Bad news all round from the Gaffer in his press conference today. Cairney, Kebano, Ojo and Soares are all unavailable. Along with Piazon, obviously. Fonte only resumed training on Thursday and is "being assessed" (according to our man Marco Cesarini). The good news is that Ayite is back. The only thing to say about Cardiff is that Colin has been made Championship manager for August so hopefully that's put the infamous hex on them. Well, could add I guess that they have some pretty big and dangerous units up front. For us, with the casualty list, the team virtually picks itself. .........................Button................. ..Fredericks...Kalas...Ream...Sessegnon.. ........................McDonald.. ............Johansen........Norwood ...Graham...........Fonte..........Ayite... Putting mega hopes on Fonte being okay. If he isn't .................. ?????
I suspect Kamara will be a start rather than Fonte. I haven't seen much of Cardiff this season to comment but they are doing something right to get a 100% wins. I'm going to miss the game on Saturday due to a family commitment so hoping to somehow keep track on the game via Gentleman Jim. Only only missed two games last season that being the two 5-nil thrashings of Reading and Huddesfield so here's hoping !
Soares was Craving. He had an ankle injury when we signed him and isn't expected to start training properly till next week. Ojo and Kebano picked up their injuries while away on international duty this week.
The man up today is Tony Harrington. please log in to view this image The Hartlepool whistler is a bit of a wag apparently. Not sure we'd agree however.On this very weekend last year he sent off Michael Madl in the 44th minute of our game against Birmingham at the Cottage. And yes, we lost ... 1-0. Harrington has only done 4 League games this season, managing 10 yellows.
Doesn't look as if the two week break did Cairney any favours, which is worrying as his knee problem looks like it may be a long term, requiring surgery if it is still keeping him from being 100%. Sounds like Fonte is also struggling to get fit for the game. Along with Ojo and Kebano that seems will we might see the new guys Mollo & Graham pushed into service quicker than expected or Kamara given a chance if Ayite is not back.
Kevin McDonald as captain and Matt O'Riley in the squad, what's not to like. Well, there's the referee for one and Colin for two. In the first quarter of an hour, may have been a tad longer, our front three didn't seem to know there positions and Cisse was shadow boxing when it came to tackles. But then we settled down and should really have been ahead at half time - couple of fluffy Sessegnon shots and usual reluctance to shoot by plenty of others. Who was it that said "Fulham seem to always want to score the perfect goal"? Mr Harrington was full of baffling decisions in that time. Mind he went even better in the second half, duly assisted by his assistants. Every 'body tussle' seemed to go Cardiff's way, many non-fouls given in their favour .... maybe I'm just showing bias ... so will leave the general and give three specifics. How many times did their No. 33 need to foul Fredericks before he gets booked? Why wasn't it a penalty when Ayite was brought down in the box? Why didn't he play advantage to us, just before they got their equaliser? (Okay we gave the ball away (twice) subsequently letting them score, but it remains a what if!!) However, stepping over Harrington, we were solid in the second half. What we lacked in creativity we made up for in endeavour. Much better organised and much better movement up front. Have to give credit to Kamara - when he came on he hustled, chased and gave their backs more trouble than they'd had previously. Overall desperately unlucky not to have scored at least once before Sessegnon did ...
We were level with the penalty decision in the Johnny Haynes Stand and, to be honest, I didn't think the ref got that wrong. I've not seen a recording of it though, so I reserve the right to claim failing eyesight if proved wrong. I thought we had the better of it, and if we didn't play the free-flowing stuff that we're capable of, it was largely because Cardiff didn't let us. The ref was very picky, penalising a lot that most refs would let go, but to my eyes he was quite even handed about it (notwithstanding the handful of times when Sessegnon was penalised for bouncing off huge Cardiff players). Frustrating not to have held on to our (deserved) lead, but I'd have taken a draw against the leaders beforehand, given our injury list. I can't decide what to think about Mollo. I liked him a lot at first, but as the game went on I began to lose confidence that he was going to make a telling impact. Jury still out for me. Kamara was a willing runner, but to play as a striker in a passing side like ours I can't help but feel he needs better control and better finishing than he's actually got. Let's hope Fonte is fit for Wednesday. Similarly, we looked a lot better once Norwood replaced Cisse, though I can understand why Cisse was starting against a Warnock side. Until Cairney returns, I'd start Norwood. MOM: McDonald or Johanssen, though Kalas and Ream were solid and composed too and Ayite looked the best of our attackers.
Let's hope Jokanovic learns from this game, that when you have two physical center backs to contend with you need a Kamara upfront not a Ayite, I give Ayite and Sessegnon their due that they battle well but with no protection from the Ref they both got battered, for me when Karama came on Bamba started to struggle with his rough stuff. Another late goal, to moan about, if we are not careful we'll go back to the nervous 80's(minute), the only way to stop this is to score the 2nd goal, and relieve the pressure. Got to be more creative with corners. For me Cisse needs an extra touch and stops the flow sometimes. Thought Mollo was lively early on, but wanting to do too much on his own. Sessegnon was my MOTM, think Morrison had twisted veins in his legs by the end of the game, but the Ref was miserable and kept giving fouls against Sessegnon. This new goalkeeping coach has got to get more accuracy in Button's kicking, and he has to adapt it to who is up front.
I don't want to rant too much, so let's just say that the referee had no control over the game at all and we are lucky that no-one was injured or is suspended as a result. It was a frustrating game where we lacked fluency. However there were a number of high points, particularly: - Mollo looks like a livewire who could replace Aluko's trickery. However he seems like he could be targeted by the opposition, as he has something of a temper. - Kamara had a good showing, turning Bamba inside out on a couple of occasions and playing some good direct football. I'm not a fan of Ayite as the front man and on this performance AK could provide a legitimate plan b to Fonte. - Cisse looked more settled today, although his passing was still a little erratic. However I thought Norwood again looked good when he came on - I would start Norwood on Wednesday. I did want to highlight some negatives as well though: - Johansen seems to have a knack for annoying the referee and I think this is part of the reason decisions go against us. He really needs to settle down a bit, especially when he is a senior player who should be setting an example for the likes of Mollo and Cisse. - Sessegnon had a good game going forward and got the goal, but he needs to work on his positioning when defending crosses - he gets caught out frequently at the back post. - There was a point where Button returned the ball up the field for a throw in in the other half with a phenomenal kick from the hand. Why can't he do that during games! - We have to be more clinical, as Johansen, Ayite and Kamara all should have done better. We'll get punished against better teams than Cardiff. - We should have closed that game out but conceded yet another goal whilst feeling aggrieved for a questionable referee decision.
Just watched on FulhamTV and you're correct Captain, it was a fair tackle. Think you were way too kind to Mr Harrington though. He didn't make any big decisions that were bad, it was more that he constantly made basic mistakes that just didn’t let the game flow at all. Admit both teams could probably feel hard done by, with fouls given that no one else in the ground saw anything wrong.. But the balance went Cardiff's way and overall it suited them to have the game stopped. Resorting to my inevitable stats, he called a total of 40 fouls in what was hardly a dirty game, whereas the average across the League was in the 20s. Some of his cards were a joke - drawn on letting himself be intimidated by Colin. Yet he failed to hit Cardiff's persistent offenders.
