in the Premier League for the first time this season, and hope Birmingham lose to Arsenal, if they’re to claw their way out of the relegation zone when the final whistle is blown. Even then they will also need a six-goal swing.

Roy Hodgson has 12 games remaining to save Fulham’s top-flight status. Their current tally of 19 points from 26 matches is 10 points fewer than their previous lowest to this same stage of a Premier League season.

West Ham have won two more away Premier League games (five) than Fulham have managed in total home and away. The Eastenders have been static in 10th place in 2008, with the best defensive record outside the ‘Big Four’.

The Hammers hold an unbeaten Premier League record at Craven Cottage; they have picked up 10 points out of 12 on their trips to Fulham since 2002.

And then they point out that we have:

6. Lost the lead in 11 matches, and flittered away an unequalled 25 points from winning positions. They were in front against Arsenal (a), Middlesbrough (h), Aston Villa (a), Chelsea (h) and West Ham (a), and went on to lose all five games.

7. Conceded a higher percentage of goals in the second half than any other side (33 of 44, 75%).

9. Lost the last four London derbies, and not won any of the last 14; drawn eight and lost six since Chris Coleman’s side beat Arsenal 2-1 at the Cottage on 29 November 2006.

10. Five fixtures are scheduled for March, the first three against north-west opposition; home to Manchester United, away to Blackburn, and home to Everton. Then it’s a long trip to Newcastle and not so long journey to Derby.

Christ, have we any chance? Luckily for us, things have changed since all those bad streaks started. Or at least we think they have.

Healy to Ipswich? This makes so much sense. Magilton is a Northern Ireland favourite, Ipswich have always been clever with loan signings, this seems likely. If we could somehow get young Danny Haynes in return I’d be delighted, but that’ll never happen.

Eddie Johnson and Simon Elliot had runouts with the reserves last night. The team lost 2-0 to West Ham, but both players are said to have looked decent. Elliot played the full 90 while Johnson was pulled on the hour, which was planned. Was this because there’s a possibility of him getting some minutes this coming Saturday?

In an online fan poll conducted on a fanzine, the question of “who will score the goals that keep Fulham up?” was asked. Eddie Johnson was far and away the leader of the poll. I put no stock in the poll whatsoever. But it does concern me that so much pressure will be on the young man. With expectations so high, if he fails in any way, the torch that passed from Zat Knight to Chris Baird, could quickly move to EJ. Which is hardly fair, but such is life in the Premiership.

The appliance of science: Fulham fans show considerable bias in predicting the rest of the season

Sharing our predictions with the world.  Thanks to rjbiii for the points total research, which I couldn’t attribute there because it would’ve looked weird.  Anyway, have a look.