Fulham v Ipswich Town
Tuesday 15th December 2015 – 19:45
Craven Cottage
Opening Thought – Jamma
It was a pretty good weekend all round from an Ipswich Town perspective. Not only did we claim the three points in the early kick-off at Stadium:mk but, somewhat amazingly, Hull were the only other side in the top half to win. The points shared between Cardiff and Sheffield Wednesday in particular, as well as Birmingham’s draw at Middlesbrough, ensured that we clung on to that all-important 6th spot. The stalemates involving Brighton, Derby and Burnley also enabled Town to close the gap slightly to the teams above us. Following on from what I was saying last week, it would still appear that 6th is our best chance of replicating last season’s play-off finish. But, with three of our next five games against clubs in the top 5 – and this run of fixtures falling within the space of just three weeks – the festive period looks like being just as crucial as ever. If we could pick up points against Derby, Brighton and Burnley, we could suddenly find ourselves in the midst of the battle for the automatic places. Continue our lean record against the division’s top sides, however, and we could just as easily be tumbling back down the league. Mick McCarthy may well only be interested in where we are come May, but you can bet your life he will be challenging his players to stay in that top 6 now that we have got up there!
Mick was quoted in the EADT as saying that he was surprised that we had not been winning more matches 1-0, as was the case earlier in his tenure. As he was only too happy to admit, the hallmark of his teams has tended to involve a low number of goals scored but equally a large amount of clean sheets. 2015/16 has been the other way around, with the Blues amongst the division’s top scorers but also letting in more than their fair share of goals. It was almost inevitable, then, that we should be hearing the old favourite ‘1-0 to the Tractor Boys!’ reverberating around the away end on Saturday! After an early flurry of goalscoring opportunities, which could have seen us out of sight at half time, we had to make do with seeing less of the ball as the Dons dominated possession at times. But, as we all know, the only stat that matters in football is the one in the top left corner of the screen. Once again, we defended as a team, with our character, determination and bravery (Jonas Knudsen will know what I’m talking about!
) helping us to a vital 3 points. As McCarthy so rightly said post-match, ‘It’s performances like that that give you a chance of getting out of this division’. Interestingly, only Fulham have now scored more goals than us in the league, with the top 3 all level with Ipswich on 29 for the season. As much as I would love to see a 4-3 thriller down by the Thames on Tuesday night, I’m sure we would just as soon take another 1-0 ‘Mick McCarthy performance’ to keep our promotion ambitions on track.The Opposition - Fulham
Fulham Football Club, based in London, was founded in 1879.
The club has spent twenty-four seasons in English football's top division, the majority of that in two spells during the 1960s and 2000s.
Fulham have never won a major honour, although they have reached two major finals. In 1975, as a Second Division team, they contested the FA Cup final for the only time in their history, losing 2–0 to West Ham United. Fulham reached the 2010 Europa League final, which they contested with Atlético Madrid in Hamburg, losing 2–1 after extra time.
The club has been in the Football League playing in various divisions since 1907.
In modern times, Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed bought the freehold of the club for £6.25 million in summer 1997. Micky Adams was fired by Al-Fayed in the aftermath of a poor start. He installed a two-tier management "dream team" of Ray Wilkins as first team manager and Kevin Keegan as Chief Operating Office, pledging that the club would reach the Premier League within five years. After an argument over team selection, Wilkins left the club in May 1998 to hand over the full managerial duties to Keegan, who steered the club to promotion the following season, winning 101 points out of a possible 138. He had spent £11 million to sign West Bromwich Albion’s Paul Peschisolido, who went on to be top scorer, with the side captained by Chris Coleman, then the most expensive footballer outside the top two divisions of the English league.
In 1999, Keegan left Fulham to become manager of the England team, and Paul Bracewell was put in charge. Bracewell was sacked in March 2000, as Fulham's promising early season form dwindled away to a mid-table finish. Frenchman Jean Tigana was put in charge and, having signed a number of young stars including French striker Louis Saha, he guided Fulham to their third promotion in five seasons in the 2000–01 season, giving Fulham top flight status for the first time since 1968. Fulham once again amassed 101 points out of a possible 138 in their scintillating title run, which was crowned with an open-top bus parade down Fulham Palace Road.
