Will the Credit Crunch effect us?

The Credit Crunch could seriously effect some of the country's top clubs, namely Manchester United. With debt toppling £800 million when the Glazer Family took over, the unstable markets could have a profound effect on how they spend. I suspect that this was evident when they only made one signing for the whole transfer window on a team with some weak points. Fair enough, Dimitar Berbatov did cost £30.5m, but with winnings in the region of £80m from the Champions League and Premier League along with sponsorship deals, etc, you would expect more money to be spent.

In addition, some other clubs are feeling the crunch from different aspects. Some supporters have had to cut back on the amount of matches the view. This obviously would decrease ticket sales and therefore, profit margins. However at West Ham, 43% of supporters say they were affected by the market meltdown. Along with their supporters, 39% of Newcastle fans have had to cut their spending, closely followed by Liverpool, Wigan and West Brom (all at 38%). We will feel the crunch as well but I believe we should be OK as our debt level is fairly low.

However, even clubs at the other end of the spectrum such as Arsenal, Blackburn and Bolton can expect to see the fans cut their spending by 20% due to economic pressures. This is not at all surprising as keeping a roof over your head and paying the bills is more important than watching your team every weekend. Besides, you can always stream the match on the Internet!

We Stayed Up!

Fantastic, we stayed up. I think nothing can actually beat that kind of feeling. I must now report on the new season as I haven't been in recent times.

How the league table should look like

We should be out of the relegation zone according to www.rightresult.net if referees would have got their decisions correct:

Player Ratings at Reading

Kasey Keller: 6/10

Paul Stalteri: 7/10

Aaron Hughes: 7/10

Brede Hangeland: 8/10

Paul Konchesky: 6/10

Simon Davies: 7/10

Danny Murphy: 7/10 (Leon Andreasen 90 min: 6/10)

Jimmy Bullard: 7/10

Clint Dempsey: 8/10 (Carlos Bocanegra 85 min: 6/10)

Brian McBride: 8/10

David Healy: 7/10 (Erik Nevland 83 min: 7/10)

Reading 0-2 Fulham: Hope is back in the hearts

We won away. Immense. We played absolutely superb football with slick passing across a slippery surface at times and our defence was solid. Brian McBride opened the scoring on the 24th minute after connecting with a low cross from Simon Davies. I felt nervous after this for the whole first half. Especially towards the end of the half when Kevin Doyle should have probably scored and I was relieved when I saw his effort go wrong side of the post. Half-time couldn't come any sooner as Reading where dominating towards the interval.

We come out buzzing as we looked dangerous in attack, as we didn't give the ball away. We played some fantastic possession football with quick counter attacks. Brian McBride nearly doubled his tally after lashing out on a cross from David Healy and unleashing a powerful volley on goal only to be saved by the superb Marcus Hahnemann with the ball bouncing off the crossbar. We went on to his this crossbar three f***ing times. Brede Hangeland got up wonderfully for a corner and forced one hell of a save from Hahnemann and the ball cannoned off the crossbar. This goalkeeper had a great day and kept Reading in the game.

Next up, guess who? Jimmy Bullard. He lined up a free-kick from a good range and curled it around the wall only for the ball to hit the corner of the crossbar. Tremendously unlucky. Throughout the match, I and most other Fulham fans where probably thinking: "This is just the type of game which can come back and bite us." Fortunately it didn't as our defensive unit had one really good game. I don't think Hangeland missed a single header. Subs where then made and Erik Nevland put hearts and minds at ease with a good goal after being put through by the effective Simon Davies. The whole team played wonderfully. This was without a doubt our best performance of the season.

We have given ourselves a fighting chance. It is still bleak and will be tough, but one thing's certain; If we're going down, we're going down swinging.

Stop the Rot

Currently, sitting at 19th in the Premier League, our team is quite simply rotting. A bit like this blog then, as I haven't been too happy (as you'd expect) and therefore not as enthusiastic as normal. Our result against Derby was disastrous. I knew we would come back from 1-0 down, but to concede the equaliser immediately after scoring to make it 2-1 was heartbreaking. I went downstairs from my computer to tell my brother (Chelsea fan) that we had scored, and in almost no time I sat here in front of my computer monitor only to watch Derby equalise. Ouch. It was painful.

After I recovered from that win after several jokes made by my friends about our inability to defeat the bottom club on two occasions, I looked to the Sunderland game with fresh optimism. We were at home. I was expecting. The team was too. For me, those 90 minutes summed up our season. We played well in the opening exchanges with confident build-up play but then conceded just before half-time to go down 1-0 into the break. We were left ruing our first half misses. Then, we conceded again which was catastrophic. It was defensive ineptitude which was letting us down, it just looked as if whenever Sunderland got forward, they were going to score.

