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.

Fulham 3 v 0 NSI Runavik

Thursday 30th June  2011
Europa League 1^st Qualifying Round

Craven Cottage, Fulham

Admission: £5.00
Programme: £3.00
Attendance: 14910

Match Rating: 2

Still in June and remarkably, time for the first game of a new football season! As someone who likes to take in as many different grounds as possible and so tries to not return to the same venue at least in the short term, it is rather strange how often I find myself at Craven Cottage, through a combination of relatively attractive games with cheap ticket prices – indeed, I was only at Craven Cottage a month previously, to watch the Women’s Champions League Final.

Tickets were priced at a bargain £5.00 for a seat behind either goal, or £10.00 along either length, and I purchased online as prices would double on the day of the match, and so I selected a seat in the Hammersmith End. Attending this match would also mean a sneak preview for me of a team from the Faroe Islands, where I shall be visiting and hoping to take some game in in August.

This time, I took the opportunity of admiring the statues of Johnny Haynes, outside the main stand, and then the relatively recently unveiled status of Michael Jackson, which is located between the Hammersmith End and the Riverside Stand, before taking my seat close to the front of the stand and behind the goal.

Of course, it was difficult to gauge any kind of form for Fulham, considering that they had only been back in pre-season for a week – Fulham having to play so early as they only qualified for this season’s Europa League via the Fair Play League – and this being the first game in charge for Martin Jol. Before the game, Jol had hinted at playing a fair sprinkling of youngsters, however in the end, he names what was probably his strongest team available. On paper, they should have been far too strong for the Faroese outfit, although the visitors would certainly benefit from being match fit and sharp, this being the middle of their league season, and are currently in fourth place in the Faroese Premier League, having finished in third place last season to qualify for this competition. They drew their last game 1-1 at home to B71 – a poor result as B71 are cast adrift at the foot of the table, but before that had an exciting looking 6-4 away win at mid-table Vestur.

One would have anticipated that this game would be played at a pedestrian pace with Fulham in the ascendancy, and that is exactly how the game panned out, as Fulham completely dominated the match with a thoroughly professional performance, keeping the ball for long periods (a very sensible approach being at the start of pre-season) but rarely appearing to the have the ambition to drive at goal. To be fair to NSI, they looked fairly comfortable and actually could have taken the lead on 26 minutes when a powerful Justinus Hansen shot bounced narrowly wide. It was Fulham who took the lead on 32 minutes with a well placed low shot by Damien Duff from just inside the area and into the net. A narrow 1-0 lead was all that Fulham took into the half-time break, which must have been considered a wonderful achievement by the Faroese part-timers.

The second half kicked off in the same vein as the first, unsurprisingly, with Fulham completely dominant, but it wasn't until an hour was on the clock when Fulham extended their lead to two, when Simon Davies was hacked down after some nimble footwork, and the penalty was converted by Danny Murphy, sending the keeper the wrong way. Ten minutes later, and Fulham made the tie completely safe, scoring a third well a well-worked, tippy-tappy move ended with Andy Johnson playing a one-two with Bobby Zamora before cooling slotting home from 10 yards. NSI had their goalkeeper Andras Gango as well as an unbelievable miss from a yard out by the young sub Lauri Della Valle to thank for keeping the score down to three at the end of the game with some great saves, but the 3-0 final scoreline means the second leg will be a formality with Fulham virtually assured of progress to a second qualifying round tie against Crusaders, of Northern Ireland.

Fulham 1 v 0 CSKA Sofia

Thursday 3rd December 2009
UEFA Europa League Group Stage
Craven Cottage, London
Admission: £5.00
Programme: £.00
Attendance: 23,604
Match Rating: 4

I broke my usual rule of trying not to visit the same stadium twice in a season for this Europa League match between Fulham and CSKA Sofia, tempted by a fantastically cheap ticket price of just £5 for booking well in advance of the game. For Fulham at least, there was much riding on this game. After very unluckily only obtaining a point from their previous two games against AS Roma, Fulham needed to beat CSKA Sofia at home and then would probably to win in Switzerland against Basle in their final game in order to qualify for the knockout rounds. On paper, the first part of the equation did not appear to be too challenging, given that CSKA Sofia were cast adrift at the bottom of the league with just one point from their first four games.

Craven Cottage is certainly one of my favourite top-flight stadia - full of history and traditional quirks but is still a very modern and comfortable facility. The Johnny Haynes stand is a real throw-back to previous generations with wooden seats, the Craven Cottage in an adjacent corner is certainly a unique feature, and the Riverside Stand, where I was seated for this game, has the excellent feature of being able to enjoy refreshments right alongside and overlooking the River Thames. The programme was excellent for this game, providing full information regarding Fulham news, the opposition and the Europa League.

As for the game, it was very much a case of a game of two halves. Fulham were superb during the first half and really clicked as a team. They should have taken the lead on 8 minutes, but one of the most reliable penalty takers in the game, Danny Murphy, ballooned the ball over. Fulham only had to wait another 7 minutes before taking the lead thanks to an excellent header from the Hungarian, Zoltan Gera. Unfortunately Fulham didn't convert their possession and numerous golden opportunities to score into a convincing lead at half time. Inexplicably, in the second half, Fulham were truly awful and Sofia dominated the second half, and as the game reached its conclusion, sqaundered some wonderful opportunities to equalise, but in the end, Fulham held on for a nerve jangling 1-0 victory. After AS Roma beat FC Basle in the other game in this group, Fulham now have their destiny in their own hands. Win in Basle in two weeks time and they will qualify, any other result and they will not.

Fulham 3 v 0 FC Vetra

Thursday 6th August 2009
Europa League 3rd Qualifying Round
Craven Cottage, London
Attendance: 15,106
Admission: £10
Programme: £3

I took this game in on my way home from Stansted Airport, taking advantage of buying my tickets in advance for just £10. Although I have already been to Craven Cottage twice before, it's always a pleasant experience to visit, which had become a modern facility apart from the Johnny Haynes stand where I sat, which had old fashioned wooden seats and an old fashioned designed stand with very narrow concourses.

With the Lithuanian side half way through their season, I was expecting this tie to be a close affair, however Fulham winning the first leg 3-0 in Lithuania effectively ended this tie as a contest. On a really foul night with constant torrential rain, this turned out to be another entertaining game (I certainly have been lucky recently!), wth Fulham by far the more superior side and creating chance after chance, although FK Vetra still managed to have some excellent chances on the break.

It was surprising that this game was goalless at half time, but Fulham looked stronger and stronger as the game wore on and it was no surprise when Fulham took the lead on the night on 57 minutes, and then added to late classic poacher goals from Andy Johnson in the last ten minutes, to give Fulham an extremely comfortable 6-0 aggregate win