Everton 1-0 Fulham

Could we, I wonder, reasonably have expected much better?   Going to Everton is not something Fulham have ever done well, and today we matched a strong side all the way, finally falling to a heartbreaking late winner.

An engaging, open game was scoreless at the half.  Fellaini had hit the post for Everton with a daisy-cutting drive, but overall Fulham held their own.  Andy Johnson had our best chance, reacting first when Tim Howard dropped the ball, delayed his shot and eventually had to turn around and find someone else to have a go.  Had he put his foot through the ball it could have burst the net.

Everton revved up impressively in the second half, dominating the opening fifteen minutes.  But Fulham held firm, and gradually started to reassert themselves in the game.  Zoltan Gera hit the bar with a thumping header – the third time he’s hit the woodwork this season – and Bobby Zamora hit a post, following up on a rare on-target free-kick from the ineffective Bullard.  The latter was a good chance, almost an open goal, but in avoiding two goal-line defenders Zamora’s shot squirreled across the goal, off the inside of the post, and away.   Clearly by now Fulham had earned a point, but it was not to be, old friend Saha popping up to head powerfully beyond Mark Schwarzer with only minutes left.  Harsh.

Post-mortems are being carried out and opinions are mixed.  Did we see yet another close-but-not-close-enough away debacle, or did we see another well drilled away performance that could, and perhaps should, have merited more than it got?   Put another way, is this approach working?

The points tally from away games – one so far – would certainly back up those who are upset.  The performances have been for the most part reasonable, so is it enough to trust fair performances to get good results?  Perhaps not.  But if that is so, what is missing?

Here is where we shrug our shoulders.  There is a long list of perceived deficiencies in this team, but how much difference would they actually make when we have just lost a game by the width of the miniscule inaccuracies of Gera and Zamora’s finishes?  If Zamora had placed his shot two centimetres to the left it would have gone in.  If Gera’s header had been two inches lower it would have gone in.  When we are fighting against such tiny margins for error, is it sensible to get upset with the final result?   Is it not better to come that close to a famous away win than lose pathetically as we have on our last two visits to this ground?

In truth these are questions without an easy answer, and, just as Roy Hodgson’s management appears to demand a patience that results might not give him, our away troubles demand insight that none of us really has.  Perhaps this is time to think about a batsman in cricket: when he’s scoring runs he doesn’t think about his game, he just goes out and bats; when he’s out of touch every part of his technique is scrutinised, front elbow, grip, stance, front foot, trigger movement, back foot movement… often this is counterproductive.  We must hope for the simplification that three points against Newcastle might bring.