Fulham 4 v 0 Crusaders

Thursday 21st July  2011

Europa League 2nd Qualifying Round

Craven Cottage, Fulham

Admission: £5.00
Programme: £3.00
Attendance: 15,676

Match Rating: 2

Having decided to follow Fulham on their adventure in the Europa League this season – certainly as far as the home games concerned, as well as having an interest in Northern Irish football, I made the return visit to Craven Cottage this evening three weeks after my last visit, a decision made even easier by the repeat of the bargain ticket prices, £5.00 when bought in advance.

In truth, there was little riding on this second leg match, with the tie already seemingly as good as over. In the first leg in Belfast a week previously, Crusaders apparently played ever so well, coming oh so close to causing a major upset. Fulham held a 1-0 lead at half time, Crusaders equalised and then could easily have taken the lead when a shot struck the crossbar midway through the second half. In the end though, Fulham scored two goals in quick succession to take a 3-1 lead back to London, meaning that the part-timers of Crusaders would have to score three times to have any hope of progressing. An unlikely scenario indeed, but playing a team like Fulham in competitive action was probably beyond the wildest dreams of the Crusaders players and officials. Martin Jol again suprisingly named virtually the strongest team at his disposal, which included the competitive debut of John Arne Riise, the former Liverpool and AS Roma and current Norway player, whose signing must be considered quite a coup for Fulham.

During the first half, Crusaders battled well but struggled to keep possession of the ball sufficiently, but they looked fairly comfortable until the 19th minute, when Damien Duff played a ball across the bos, Bobby Zamora dummied, leaving Andy Johnson to side step the defender before slotting home from 10 yards. Crusaders, to their credit, stayed in the game with a battling performance, and had a couple of half chances to get back on level terms on the night, most notable on 35 mnutes when Crusaders' scorer in the first half, Timmy Adamson, flicked a shot over the bar from 10 yards, but 1-0 was how the score stood at half time.

Perhaps unsurprisingly considering Crusaders' part-time status, they appeared to fade in the second half as Fulham upped the ante, and after missing a couple of good chances to increase their lead, on 56 minutes, Duff ran onto a good low throughball by Philippe Senderos and drove into the box before dispatching a low shot into the corner. In almost carbon copy of the first goal, Fulham opened up their lead to three on 65 minutes, when Johnson crossed low from out wide, Duff dummied and Zamora curled his first-time shot into the goal from 10 yards. On 70 minutes, Fulham scored their fourth with a powerful header from Steve Sidwell - who had earlier missed several gilt-edged chances to score - following a corner from Duff. From this point, Fulham took their foot off the gas which was quite a relief as any worse scoreline than 04 would have been very harsh on Crusaders, who gave a good account of themselves, but credit should also be given to Fulham who showed clinical professionalism. This early in pre-season and considering the relatively weak opposition, Fulham could have fallen into the trap of complacency and sloppiness - but they didn't, and so they progress comfortably to the next round and a tie with the Croation side RNK Split.

Crusaders 1 v 1 Portadown

Saturday 6th March 2010
(Northern) Irish Cup Quarter Final
Score 1-1
Seaview, Belfast
Admission: £9.00
Programme: £2.00
Attendance: 1000 (estimate)
Match Rating: 3

For my second daytrip to Northern Ireland within a week, I decided to stay in Belfast on Irish Cup Quarter Final day and head for the north of the city to Seaview, home of Crusaders, and is also one of the very few grounds in the UK to have a synthetic 4G pitch in the UK. The installation of this pitch last November has been predictably controversial, with opponents complaining that a plastic pitch is no substitute for the real thing and carries an increased risk of injury, and so I was curious to have a look at the pitch and a game played on it at first hand.

Getting to Seaview was very straighforward, catching a bus from Belfast City Airport for the quarter of an hour ride into the city centre, and then after spending some time wandering around Belfast City Centre, taking bus number 2 which stops right outside the Seaview stadium after another 15 minute journey. The first interesting thing to note on arriving at the ground is a small mural on the outside wall of the ground, which was a nice touch - unusual at a football ground, but highly appropriate in a city such as Belfast where murals are to be found in abundance. On entering the ground, the overall impression was one of a ground that is a pleasingly old-fashioned and traditional, but one that could most certainly do with a lick of paint and general sprucing up. There is a large bank of terracing along two thirds of the length of one side of the pitch, about half of which is covered, although supporting posts can obstruct the view. Shallow banks of terracing are located behind either goal, and the remaining side of the pitch contains a small but steep grandstand, access for which costs an additional £1 to the £9 entrance fee. Seaview certainly couldn't be considered a peaceful setting, located alongside a busy main road one side and a railway line and motorway the other. A view of a large hill behind the main grandstand does make for a pleasant backdrop however. As for the programme, this was quite an impressive effort for a Northern Irish programme, printed in colour with plenty of photographs.

Both teams came into today's game in reasonable form, with Portadown winning four league games in a row to earn their manager, Ronnie McFall, who has been at the Portadown helm for a mightly impressive quarter of a century, the manager of the month award for February, although the traditional curse of this award resulted in Portadown getting a 0-5 hammering at Windsor Park against Linfield in midweek. Crusaders have been more inconsistent recently but won 3-0 at home to Glenavon last Monday in front of the Sky TV cameras, are in 5th place in the league and are very much in contention to qualify for Europe. This game was also almost an exact repeat of last season when the two teams met at the same Quarter Final stage of the Irish Cup, with Crusaders winning 5-2 at Portadown on their way to lifting the Cup.

On a gloriously sunny afternoon, the game started with Crusaders very much in the ascendancy, creating some excellent chances, although against the run of play, Portadown took the lead on 27 minutes thanks to a well worked move when Jordan Baker attacked wide of the goal, drew the keeper out to close him down and then played the ball back across the goal for Kevin Braniff to fire home past a couple of defenders from 12 yards out. Their lead would only last a couple of minutes though, when Gareth McKeown launched a long throw in into the six yard box and Jordan Owens flicked the ball past the keeper with a deft header. The game continued in a similar vein for the rest of the half, although Portadown were looking increasingly dangerous and the feeling at half time was that this was a game that could go either way . In the second half, Crusaders took control, with Portadown only having very sporadic ventures towards goal, as Crusaders dominated midfield and wasted some superb chances to win the game, but the scoreline remained at 1-1 and the two teams now have to do it all again at Portadown, for what will no doubt be another tight affair between two evenly matched teams, played on grass which should benefit Portadown.

My impressions of the 4G pitch were not that different to what I had imagined beforehand - that it is of very good quality, certainly worlds above the infamous plastic pitches of the 1980's, and the more technically gifted players thrive on it as they can trust and rely on the consistent bounce of the ball. However, it also seems to make players a lot more reluctant to go in for hard tackles, and somehow it just doesn't seem to be proper football. The positive side of having a synthetic pitch has already been clearly demonstrated this season when so many games in the Irish League were postponed during December and January due to snow and ice, causing a horrendous backlog of fixtures. Through it all, Crusaders were able to play their fixtures apart from one time when the game was called off due to fresh snowfall - for a couple of weeks Seaview was the only place in Northern Ireland where football was played, and this is an important consideration for clubs at this level who really feel the effects of having Saturday home games postponed. As with most issues in football, the jury is out as to whether synthetic pitches is a way forward for some non-professional football clubs, but the overriding feeling for me is that senior football should be played on grass.