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When you meet a stranger for the first time and in conversation they say "I support chelsea", it will inevitably lead to " I have followed them all my life and not just through the glory years".
Fulham fans are pretty much the same, its just I wonder where they were hibernating in the eighties and nineties, because as a child growing up in the early eighties and often visiting Craven Cottage when QPR played away, I can never remember them getting anywhere near 5,000 let alone near the figures they get now. That was back in 1983 when we had the plastic pitch and got promoted and they failed to acheive promotion on the last game of the season. Back then we got at least 3 times the home support they got. So much has changed for each club in the period. We had of course the merger talks in 1987, which resulted in both sets of supporters fiercely opposed to the merger and then for a few short years Fulham groundsharing at Loftus Road from 2002 whilst they re-developed Craven cottage.
Recently talks have re-surfaced that we may in the future look at groundsharing as an option to build the club for the future. It seems inconceivable that this would happen with our bitter rivals Chelsea so it clearly leaves Fulham as the main viable option and insiders I know at fulham are at this stage are not adverse to the idea of groundsharing or at least discussing that option. That of course is some way off and I cannot see anything of that magnitude happening in the next two/three years, though its obvious that with 16-17,000 crowds, we cannot maintain an outlay of 4-5 million a month without looking at expanding the support base.
There has always been a rivalry with Fulham though no-where near the likes Chelsea. It is quite interesting to see the younger fanbase actually feel more passion against Fulham than any other club in the land. For many years they were seen as our friendly neighbour and its fair to say even Brentford were disliked more. Times have changed over recent years and one of the last games I remember was back in 1999 with plenty of trouble in Bishops Park and the surrounding areas and I think the fulham hierachy have been very nieve about this forthcoming fixture. Over recent years the rivalry between Fulham and QPR fans has grown, due in part to the frustrations of us seeing a once viewed minnow club overtake us in terms of perceived success and the continual way, Fulham fans now come out in numbers to say they have always been a much bigger club. In truth, this Sunday will see a great number of Hoops supporters taking over the neutral end and pockets of supporters who will quietly be sitting with home supporters.
It has in truth been a complete bodge job from both clubs, firstly that QPR were taken by surprise with the numbers who would fork out £50-£55 for this match and not asking for the full allocation, which a like a club like ours would easily take and Fulham for trying to make a quick buck through selling QPR supporters tickets through the neutral end without no real interest in safety and for us to pay £55 for the privilege/. Also be careful if you want a bet inside the ground, as the in-house bookies charge 3% for all you bets
I would rather slit my wrists then support a club like Fulham. Not that I have anything really against them, but I just find them boring and in Martin Jol they have found a manager who compliments them perfectly, you can bet he will play the game tight and will not be adverse to stifling the game, giving very little away which could actually lead to a dire game of football. They have drawn 4 times already with two of those being 0-0's, which clearly indicates they possess very little up front and in Bryan Ruiz they could have bought the golden turkey of the season. Despite Zamora and Johnson being on the sidelines, he only made an appearance against WBA as substitute and has failed miserably so far this season and one thing Fulham lack is a clinical finisher despite Zamora playing the odd blinder.
This week we can guess the formation Warnock will bring to the table. Its likely that Connolly will be brought in for the suspendid Traore, the rest will be the same team that took on Aston Villa. (though could be an outside chance helguson comes in for Bothroyd). Its a real disappointment that Traore is missing for this one as I have been impressed with his start this season. Anyone who managed to go Molineux would have clearly said he was Man of the Match and he played pretty well at home to villa, though his petulance in getting a second yellow card for a stupid tackle is something I hope he learns from. I've heard some question Warnock's reaction to publically slate him to the cameras, but I suspect Wanrock is a good judge of character. Sometimes I would imagine the gaffer would react differently for example, a Barton/Derry tackle of that nature would have been dealt with behind closed doors. I guess its just a way of dealing with each situation, each and every individual takes being told whats right and wrong in different ways. I suspect this week it has all been forgotten and that Traore will be back straight in the team after the international break.
