Ah well. For fans of most football clubs around the country, the hope is the same –new signings, a new-ish manager, and everyone starting level on nought points – perhaps this year things will be different. Before anything has actually happened to suggest otherwise, it’s easy to suspend one’s disbelief and dream of a season in which most things go right rather than wrong, Fulham are clinical rather than wasteful in front of goal, solid rather than generous at the back. It usually takes a few games before reality begins to set in – this year, the optimism didn’t even last that long.
For the first twenty minutes against Hull, the blissful dream was intact. With the sun shining brightly and a full away end in fine voice, the Fulham players, angelic all in white, passed the ball around serenely and created chances seemingly at will. Bullard’s cross was headed in expertly by Seol Ki-Hyeon, of all people – was this really happening? We were 1-0 up and it looked a matter of time before more goals came. Davies grazed the bar with a skilful volley, Gera miscontrolled when he perhaps should have scored, but it didn’t matter, surely. The previously eager home crowd were silent and Hull’s nervous players could barely string a pass together; we had quickly and efficiently asserted our Premier League dominance over these novices and would canter to a comfortable victory.
It had to be too good to be true. After 25 minutes, out of nothing, Hull’s Giovanni picked up the ball, took a run at our defence and before anyone managed to stop him, curled a fabulous twenty-yard shot into the bottom corner. You could sense that the Hull fans had already sat back and resigned themselves to a Derby-like season of depressing struggle, but suddenly they were awoken – Giovanni’s strike restored their fervour and the pendulum had started to swing. By the second half, with the sky now clouded over and a blustery wind set in, it was Hull who were on top. Our creative but defensively weak midfield were simply bullied out of the game – Bullard, under constant pressure, was misplacing passes all over the place and Murphy was simply anonymous.
We made one real chance – again falling to Gera, a right-footer playing on the left, and again his left foot failed him. But if anyone was going to score it was Hull – Giovanni missed an open goal and Schwarzer acquitted himself well on a number of occasions. Zamora and the previously impressive Seol were now lonely figures; the away crowd was crying out for Hodgson to make a change in order give our back four some protection and put the exasperated Murphy out of his misery. But a substitution wasn’t forthcoming, and eventually the pressure told when the usually reliable Konchesky tripped over the ball in his own area and Folan, via Fagan, made no mistake in accepting the gift. The KC stadium exploded as Fulham fans’ heads sank.
I basically agree with Rich’s analysis of our midfield issues below. I had no problem with the starting line up – such an attacking set-up was a calculated risk which, considering the opposition, was a reasonable one to take. And it worked in the first half. What rankles is Roy’s apparent unwillingness to be slightly flexible and change things when it’s clearly not working, as was clear for all to see in the second half. Of course it’s easy to talk with hindsight, but these were things people around me were shouting from about 55 minutes onwards. Roy surely would have seen it too, so what prevented a change – stubbornness? Arrogance? It was difficult to fathom. And now it looks as if we might be heading into September with nought points on the board.
It’s when the pre-season optimism is dashed that the ever-resourceful football fan reverts to looking for other things to enjoy apart from the result, and one positive at Hull was the emergence of a new comedy-hero – Johnny Paintsil at right back. This was a super committed performance of enthusiastic bombs down the flank mixed with athletic, if haphazard, efforts at the back. I’m sure he’ll make a few bloopers in his time and it’s possibly doubtful whether he’s even a Premiership quality defender at all – but whatever happens, he’ll be giving his all and it’s going to be fun to watch. What’s more, he was alone in making the effort to come right over and acknowledge the away support both before and after the game. Top man.