Fulham are the only team to have twice reached 100 points in a season.
For the next 7 seasons, they mainly achieved lower mid-table positions in the Premier League.
Roy Hodgson was named as the new manager of Fulham on 28 December 2007, and took up his contractual duties on 30 December.
In the 2008–09 season, Fulham finished seventh, their highest ever league placing, earning qualification for the inaugural UEFA Europa League, the second time that the club had entered a UEFA competition.
2009–10 was arguably the most successful season in the club's history. They were eliminated from the FA Cup in the quarter-finals for the second year running, and finished twelfth in the Premier League. In the inaugural UEFA Europa League, however, Fulham reached the final, meeting Spanish club Atlético Madrid at the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg. In their first European final, the Cottagers were beaten 2–1 in extra time, having drawn 1–1 after full-time. The achievement of taking Fulham so unexpectedly far, beating famous teams like Hamburg, Juventus, Shakhtar Donetsk and Basel in the competition, led to Roy Hodgson being voted the LMA Manager of the Year by the widest margin in the history of the award. The home match in the round of 16 was arguably Fulham's greatest result in the club’s history. Despite losing 3–1 in the first leg at Italian giants Juventus and falling behind minutes into the second leg at Craven Cottage, Fulham scored four goals with no reply from Juventus.
At the end of the season, Hodgson left Fulham to manage Liverpool.
On 29 July 2010, Mark Hughes was named the successor to Roy Hodgson, signing a two-year contract with the club. Hughes resigned as manager of Fulham on 2 June 2011, having spent fewer than eleven months at the club. The Whites had an encouraging finish in 8th position and qualified for the Europa League via the Fair Play league.
On 7 June 2011, Martin Jol signed a two-year contract with Fulham, becoming the successor to Hughes. Fulham's Premier League form in the 2011–12 season was mixed, with the continuing away record hangover of previous seasons dragging on.
Clint Dempsey scored a club record 50 Premier League goals for Fulham between 2007 and 2012.
In the 2012–13 season, Fulham ended a seven-match winless run by beating Swansea City 3–0 away at the Liberty Stadium in the final game of the season, on 19 May 2013. Fulham finished the season in 12th place.
Shahid Khan took over as chairman in July 2013 but, after a poor start to the 2013-14 season, having only amassed 10 points from 13 games, Martin Jol was sacked as manager on 1 December 2013, with Rene Meulensteen taking charge as Head Coach. Meulensteen was subsequently replaced by Felix Magath on 14 February 2014, but remained under contract with Fulham until four days later, when Fulham confirmed the sacking of him along with coaches Ray Wilkins and Alan Curbishley. They were eventually relegated after a 4-1 defeat to Stoke City on 3 May.
Magath lasted in the manager’s role until 18 September 2014, when he was dismissed due to poor early season results, and Kit Symons took over as Caretaker Manager until his appointment was made permanent on 29 October 2014.
Under Symons, the Cottagers finished last season with 52 points and in 17th place on the ladder.
One To Watch – Tom Cairney
Fulham may have had a considerable turnover of players in the close season, but they have still managed to bring in some very able replacements with Championship experience. One of their standout signings in the summer was former Hull and Blackburn winger Tom Cairney.
Cairney had been with the Leeds academy since the age of 7, but was released after being told that he was too small. He was instead allowed to join Yorkshire rivals Hull City, signing for the Tigers on a youth contract in 2007 and agreeing professional terms in the summer of 2009, having been named the club’s Young Player of the Year for 2008/09. Cairney made his First Team debut that August, scoring the opener in a 3-1 League Cup win over Southend. He went on to make his Premier League debut the following January, against Mick McCarthy’s Wolves. After an injury-disrupted 2012/13, the former Scotland U19 and U21 international was frozen out of the First Team picture and signed for Blackburn on an initial loan deal. The move was made permanent in the New Year after a string of impressive performances and Cairney enhanced his burgeoning reputation by winning the Player of the Year award. The 24-year-old also scored Rovers’ Goal of the Season in 2014/15, for the below strike against Cardiff (approx. 00:38 in the video). After moving to Championship rivals Fulham in the summer, he didn’t take long to get on the goal trail for his new club, as he netted against Brighton in just his second league appearance. Cairney has scored three goals so far this campaign, and will need to be watched whenever he approaches the edge of the box on Tuesday night.
