Hello! Hands stopped shaking yet? Pulses returned to their normal rates? There are a lot of words I could use to describe my emotions throughout the game today- but I won't use them because I try and keep the swearing to a minimal amount on this. Was the result ever in doubt?
This has turned into a great day for Fulham Fans, especially if they're Irish- with Sheff. Wednesday's last minute exploits against Rotherham, Brentford doing us a favour at the Den and Bolton keeping Wigan down to a Point the win today has suddenly made our position in this league a lot more secure, and while I'm under no illusion that we're out of the blender yet, An 8 Point Gap is a lot easier to defend.
The goals today were bizarre for different reasons. What can you say about us scoring directly from a corner twice in the same season- it can pretty much sum our season up that we've done so twice in the same season. The one in November against Blackpool was Bryan Ruiz curling it in and Dan Burn putting pressure on the Keeper- the one today had Kaca curling it in and Matt Smith using all 6'6 of him to make a nuisance of himself. Smith also had a hand in Fofana's goal- in that he provided the knock down for Fofana to get the chance, and with the assist coming from the post he eventually converted.
There are very few times I've described a performance from a Fulham player as close to perfection- we had Christensen a few times before Christmas, Bodurov against Norwich, Parker against Derby and now Bettinelli today. Bettinelli is someone who I've rarely had anything truly negative to talk about, he's a young keeper which is why when he went through his blip and he gave away a few goals against Sunderland and Bolton I always stuck by him, and he really pulled it out of the bag today. The final total Saves from the stats I've seen is 14, which is absolutely ridiculous; we were hammering Silvestri all night on Wednesday and got nothing, and we put in pretty much the reverse performance today and Bettinelli came good. I remember Joronen saving a Penalty against Wolves in August, and I may well be wrong here but I'm pretty sure this makes it the Third Game he's saved a Penalty in- for some reason I think its 4 but I can only think of Doncaster, Bournemouth and Todays game, so if someone can put it to bed that'd be much appreciated.
I'd love to say the defensive performance was cool, calm and collected- but it was anything but. I didn't think Hutchinson should have been on the pitch at the start of the game- so of course he was made Captain. The whole Red Card situation was just bizarre- between Woodrow literally being dragged off the pitch before the 4th Official told him to stay on and then Hutchinson getting his marching orders, I haven't seen the Gareth McAuley thing from the early kick-off but I can only assume it was similar, but of course that one wasn't rectified. I can't praise Hutchinson for doing what he did to prevent a goal, but in the end it paid off, who said Cheaters never Prosper? I thought Turner was immense today, we were some way off what I'd call an assured defensive performance but I thought Turner dealt with the majority of stuff thrown his way. Grimmer looked pretty shaky when he started out, but that was perhaps understandable given his very limited game-time- he had the game against Bolton and then I can't remember his game before that, but I thought he grew into the game- and by the end of the game I thought he was looking like the capable player we had started to see before we brought in Jazz Richards. Speaking of Jazz Richards, the foul for the 2nd Penalty was simply a stupid foul to give away- it just wasn't necessary, but as I said before it counted for nowt at the end of the day and I hate to dwell on negatives when we've won.
The Midfield was far from perfect today- but at the end of the day we did the job. Tunnicliffe put in his usual battling performance, and with the way the game played out we needed Tunnicliffe in the team and his defensive work-rate. I wouldn't have had Hoogland in the Starting XI but he put a shift in, and while he's far from our best defender he put a shift in when it was needed, while I'm not necessarily condoning fouls and getting booked it was in a way good to see us pick up a few bookings today because it showed we were getting stuck in. As with the other two midfielders Kavanagh put a good shift in, with the exception of Kacaniklic he was our most offensive minded Midfielder- and although it wasn't great, with the very limited chances we did have to attack Kavanagh played his part when needed. Kacaniklic of course scored the goal, and he was probably our player most likely to make something happen in the first-half. He was creating a number of attacking chances in the First Half and showed why he is a valuable player to us, he isn't the best defensively but that's why we subbed him off for the last 20 or so minutes.
Smith played his part in both goals, and in the kind of game this turned into a player with his physical presence was needed- and on another day he would have gotten a goal from one of the crosses we put in. Speaking of those crosses, one of the better ones was put in by Woodrow, who put everything into his performance today- people talk about people like Roberts, Dembele etc. being deserving of more time, but Woodrow is the person who's had the roughest time with regard to deserving more pitch time; because he hasn't done an awful lot wrong when he has been given the chance, and between him hitting the post and everything else he could have grabbed a goal today.
The Subs Kit made were good (for once). Fofana made a real impact when he came on, he didn't just grab a goal- he had a real positive impact on the game and in the latter stages of the game he looked like our most dangerous player by quite a long way. I've been critical at times of Fofana, but he definitely has all the potential in the world- and now he's got a goal under his belt I'm hoping he'll calm down a bit. Bodurov came on and was solid, he has his limitations but as a Defender I do rate him. Hugo came on and had very little time to make an impact- and that's all you can really say about it.
The 3 Points Today we picked up were vital, in a game that as frenetic and unpredictable as that game turned out to be the fact we picked up 3 Points speaks volumes for the teams character, which has been questioned (including by me) as of late. While you can doubt the quality of the performances today you can't doubt the commitment of anyone on the pitch.
Thanks for reading as always, we're now headed into an International Break- which is a good thing for my blood pressure. But I'll be back in the build for the Brentford game and I'll have a much happier two weeks now we've put a proper gap between us and the Relegation Zone.
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