Devastating finale, of course, but have you ever seen such a good football match?
Fulham fired out of the traps like men possessed. In 3 minutes Greening struck hard and low, the shot parried well. Our players passed quickly and effectivelyy, and Roma didn’t see the ball until 6 minutes were on the clock. The combinations, particularly down the right flank, were sensational. Bjorn Helge Riise shuttled around his brother with wonderful regularity, Bobby Zamora led the line superbly, and Roma were on the back foot.
We won a series of corners, most delivered by Riise with great power and accuracy. Nobody got on the end of them, but momentum was building. Another corner, Mart says to me “Hangeland hasn’t scored for a year”, at which Hangeland leaps high and scores. Terrific delivery again. Riise deserves a lot of the credit for the goal.
Roma come to life. Daniele Di Rossi bosses the midfield, showing astonishing vision in sweeping the ball around the field. The slippery Jeremy Menez is floating around, a man without a position, and as yet on the periphery, but his time will come. A Roma corner, Jon Arne Riise volleys, power, incredible strike, incredible save. How did he get that on target? How did Schwarzer keep it out.
The second half gets even better. Zamora and Kamara combine expertly on the break and are proving a real handful. But Fulham can’t keep possession. Roma bring on Vucinic, Perrotta, Pizarro. All look phenomenal, Vucinic blasts a fearsome drive from distance that catches Schwarzer by surprise, but our man keeps it out again. Pizarro is playing as a deep lying playmaker, and now Menez is getting more and more involved. The Frenchman plays like Clint Dempsey with lightning pace, and soon he’s charging in at our defenders at frightening angles. They stand firm, but you can’t block these players out, they have too many ways to attack. Their version of Riise, now ascendant over ours, charges into the box and is brought down by Stephen Kelly. Kelly eventually sees red. Menez hits the penalty low to Schwarzer’s right, Schwarzer keeps it out. Amazing.
Zamora has been withdrawn. This is a puzzler in some respects: while Nevland is devastating on the counter, won’t we miss Zamora’s hold up play? Sure enough, we can’t keep the ball. Punt after punt after punt lands in the Roma half and is recycled into another attack. The lads are defending like demons out there, but surely they can’t hold out. Gera, Baird, Hughes, Hangeland, Duff, all are immense defensively, all doing their bit.
But as time runs out Roma earn another corner and the ball falls to Andreolli, whose shot smashes in dramatically off the bar from close range. Emphatic, fantastic, devastating. Final whistle follows seconds later.
Roma deserved that, I haven’t seen a team play such appealing football for a long time, but how harsh on the Fulham players? Whew. What a night. Nobody will forget this one.
I thought Nevland played very poorly when he came on. He didn’t seem to engage brain and gave the ball away cheaply when he should have kept hold of it and slowed things down when he should have run up the wing.
Still. Phew. What a game.
Comment by Bad Andy — October 22, 2009 @ 10:55 pm |
Good game, and a fair result, I suppose. The defending was a bit too desperate to hold out. On the sending off… if the ref thought Hangeland committed a foul, then he was the last man so should have been sent off. When it was pointed out that Kelly committed the foul, should it also have been pointed out that he wasn’t the last man (because Hangeland was in the way)?
Comment by DaveP — October 22, 2009 @ 11:05 pm |
I think the Zamora substitution was fatigue based, Roy tring to keep a little left in the tank for sunday. Same reason that Konch and Pants played a half each. And to be fair, we weren’t doing a great job of keeping possession even before Zamora came off. We were all over Roma in the 1st half, and they were all over us in the second. I really thought we had done it when Schwarzer made that penalty save. What a kick in the nuts at the end.
Great, Great game.
Comment by withaplum — October 22, 2009 @ 11:06 pm |
Disappointing end, but what a confirmation of Roy’s rotation ability and squad development. Yes you could say he should have kept BZ on, but we need him 100% for Sunday, so it was understandable. Big mention to Greening and again Chris Baird. At the start of the season, the TIFFers were all doom and gloom about our lack of spending on big names. But it is now clear we have several fringe players who can come in and do, not just an OK job, but a top job e.g. Baird, Greening, Riise, Kamara plus of course the likes of Smalling and Gera.
Comment by Mike H — October 23, 2009 @ 12:23 am |
Thanks also to the powers that be for insisting on proper police levels to prevent the bonfires we experienced in Bologna, Split and Zagreb. Roma fans made a noise {as did we} but the football rather than the ultra won.
All in all I am happier with three points from Hull and one from Roma than one point from Hull and three from Roma. Provincial, parochial and proud. Civis Fulhamus Sum.
Comment by Pensioner — October 23, 2009 @ 5:02 am |
Damn my school’s lack of Latin, anyway!
Comment by RobbySounders — October 23, 2009 @ 6:38 am |
http://www3.five.tv/footballonfive/video
video, etc, here.
