The message on the free clappers read 'Welcome Home' and that is just how it felt on the afternoon of Sunday the 8th of August.
For many of us it was the first time inside Craven Cottage since the end of February 2020. How refreshing to see the same faces – and to hear the same philosophies like 'Performance doesn't matter. It is the result that counts'. Do fans really want to pay high prices to watch well remunerated footballers clog their way to the Premier only to experience a season of humiliation? Fortunately Marco Silva is not that sort of a manager.
Three sides of the ground are unchanged but the riverside stand is so near completion that we can visualise how the new Craven Cottage will look. The grandstand though impressive will not dominate the ground as some feared when they saw the early scale models. Watching the game from the Hammersmith End I rarely glanced to my right. Supporters in the Johnny Haynes Stand may have found the changed aspect more disconcerting.
After so many months of the close scrutiny provided by television coverage it seemed strange at first to be peering at events a hundred yards away. In the first half Fulham attacked the Putney End and had Middlesbrough reeling but the few efforts on target were easily contained. As in the final practice match Fulham's debutant keeper Paulo Gazzaniga had little to do. His only real save was from an overexuberant back pass.
The fare was exciting enough though marred a little by the pushing and shoving. As pairs of players tumbled in embrace, the luckless referee Keith Stroud had to decide which man was at fault. Visiting manager Neil Warnock reckoned that the decisions were all going against his side and he must have made his opinion too forcefully for he was cautioned by the official.
On the half hour Fulham's other newcomer Harry Wilson thrilled the fans when he received a pass from Josh Onomah and moved into position before finding the net. Neeskens Kebano almost added a second straight afterwards.
We expected more of the same after the interval when play switched to the Hammersmith End. It certainly looked as if Fabio Carvalho had been brought down by Sam Morsy but the referee disagreed. I wonder whether this softened Warnock's opinion of Mr Stroud.
Fulham were still in charge but Aleksandar Mitrovic and Neeskens Kebano failed to capitalise on decent opportunities. The sky darkened, threatening to ruin a pleasant Sunday with a deluge. Fulham's fortunes changed like the weather. In the 77th minute lax defending allowed Marc Bola and Isiah Jones to perform a neat 1-2 and score from the visitors' first real effort on goal.
Wilson tried valiantly to restore the lead but in the closing minutes Middlesbrough looked the more dangerous. Marc Tavernier might well have scored but for Tosin's intervention.
Overall it was a good afternoon. Fulham had shown promise and Marco Silva will have a clearer idea of the team;s strengths and weaknesses. Harry Wilson capped an excellent debut by running from the dressing room to the Hammersmith End after close of play to hand a gift to a young supporter.
Foundation date warning
I recently discovered a glorious volume entitled 'Ten Football Matches That Changed the World - And the One that Didn't' (Biteback 2014) by Jim Murphy. It was amusing to read how Glasgow Rangers came to alter the date of their club's foundation. Apparently in 1922 Jim Allen, the editor of the Rangers Yearbook, realised that they had all failed to mark the 50th anniversary so he quietly changed the foundation date to 1873 in order to have a proper celebration the following year.
In the 1970s Fulham secretary George Noyce worked in a reverse direction. He changed his club's genesis from 1880 to 1879, purely so that any centenary celebrations could coincide with the Fulham Carnival. We have been stuck with 1879 ever since but I fear another seismic change may be imminent.
If you search online these days you can even discover a precise date for the club's formation, the 1st January 1879. That was a Wednesday and not a Public Holiday so the young tradesmen who started the team must have met after work. Or did they get their bright idea a few hours previously at a New Year's Eve party? If so, which side of midnight did they bring St Andrew's FC into existence?
Watch out, Glasgow Rangers, Fulham will soon be older than you.
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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