It's Fulham, It was never going to be an easy game. In many ways this was pretty much the same game as Rotherham just before the International Break, but as with Rotherham we've gotten the 3 Points and at the end of the day that's all that really matters.
The win was nice, but the main talking point from the game is without a doubt Goal-Line Technology and the lack of it doing Blackburn in today. In principle, yes Goal-Line Technology should come in across the board without a shadow of a doubt- however it really isn't that simple. It's not a case of being a Championship only decision, it would have to come in for all 72 Clubs because they're all governed by the same body and that's where the problems lie. After a quick Google the cost of installing the Goal-Line Technology is £250,000 (£15,000 coming from the Club) and for some of the teams in League 2 (and League 1) that most likely won't be a viable option. Quick aside, I found it hilarious in a way that we had the big Goal-Line Technology incident happen during a TV game where there could be proper replays.
Right then, enough about "should have been" goals- and onto the ones that did actually count. McCormack's goal today was just quality all around, it was a great ball from Tunnicliffe to put Dembele through and again to really put it on a plate for McCormack who couldn't really miss. The second goal was one of the one's where you really have to feel sorry for the Keeper. He pretty much did everything in his power to keep the ball out, and at the end of the day it just wasn't quite enough and Dembele got it in. That was Dembele's first Championship goal, so hopefully he can really kick on and add goals to his overall game which in general is top quality. One of the benefits of having both an early and a TV game is that I can actually see replays before I write this, it was a clear penalty in my book. The annoying thing was that it really wasn't necessary either, and it was a decent penalty from Rhodes.
Through a combination of bad finishing, wasted opportunities and the performance of Andy Lonergan we somehow hung on today. Lonergan was just top draw today, he pulled off at this stage the save of the season for us towards the end of the First-Half and he kept us in the game for the Second Half. He was by far and a way the MOTM today- with the only one who can really even be considered close being Dembele.
The Defence was pretty weird today. I'm still not sold on Tim Ream as a Centre-Back, again he got completely bullied in the air and he at one point resorted to simply shoving Koita out of the way. The Stearman/Ream partnership is still having some teething problems, let's put it that way. I thought Stearman on the whole was fine today, without being anything special. It was GREAT to see Stearman and how he put himself about though, and that was one of the most encouraging signs from today. But on the whole he wasn't necessarily a stand out, which for a Centre-Back isn't necessarily a bad thing. Put it this way, I'd rather our Defenders have a game without incident than what happened with James Husband today. Husband was in the wars today, as already said the Penalty incident was a Penalty and just unnecessary- but he also did a lot of positive things. I'm not sure, but in the Second Half I'm pretty sure he cleared the ball off the line when Rhodes was nearly put in and in general he did pretty well. Jazz Richards was one of the players today who might not get any of the headlines, but I thought he was really good today for most of the game. Everyone did well First-Half, but in the Second-Half when the Defence came under some serious pressure without being outstanding I do think Richards did well.
The thing is, this Defence has had pretty much no time to settle yet. With Ream being away with the USA I doubt he and Stearman had much time- if any to get familiar with each other. I'm definitely willing to give the Defenders the benefit of the doubt today, but I'll definitely be looking for a marked improvement when it comes to how we defend as a unit against Sheffield Wednesday and in general going forward.
Tom Cairney today had far a from an ideal performance, he was a passenger for large parts of the game and was just generally quiet- however he's shown his quality already this season and I don't have any doubts that he'll be in the team for Sheffield Wednesday and hopefully he'll show his quality and make the impact on the game that we all know he can. The player who's not at all secure in his place in the team is Pringle after today. It's really annoying as much as anything else when it comes to Pringle, because we've seen glimpses of what Pringle's capable of- but he's not been able to maintain that and translate it into much and with Kacaniklic as a viable alternative and basing it off the changes Kit made Fredericks possibly coming in and Cairney going onto the Left Pringle's place in the team is far from certain.
