Fulham fans had to wait until Monday afternoon for a taste of Premier League action this week as the Whites hosted Aston Villa.
This match kicked off at 5.45pm and by 6pm the Whites were two goals down (Jack Grealish and Conor Hourihane). In response, Kenny Tete sent over a series of tempting crosses but Aleks Mitrovic's headers lacked their usual force and accuracy.
Tete then suffered an injury before half-time and Abou Kamara replaced him. The substitute injected a bit of urgency but the Villa defence stood firm. In midfield the referee, Stuart Attwell, had to warn Grealish and Denis Odoi not to pursue their private war. Fulham would have fared worse if Ollie Watkins had been on song.
Scott Parker's half-time talk had little effect because Tyrone Mings scored Villa's third two minutes after the restart. Resistance finally stirred when Emiliano Martinez fumbled Abou's long range shot and Bobby Decordova-Reid converted the rebound. Unfortunately, Mitrovic had 'helped' his teammates with an off the ball infringement. (You're not in the Championship now, Mitro. You have to contend with VAR.)
Apart from a late effort saved by Martinez the game drifted to a close. Aston Villa had secured three goals, three away points and a very rare clean sheet.
Solace
Any supporter seeking solace could do worse than look online for the Premier League World Fulham Special, a half-hour presentation which tries to capture the club's lasting appeal.
The unnamed narrator and his doggerel soon become tiresome, but regular interjections from Alex White, Fulham's Official Historian, comfortably separate the facts from the legends.
The video starts with a hectic seven minute account of the club's first 120 years, with brief clips of Johnny Haynes (plus Tosh Chamberlain) and a glimpse of Jimmy Hill, then hey presto we are in the 21st Century with owner Mohamed Al Fayed and manager Jean Tigana, a partnership that produced two amazing seasons.
At this point a pair of supporters, Hayley Davinson and Farrell Monk, join Alex to bring the story up to date. There is plenty to savour – Louis Saha at Old Trafford, Barry Hayles, Luis Boa Morte, Steed Malbranque and Sylvain Legwinski in action, and the goals of Diomansy Kamara and Danny Murphy that somehow kept the club in the Premier League in 2008. There is a lovely shot of Roy Hodgson and Sven-Goran Erikssson in a rare display of contrasting emotions.
No Clint?
Obviously, there are gaps in the narrative, notably Clint Dempsey's winner against Juventus. if that was deemed irrelevant, why did the producers feature the triumphant Diego Forlan? I am sure that readers could nominate other special moments from the 13 consecutive years in the Premier League.
Shahid Khan, featured at this point in the story, must have wondered what he had taken on when he bought the club.
I am unsure why we are shown so much of the 2013-14 and 2018-19 seasons, both of which are still painful to recall. The Championship years are overlooked until Joe Bryan's superb contributions against Brentford in the recent Play-Off Final.
The last section is devoted to the new season. Though one player tactlessly raises the possibility of losing three or four Premier matches in succession (surely not), the video ends on an optimistic note, highlighting Scott Parker's ambitions and the keenly anticipated replacement of the Riverside Stand. As the anonymous bard assures us:
'Hope is a song we never tire of singing'.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
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