Fulham are home to Huddersfield and considering Leeds and West Brom are playing the bottom two and we are entering the final quarter of the season we really could do with a home win! Ream Suspended, Kongolo unable to play means Mawson is likely to partner Hector though I’m not even sure if he’s been injured or not! Mitro is apparently a game time call but if he doesn’t make it apparently Kamara is back. Huddersfield had a good away win at Hull last out and still in a relegation fight will be up for some points with Grant and Mounie upfront they will carry a threat. Huddersfield keeper suffered a concussion in the last game and will miss the game
Well, it turned into a nearly perfect weekend, with a home win while Leeds & Forest lost. But that was much harder than it needed to be! Marek Rodak was fantastic and made a number of good saves. He has a calmness to him than is very reassuring and seems to have great rapport with Hector. Defensively, Bryan exposed us several times. He is so good going forward but he gives his man far too much room, which was exacerbated by Odoi playing in the unfamiliar LCB spot. Hector continues to look a class above our other options and I look forward to the return of Ream/Kongolo next week. We seemed to play Onomah and Cairney in front of McDonald, with Onomah on the right. This pushed Cairney out to the left, where I feel he had a much better game. However Onomah looked more and more lost as the game progressed, which became a liability as we desperately tried to hold on. We attacked so well in the first half, before conceding two poor goals down the left. I wish we'd seen StefJo earlier and that McDonald hadn't picked up his nonsense yellow card, as we lacked control from our other forward players. That said, a win is a win. It was great to have Mitrovic back and Reed/Cavaleiro were very good when we were on the front foot. We're scrapping together a run and we're now only 3 points off the automatics - COYW!
Marek Rodak needs to be tied down to an extremely long contract!! Every now and again a player comes along who just feels they are going to grow to big for Fulham FC and I just feel he is at the start of a journey to the very top of the game! I’m thinking of Finnan, Dembele, Saha players you just knew straight away were going to go on to better things.
I have just watched the short highlights, only two minutes long but I just want to mention Michael Hector.. 1. His 30 yard cross field ball to assist Reid’s goal. 2. His pass into a really tight area that starts the move for the second goal 3. Him throwing himself into a block deflecting a possible equaliser for a corner near the end I’m not saying he is the messiah but if we hadn’t missed the transfer deadline by 20 minutes in August I honestly believe we would be 4/5 points better off.
Cookie, I'm not sure that the highlights will even do justice to the impact Hector has. He makes errors but he has a calmness to him that makes you think, more often than not, that he will get to the ball and/or stop the opposition. Lofted balls into our box no longer seem like a goal waiting to happen and that makes the end of games so much less nervy - two months ago we never would have survived 6 minutes of injury time to hold on to the 3 points. I am fairly confident that Hector joining in August would turned a few losses to draws and draws to wins. Damn you Levy!
Three nice goals, well worked, but then let them back into it and the old doubts started to set in again, but luckily this time Hector is a calming influence, playing like a sweeper. Second half was the Rodak show and he kept us in front, but Huddersfield player missed an open goal near the end. Glad of the 3 points as other results went our way. One thing I worry about is could we take the pressure of being top 2 or is it better to get in with a late run. Now the Riverside is pulled down, a sunny day causes havoc for the linesman on the JHS side, even with sunglasses on I was having a hard time seeing as the sun sunk lower over the Thames. Wonder if it is the reason we've been kicking towards the Hammy End first half lately.