Three players that could be back for contention after the International break are Kieron Dyer, Gabbidon and Jamie Mackie. Its fair to say Mackie is a little further away than the others though I suspect he will be nudging away at Warnock to give him some kind of chance to play at the end of next month.
So far we have been fairly lucky with injuries and long may that continue. In playing a settled side it definitely enhances our chances of survival this season and I suspect the formation for this Sunday will see Taarabt just behind the front man with Derry/ faurlin holding the midfield, with Barton drifting out to the right and sometimes switching wings with Wright Phillips. Fulham will be very tough to break down and have a mean defence who don't give goals away lightly in this division. I am sorry to disappoint the fans who will be making the short trip to Craven Cottage, but I can see this being a rather forgettable encounter with 0-0 or 1-1 written all over it. I am sure we will play our normal attacking way, but we will have to defend for large parts of the game and against this Fulham team our defence is more than capable of preventing them from getting too many good goalscoring opportunities. Fulham were unimpressive against Blackburn and I am sure fatigue from the Manchester City players played a part in them coming back from 2-0 down, but they do play a dire brand of football and in my eyes will remain the most boring team to watch in the Premiership.
For our part we need to improve our free-kicks from outside the box and try to react quicker to Bothroyd's knockdowns. Looking back over the Villa game, we were very conscious of the pace up front from Villa and thats why too many times, we had very little presence in the box. Many times when we attacked we had 3 going forward against 7 defenders with Derry/Faurlin holding back. If I had one criticism it would be, we did not get enough bodies in the box and the only time we did (in fact it was Ferdinand in the box final minutes) we scored. Would be good to see when Bothroyd drifts out wide that we bust a gut to get into the box, as I counted 6 times in the last game where we had no-one in the opposing penalty area and that at home needs to be addressed. Anyway, good job I am not the manager and only an observer.
All in all its been cracking start to the season and if we could just start winning games at home I would be ultra confident of finishing bottom half, above any relegation threat.
As for this Sunday, I'm going for a draw
Andre Marriner will be the referee
Fulham fans are pretty much the same, its just I wonder where they were hibernating in the eighties and nineties, because as a child growing up in the early eighties and often visiting Craven Cottage when QPR played away, I can never remember them getting anywhere near 5,000 let alone near the figures they get now. That was back in 1983 when we had the plastic pitch and got promoted and they failed to acheive promotion on the last game of the season. Back then we got at least 3 times the home support they got. So much has changed for each club in the period. We had of course the merger talks in 1987, which resulted in both sets of supporters fiercely opposed to the merger and then for a few short years Fulham groundsharing at Loftus Road from 2002 whilst they re-developed Craven cottage.
Recently talks have re-surfaced that we may in the future look at groundsharing as an option to build the club for the future. It seems inconceivable that this would happen with our bitter rivals Chelsea so it clearly leaves Fulham as the main viable option and insiders I know at fulham are at this stage are not adverse to the idea of groundsharing or at least discussing that option. That of course is some way off and I cannot see anything of that magnitude happening in the next two/three years, though its obvious that with 16-17,000 crowds, we cannot maintain an outlay of 4-5 million a month without looking at expanding the support base.
There has always been a rivalry with Fulham though no-where near the likes Chelsea. It is quite interesting to see the younger fanbase actually feel more passion against Fulham than any other club in the land. For many years they were seen as our friendly neighbour and its fair to say even Brentford were disliked more. Times have changed over recent years and one of the last games I remember was back in 1999 with plenty of trouble in Bishops Park and the surrounding areas and I think the fulham hierachy have been very nieve about this forthcoming fixture. Over recent years the rivalry between Fulham and QPR fans has grown, due in part to the frustrations of us seeing a once viewed minnow club overtake us in terms of perceived success and the continual way, Fulham fans now come out in numbers to say they have always been a much bigger club. In truth, this Sunday will see a great number of Hoops supporters taking over the neutral end and pockets of supporters who will quietly be sitting with home supporters.