Jamie O'Hara was a weird one today, I don't know if I'm starting to take all of the great balls O'Hara does throughout the course of a match for granted- but he was far from impressive today for me. Especially in the 2nd Half he got massively shown up and his non-defensive work left us really exposed at times. I'm not saying O'Hara had a bad game today, he was just being asked to play a role he can't really play in the 2nd Half. Tunnicliffe was quality again today, especially in the First-Half. I'll say it again, it's not a coincidence that Tunnicliffe's come back into the team and we've won all three games (however uncomfortable they got). His energy and just how he plays make the overall team better and more balanced, and especially with the team still having some gelling to do Tunnicliffe is a key player at the moment.
As I've already said, the only player who can come close to Lonergan when it comes to the MOTM stuff today is Dembele. Wow was he good today, First-Half he was just all around top draw as a Striker playing in a team who were on the front foot creating/getting on the end of chances and just all around being a great player. Second-Half he did well in a completely different role and with the very limited chances he had he did well and he held the ball up well when he got the opportunity. He's not the complete player yet, Dembele at the minute can almost perfectly be summed up by what happened late on when Dembele controlled it, nutmegged a Defender to get into the box and then he didn't look up and took a shot. Given the fact he's only 19 I'm willing to give him some leeway though- especially in a game where he was one of the stand-out performers and grabbed a goal. Dembele performing like he did today is going to make it even more painful when we lose him on a Free next summer.
I did have a bit of a smile with McCormack getting the Sky MOTM today, I'm not saying he was bad today- just there were definitely better performers out there today. Given it's now been 2 and a Half games since McCormack scored his first goal this season I think I can now safely say I've been vindicated when it comes to my thoughts on McCormack for pretty much all of August. Even in games where as previously said he wasn't the stand-out performer he's still been INFINITELY better than he was for the majority of August. I genuinely think they picked McCormack as MOTM over Lonergan/Dembele solely to ask him about Gordon Strachan being there.
The Subs were pretty good on the part of Kit. Pringle was already out of the game and he was fading even more when he was subbed- so that was definitely the right move to bring Fredericks on for his debut. Fredericks from the very little we saw of him looks like a quality player to have in the squad, the one MASSIVE positive we've got in Fredericks is that he has pace to spare- which is a real rarity in the team at present. The Dan Burn sub late on was necessary, with how Blackburn were playing and almost exclusively just pumping the ball up-field as the game progressed on we needed Burn in at the back for his physical stature.
Had we have blown it today this Review would have been very different. I don't know when Jordan Rhodes turned awful, but last seasons Rhodes would have had about 5 today- so we just have to be thankful today. It may well be because we won, but I've got a pretty positive outlook on Fulham after today's game. Today's game didn't flag up anything we didn't already know let's put it that way, as already said it was a near carbon-copy of the Rotherham game with how it played out. We're still quite a naive team, which is almost definitely a reflection on the Manager and questions should rightly be asked as to how we can't kill a game. However, there's definite positives on display that there simply weren't 3 or 4 games ago so on the whole I'm pretty happy at the minute. Whether Kit has a long-term future remains to be seen, but this Month with the fixtures we've got should be a pretty good indicator.
Thanks for reading as always, I don't know if I'm annoyed or happy that the Wolves game's been rearranged after today's game. On the one hand going into a Midweek game with one less day to prepare would have been far from ideal and simply I don't think my heart could take it after the game today. But on the other, we're on a winning streak at the minute however uncomfortable they've been and Wolves are struggling a bit so it would have been quite a nice time to play them. So when it comes to these Fulham posts they'll be back next Friday with the Sheffield Wednesday Preview, and then we're back to the alien concept of a Saturday 3pm game and the Review going up Saturday night. Thanks again for reading, I hope you stay tuned for those and all of the ones to come. One thing has to be said, winning on a Sunday puts you in a pretty good mood for the week to come.
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