Aston Villa 1-0 Fulham
More than 40,000 spectators turned up for Tuesday evening's match involving Aston Villa and Fulham – two teams still with League ambitions. Sadly, the game was more like a pre-season friendly.
The Whites admittedly suffered a blow when the influential Willian injured himself in the warm-up, but they made a very promising start with Andreas Pereira's overhead kick almost finding the net. The home side swiftly took control and their opponents experienced further ill fortune in the seventh minute when Harry Wilson felt unable to continue.
Fourteen minutes later, Villa took the lead. A succession of corners from John McGinn finally led to Tyrone Mings outleaping the defence and heading the ball past Bernd Leno. Fulham's response lacked cohesion, which was not entirely a surprise after the unexpected loss of 'the two best players in the last two games that we won' as Marco Silva later described Willian and Wilson.
Second half improvement?
Fulham often perform better in the second half. But this time the improvement was slight.
Despite showing a bit more aggression, the players rarely threatened the Villa penalty area. Their opponents seemed oddly reluctant to exploit their domination and nearly came adrift in the closing stages.
The tireless Harrison Reed put in a low centre that Mings deflected past Emiliano Martinez. It looked as if Fulham had achieved a 1-1 draw without having a single attempt on target and Mings had joined the elect group of players scoring for and against in the same match. The Villa man was spared this embarrassment by the assistant referee's belated indication that Harrison was offside.
Missed opportunity
Last weekend, Fulham could have been at Wembley for an FA Cup Semi-Final against Brighton.
Instead, they hosted Leeds United for a Premier League match. The feeling of anti-climax has been inevitable, and it may well affect applications for next year's season tickets particularly in view of the increased prices.
I appreciate that the magnificent new stand must be paid for. And I am aware that over recent years my 'senior' status has allowed me a reduced rate. Next season, I shall be paying little more than £22 for each game. But in the present economic climate, families of regular supporters could well struggle with the new prices.
The Spurs players' decent offer to reimburse fans who had watched the team humiliated by Newcastle reminds me of the great Fulham player and manager Frank Osbourn. Accosted by a fan in the street he shoved his hand in his pocket and offered enough coins to cover a refund.
There will be no refunds for the Villa match. Certainly, the defenders did what they were paid to do. But the paucity of entertainment is relevant to the debate over the price of watching football.
Purchasing a season ticket guarantees you a seat but not the quality of what you will observe. Luckily, Marco Silva has been in charge this season rather than Felix Magath. Even so, the first half of last Saturday's home match against Leeds featured a litany of petty fouls and stoppages for minor injuries – redolent of so many meetings of these foes.
The visitors were determined to avoid a further heavy defeat and the Whites badly needed a home win. Caution predominated. The only real excitement before the interval arose from free kicks, most notably when Leno made a spectacular save from Marc Roca's well-placed drive.
Smothering
In the second half, the goalkeeper was in action again smothering Jack Harrison's centre at the second attempt. The game did not catch fire until the hour mark when Willian and Antonee Robinson sped down the left, catching goalkeeper Illan Meslier off guard.
The keeper could only palm Willian's centre towards Harry Wilson and the Welsh forward scored his second goal in consecutive matches. He then drew a foul that could have proved costly, but Andreas Pereira's free kick hit the bar.
In the 72nd minute, Tosin's clearance sent Wilson and Pereira away on the right and once again Meslier misjudged a centre, from Robinson this time. Pereira could scarcely have had an easier goal. Why are today's keepers so reluctant to catch the ball?
Leeds fought back in the final 10 minutes (plus considerable added time). Leno frustrated them initially, but in the end, Patrick Bamford scored which was helped by a deflection off Joao Palhinha.
The home victory was never in doubt and Meslier had to be at his best to prevent Willian from increasing the lead. Fulham fans also had the pleasure of seeing, however briefly, Neeskens Kebano back in action after seven months' absence through injury.
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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