It has in truth been a complete bodge job from both clubs, firstly that QPR were taken by surprise with the numbers who would fork out £50-£55 for this match and not asking for the full allocation, which a like a club like ours would easily take and Fulham for trying to make a quick buck through selling QPR supporters tickets through the neutral end without no real interest in safety and for us to pay £55 for the privilege/. Also be careful if you want a bet inside the ground, as the in-house bookies charge 3% for all you bets
I would rather slit my wrists then support a club like Fulham. Not that I have anything really against them, but I just find them boring and in Martin Jol they have found a manager who compliments them perfectly, you can bet he will play the game tight and will not be adverse to stifling the game, giving very little away which could actually lead to a dire game of football. They have drawn 4 times already with two of those being 0-0's, which clearly indicates they possess very little up front and in Bryan Ruiz they could have bought the golden turkey of the season. Despite Zamora and Johnson being on the sidelines, he only made an appearance against WBA as substitute and has failed miserably so far this season and one thing Fulham lack is a clinical finisher despite Zamora playing the odd blinder.
This week we can guess the formation Warnock will bring to the table. Its likely that Connolly will be brought in for the suspendid Traore, the rest will be the same team that took on Aston Villa. (though could be an outside chance helguson comes in for Bothroyd). Its a real disappointment that Traore is missing for this one as I have been impressed with his start this season. Anyone who managed to go Molineux would have clearly said he was Man of the Match and he played pretty well at home to villa, though his petulance in getting a second yellow card for a stupid tackle is something I hope he learns from. I've heard some question Warnock's reaction to publically slate him to the cameras, but I suspect Wanrock is a good judge of character. Sometimes I would imagine the gaffer would react differently for example, a Barton/Derry tackle of that nature would have been dealt with behind closed doors. I guess its just a way of dealing with each situation, each and every individual takes being told whats right and wrong in different ways. I suspect this week it has all been forgotten and that Traore will be back straight in the team after the international break.
Three players that could be back for contention after the International break are Kieron Dyer, Gabbidon and Jamie Mackie. Its fair to say Mackie is a little further away than the others though I suspect he will be nudging away at Warnock to give him some kind of chance to play at the end of next month.
So far we have been fairly lucky with injuries and long may that continue. In playing a settled side it definitely enhances our chances of survival this season and I suspect the formation for this Sunday will see Taarabt just behind the front man with Derry/ faurlin holding the midfield, with Barton drifting out to the right and sometimes switching wings with Wright Phillips. Fulham will be very tough to break down and have a mean defence who don't give goals away lightly in this division. I am sorry to disappoint the fans who will be making the short trip to Craven Cottage, but I can see this being a rather forgettable encounter with 0-0 or 1-1 written all over it. I am sure we will play our normal attacking way, but we will have to defend for large parts of the game and against this Fulham team our defence is more than capable of preventing them from getting too many good goalscoring opportunities. Fulham were unimpressive against Blackburn and I am sure fatigue from the Manchester City players played a part in them coming back from 2-0 down, but they do play a dire brand of football and in my eyes will remain the most boring team to watch in the Premiership.
For our part we need to improve our free-kicks from outside the box and try to react quicker to Bothroyd's knockdowns. Looking back over the Villa game, we were very conscious of the pace up front from Villa and thats why too many times, we had very little presence in the box. Many times when we attacked we had 3 going forward against 7 defenders with Derry/Faurlin holding back. If I had one criticism it would be, we did not get enough bodies in the box and the only time we did (in fact it was Ferdinand in the box final minutes) we scored. Would be good to see when Bothroyd drifts out wide that we bust a gut to get into the box, as I counted 6 times in the last game where we had no-one in the opposing penalty area and that at home needs to be addressed. Anyway, good job I am not the manager and only an observer.
All in all its been cracking start to the season and if we could just start winning games at home I would be ultra confident of finishing bottom half, above any relegation threat.
As for this Sunday, I'm going for a draw
Andre Marriner will be the referee
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