!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man City 2-3 Fulham !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ha!
A second consecutive away win (!) and we’re still fighting. And it was absolutely deserved.
Fulham started well, passing well and pressing City back. An early chance fell to Dempsey, whose low strike was expertly saved by the impressive Joe Hart. Disaster was moments away though: the usually excellent Stalteri lost the ball and Simon Ireland, via a big deflection, sent the ball looping over Kasey Keller. A huge setback.
And if that was bad, things got worse when Benjani found space between four defenders and side-footed home Vassell’s cross to make it 2-0. Fulham were playing well but conceding easily. At this point relegation was all but confirmed, particularly with Bolton winning at Spurs and Birmingham up on Liverpool.
The half-time stats were painful: 10 Fulham shots; 2 City shots. City 2-0 up. Excruciating stuff.
We seemed to be going through the motions in the second half, but Lady Luck finally decided to pay us some attention. The eccentric Diomansy Kamara found himself well placed in the City box, but dithered and found the road ahead closed. Unperturbed, he found a way to shoot anyway, and, extraordinarily, the ball squirted through Joe Hart’s legs and nestled in the net. Game on!
A soft penalty really woke us up. A deep ball into the area and Nevland was hauled down. He may have been fortunate in that this tangle looked worse than it might have been, but a penalty was awarded, and parity was attainable. Danny Murphy, as good a penalty taker as you’ll find, fluffed his effort, Hart saving well, but Murphy got another go and tapped home the rebound. Fulham Nation mopped its brow and prepared for the impossible.
City had been living on the edge for some time. Their makeshift defence was pushing up and a through ball really did seem on. We nearly had it once or twice, but interceptions thwarted our desperate attacks. Then Danny Murphy slotted through again, and that man Kamara strode on and buried his chance over Hart’s right shoulder like Geoff Hurst sealing the World Cup in ‘66.
Pandemonium. The impossible was really happening, and after months and months of road trip futility Fulham had pulled of a second consecutive away win.
Heroes? Roy Hodgson has masterminded (ha, what a phrase!) two away wins now and deserves praise for getting the team playing football again. He seemed to have found a winning partnership at Reading, with McBride and Healy linking very well, but today they weren’t playing well. So Kamara and Nevland were introduced and turned the game on its head. Teams don’t often go to Manchester City and win, especially teams like us who don’t win away, and especially after going 2-0 down. This was crazy, desperate football, but it kept this stupid season alive and almost brings us within touching distance of our rivals. How about that?
I’ve just got home. It was crazy, crazy, crazy. I commented on TiFF so won’t repeat it all here – needless to say, it’s nice when football reminds you exactly why you bother watching it. That moment was an adrenalin rush and a half.
Just finished watching the replay on Setanta. Even though I already knew what the result was, I still got goosebumps after Murphy scored. I don’t know if my heart could have taken it watching this live.
It was awesome to watch the reactions of the Fulham supporters. On the replay of Kamara’s first goal when he first overruns the ball, you can see several Fulham fans expressing their frustration at another missed opportunity only to start celebrating after the shot went in.
This really was the first match where you could see Hodgson was feeling the pressure. Usually, he is pretty stoic, but he was very animated today.
In the end, we got what we had deserved, we were the better side today, but what a wild ride to get there.
BTW, the last time that Man City lost at home after scoring first? That’s right, it was to Fulham back in 2006.
Just got back from the pub to watch the late replay of the game on Setanta. Kamara was driving me nuts again early. Head down, losing the ball once, twice, three times on the same play. Even his turn wasn’t very good, the ball deflecting off his heal. But then the other turn and not a terrific shot but a shot none the less. And through the legs. Oh my.
But after that the guy played fantastic. The last goal was quality. Pure quality. But I’m still asking myself, how did Man City miss so many great opportunities late in that game. They really had it over us in quality chances but made nothing of them and it came back to haunt them.
Regardless, it was exciting to watch, end to end for the last 10 min.
Ah, but we had about 20 shots to their 10. Joe Hart made a couple of terrific saves early on. We were lucky to get back but I think we did deserve it. I couldn’t believe it at half time, it was 3 shots 2 goals, a bit like last week. Keller’s been letting a lot get past him lately but he came through in the end.
I can’t even remember the last 10 minutes. We were in a pub that was going increasingly mad, I had a burger that I was chomping through, I remember that, and it all seemed a bit otherwordly.
PS George, I noticed the same thing as you on the TV replays, the fans getting angry with Kamara.
“Fulhamish” or what?
Now, at last at long last, we know how Kamara scored all those goals in the Championship. Bring back Sanchez and let`s play long ball football! No, seriously, it was a stunning win. Not in the sense that we out-played Man City for a lot of the match but in coming back from two down. I felt like I was in a dream as the reports came in of each goal on Radio Five Live. Every time I heard the words “there`s been another goal at Eastlands” I though, “Oh no, City have scored”.
Last time we won away, the following week we played like three blind mice (well, eleven, anyway). Can we keep it up when Birmingham come to town?
Amazing what the right midfield combination can do for a side….