David Healy and Clint Dempsey were introduced into the game and Healy produced some magic with a delightful goal from outside the area which showed what a sublime finisher he is. I wrote a post earlier in this blog describing how David Healy hadn't achieved to the scale as was expected here but I found new respect for him these past few weeks; a wonderful goal plus he says he wants to stay at Fulham. 2-1, game on. The Craven Cottage faithful were suddenly brought to life. But the next move was devastating as Sunderland scored towards the end of the game, as once again our team failed to live up to the hype. I still believe and keep the faith that we can stay up but it will take something very special. Hopefully we can start with a result against Reading.

Just remember one thing; it ain't over till the fat lady sings.

Newcastle 2-0 Fulham

Hopes of our first away win since we last visited St. James' Park were dashed as Fulham gave a rather woeful performance of the back of a win against Everton. Newcastle pressed and pressed and their team in the end it just looked as if they wanted it more. Micheal Owen put the game beyond reasonable doubt by putting away a header at the 83rd minute. Mark Viduka, a really lucky talisman for anyone playing against Fulham, scored a good goal and beat Kasey Keller with a superbly placed shot. Fulham never really looked threatening and this was a real dissappointment off the back of our victory.

I had a high amount of optimism for this match, after all this has been one of our favourite away groundsin recent times. The performance didn't match the hype. We were quite simply woeful. Anyway, let's hope we can pick ourselves up and dust ourselves down and go to Pride Park with cautious belief that we can win. Derby have proven recently that they are not as bad as the league table suggests. However, I do hope that the scandal involving Paul Jewell will throw the team off balance. After this game, Derby County's part in the relegation battle is all but over; they only play us and Reading at the end of the season and the rest of the opposition is mid-table aside from Arsenal. This game against the Rams won't be easy but I won't lose hope.

Fulham 1-0 Everton

Just a quick post from me informing you guys of one hell of a win! It's not everyday that I see such a resilient defensive performance from Fulham but the lads gave it their all today. Eddie Johnson and Brian McBride gave 110% and Leon Andreasen really impressed me today. The magic moment came when Simon Davies delivered one devilish ball into the box and McBride headed the ball downwards into the left hand side of Tim Howard - No chance for the keeper. We have really missed our big target man and captain this season, this win really lifted my spirits and it lifted McBride's too; You should've seen the huge grin he had on his face after he planted the ball into the back of the net. To conclude, COYW.

Favourite chants of the match:

1. Jim Bullard, Bullard, He's better than Steve Gerrard, He's thinner than Frank Lampard, Jim Bullard, Bullard (Sung when Jimmy was brought off).

2. And we all love Fulham, Super Fulham FC.

3. Say we are stayin' up, say we are stayin' up!

COYW Great Fulham Vid - It's Not Over Yet

Don't lose hope, we can stay up this season.

Blackburn vs. Fulham

Haven't been on here in a while now, far too much to worry about in what has been a depressing week. First of all, we lost miserably against United. So much coursework, AGAIN! And then received my AS level results for the January exams. Haven't broken the news to my parents yet (they'll kill me); my results were as follows: Chemistry - A, Maths - B, Biology - B and Physics - C. Not bad, but not good enough for the top uni's and parents who just expect AAAAAAAAAAA - well you get the picture. Too much pressure. I've basically taken out medicine from my range of careers with those results. Sigh, hopefully I can get a big morale boost this weekend by us beating Blackburn.

Most definately a MUST win game. We can't afford to get any more detached from the relegation pack above us in the league. The proabable line-up for us Cottagers will probably be 4-4-2, well at least I hope so. We can't play 4-5-1 anymore; we need to be a lot more adventurous. In addition, when I say 4-4-2, I don't mean play Bullard behind McBride! Hell No. We must play 4-4-2 with a real striker and Jimmy in midfield. This would be my team:

--------------------------------------Niemi-------------------------------------
-----------Volz--------Hughes----------Hangeland-----Konchesky--------
------Dempsey------Andreasen----------Bullard------------Kamara--------
-----------------------Nevland-------------McBride---------------------------

I also hope that Roy shows some real grit and determination to beat his former club that sacked him with complete disregard for having brought a club teetering on the brink of relegation to UEFA Cup football. That should add fuel to the fire. Blackburn are likely to field a 4-4-2 formation as well; it is their home game. I have a suspicion that Fulham have been doing a lot of training in the attacking department as we have excellent build-up play and our defence hasn't been bad apart from when we've played Arsenal and Manchester United. I really do believe we can win. I won't lose the faith, I hope you don't either.