No one expected many goals from Fulham’s home match against bottom club Sheffield United.
The Whites dominated a lacklustre first half, in which goalkeeper Alphonse Areola was seldom troubled, while striker Josh Maja hardly touched the ball.
If that paragraph looks familiar, I must confess that I used exactly the same words to describe the Whites’ previous match when Burnley were the hosts. Watching too much Nordic Noir on TV one soon gets familiar with the stereotypes and can often predict their next move. Fulham easily outplayed Sheffield United but the usual suspects (Ivan Cavaleiro, Frank Anguissa and Ruben Loftus-Cheek) were guilty of wildly inaccurate shooting.
Just like in the Burnley match, Fulham team did improve after the break. Loftus-Cheek would have scored but for United’s George Baldock’s inspired goal-line clearance. Finally, Joachim Andersen’s precise long-range pass found Ademola Lookman on the edge of the area and the hapless Ethan Ampadu could not prevent him from thumping the ball past keeper Aaron Barnsdale.
At this point the plot changed.
Unlike Burnley, Sheffield could not fashion a swift equaliser. However, they did step up their efforts, which nearly paid off in the game’s closing moments. Yet another shirt-tug provided them with a strategic free kick. From the ensuing scrimmage, Jay Bogle bore down on goal only to be blocked forcibly by Areola.
Fortunately, neither man seemed too badly hurt, but if the Frenchman had been an outfield player he would have risked a red card and a penalty. Monday’s match report in The Times concentrated entirely on this moment and gave the verdict of ex-referee Peter Walton: “This was exactly the sort of incident that VAR was set up to intervene in and sadly that did not happen at Craven Cottage.”
The Areola incident apart, the media enthused about Fulham and the club’s revival.
Newcastle and Brighton must already be sick of hearing that Scott Parker’s men are breathing down their necks. Slightly further up the table, Southampton fans have a different problem as shown by their Twitter account ‘Has the 9-0 Been Mentioned?’
The other week I lost count of the number of times the TV commentators stated that Fulham had never won a League match at Everton. Two or three mentions would have sufficed. The same applies to one of our brightest stars, whom the reporters constantly bracket with his penalty miss early in the season.
It’s not just the media, of course. Some Fulham fans seem unable to forget a pitch invasion that took place in 1983, before many of them were born. I thrive on nostalgia, but collective memory can be a bit scary.
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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