Comment by weltmeisterclaude — October 23, 2009 @ 7:20 am |
highlights at that link too. How was that a sending off?
Comment by weltmeisterclaude — October 23, 2009 @ 7:48 am |
Video confirms that Kelly wasn’t even the second-to-last defender, but the third. With 11 men for the latter stages, who knows if we might have come back into the match. Duff had surely been brought on for that purpose. We’ll need to field the best team we can to stand a chance in a fortnight.
Comment by b+w geezer — October 23, 2009 @ 8:06 am |
Phew, have just recovered my breath. What an electric night, a continental atmosphere I have never witnessed at the Cottage. We were outstanding and resolute whilst their passing and movement was of the highest order. A fair result and a real prilevage to watch.
We have come a long way since Danny’s header at Portsmouth.
Comment by Bruno — October 23, 2009 @ 8:24 am |
Davep raises a really good point – Kelly was not the last man, so it seems painfully clear that the red card only applied if Hangeland had committed the foul, which obviously he didn’t. Not only was it not a penalty, but wasn’t the corner that led to their goal actually a goalkick? Everybody around me was sure it was a GK – and so were some of the Fulham players. Indeed, after Roma scored, Zotlan asked Ray Lewington if it was a legitimate corner. Anybody else get a decent view? Any Putney Enders care to comment?
Comment by kingedwrite — October 23, 2009 @ 10:54 am |
I was sat directly in line with the shot that supposedly got deflected for the corner from which they scored and I am convinced it was not a corner. Anyway, would have taken a draw at the beginning. Great night at The Cottage
Comment by Timmsie — October 23, 2009 @ 11:07 am |
Great night at the Cottage, yes, but when 3 major refereeing blunders are made, Woy is right to feel aggrieved. It was not a penalty, it was not a red card and it may not have been a corner. These decisions cost points, and cost us one of the biggest victories in our history! The ref also seemed to award Roma free-kicks every time they fell over.
Comment by kingedwrite — October 23, 2009 @ 11:11 am |
Ref was awful. One foul when Hangeland soared high and headed clear was mad. And obviously for the penalty/red card it went badly awry – if you can’t see who carried out the foul, and that there were three players covering, then you have no business issuing red cards.
This said, I’m less angry than I would’ve been after a league game. It was an amazing night and I saw some breathtaking football, and before long I had a smile on my face. Good times to be a fulham supporter I’d say.
Comment by rich — October 23, 2009 @ 11:21 am |
Some of us Yanks had the pleasure to hear Ray Hudson call the match. Some don’t like him, but his one liners are sublime.
Like this one about the ref bungling the red card of Kelly: “This Belgian referee is waffling all over the place.”
Comment by timmyg — October 23, 2009 @ 2:16 pm |
First comment here, though I’ve been reading for a few weeks now. All I have to say, since I didn’t get to see the game, is that this write-up was one of the best I’ve read in a while, anywhere. I got excited just from reading it.
Brilliant. Devastating, yes, but brilliant all the same.
Comment by kswiss — October 23, 2009 @ 2:29 pm |
It just goes to show how far we have come with roy in charge, drawing with Roma and most of the fans are moaning about the subs roy used. Give me a draw with Roma than a draw against gillingham any day
Comment by jeff — October 23, 2009 @ 2:54 pm |
Heartbreaking but excellent game. It is a game of moments, just wish there was one less moment in this game.
Building on what Timmyg wrote about Ray Hudson’s commentary. He had about a 2 minute tirade in the first half about the removal of the old Fulham badge. To paraphrase the old one was perfect, had everything swords, armor and the marketing team made the worst decision in the history of football when they changed to the large FFC.
Wondering if any one else had any thoughts about the badge switch?
Comment by Todd — October 23, 2009 @ 3:29 pm |
Yep, the previous badge had class, history and stature. The new one is a load of marketing codswallop. It’s been years now and I’m still neither used to it nor fond of it. It is, in short, rubbish. Thankfully, the team is far superior to its badge.
Comment by kingedwrite — October 24, 2009 @ 12:01 am |
When the present badge was introduced two of the directors consulted me about first impressions. They both sensed FASCIST associations with the logo. There were some mutterings at the time and many fans stick to the old
heritage caps and shirts. My 1975 Wembley shirt is a treasured garment resting in a reliquary and only unveiled for very special occasions (Portsmouth May 2008). Most fans seem to have adopted the new badge which is at least better than the 2012 Olympic flintstonery.
Comment by Pensioner — October 24, 2009 @ 6:08 am |
Can’t describe in details since it fell out my pocket at 92;55 mins on Thursday, but the designer of the Roma programme cover must have been harking back consciously to Mussolini. Certainly the logical extension of the modern logo which I don’t care for either.
But nostalgia won’t do, since the club has been through many different badges on the shirt. And the modern extension into logo to promote a `brand’ is a necessary evil. Just a shame it’s this particular one.
Comment by b+w geezer — October 24, 2009 @ 8:14 am |