The Gaffer – Stuart Gray
Born in Withernsea, East Riding of Yorkshire, Gray began his professional career with Nottingham Forest. He joined Barnsley in 1984 and then moved to Aston Villa in 1987.
Gray joined Southampton in September 1991 for a fee of £200,000 but a serious Achilles tendon injury sustained in an FA cup match ended his playing career.
After his playing career was finished, Gray joined the coaching staff at Sothampton before moving to Wolverhampton Wanderers in June 1994 as reserve team coach. His family were unable to settle in the West Midlands at this time, so he returned to Southampton becoming reserve team coach under Dave Jones in July 1997, moving up to first team coach in November 1998, a role he retained after the appointment of Glenn Hoddle as manager in January 2000.
When Hoddle was lured away to Tottenham Hotspur in March 2001, Gray initially took over as caretaker manager, before taking on the role permanently in June, as Southampton moved to their new St Mary's Stadium. Early results were poor and chairman Rupert Lowe panicked about the effect on the club's investment in the new stadium and Gray was sacked after little more than 3 months in charge.
He has since coached successfully at a number of football clubs. These include Aston Villa, where he and John Deehan acted as joint caretaker managers after the departure of John Gregory.
Stuart Gray moved briefly to Crystal Palace to assist caretaker manager, Kit Symons. He then joined Dave Jones at Wolverhampton Wanderers in the capacity of assistant manager. The two had previously worked together at Southampton. After the dismissal of Jones from Wolverhampton, Gray remained as assistant manager to Glenn Hoddle, once more acting as caretaker manager after Hoddle's departure. He had served as a caretaker for a month between the departure of Jones and arrival of Hoddle.
On 2 January 2007, Gray was appointed as the manager of Northampton Town after accepting a 2 and a half year contract. Gray was sacked as Northampton Town Manager on 8 September 2009, following relegation from League 1 in the 2008–09 season.
On 19 January 2010 Gray became the first team coach for Burnley. On 30 December he was appointed caretaker manager following the departure of Brian Laws. Gray left Burnley on 13 May 2011 as part of a restructuring.
Gray became first-team coach at Portsmouth but was made redundant in April 2012 as part of cost cutting due to their financial difficulties.
In December 2012, Gray was hired by his former Southampton colleague, Dave Jones, as a member of the coaching staff at Sheffield Wednesday.
Following the departure of Dave Jones, Gray was appointed as head coach of Sheffield Wednesday on 25 January 2014.
In his one full season in charge of the club, he secured their highest finish for 6 years, finishing 13th in a Championship campaign that also saw Wednesday equal their clean sheet record for a season.
Following a takeover at Sheffield Wednesday by Thai businessman Dejphon Chansiri, Gray was sacked in the summer of 2015.
On the 8th December Gray was made caretaker Manager of Fulham FC.
Past Match - Video Highlights - Trev
Trev's Trivia
Players that have played for both Ipswich and Fulham
Jimmy Bullard (Fulham 2006-2009) (ITFC 2011-12)
Shefki Kuqi (ITFC 2003-05 then on loan 2008) (Fulham loan 2007-08)
Sylvian Legwinski (ITFC 2006-09)( Fulham 2001-06)
And although Sir Bobby didn't play for both he did manage both teams (Fulham 1968 ITFC 1969-1982)
Media Watch - K L Blue
More advice from the FLW about players
http://footballleagueworld.co.uk/3-play ... lYQOhdz.97
Cameron Stewart
http://www.doncaster.vitalfootball.co.u ... p?a=425658
MM on the display
http://www.twtd.co.uk/ipswich-town-news/28647/
MM on where the points come from
http://www.twtd.co.uk/ipswich-town-news/28651/
Stat Time
Head to Head
Fulham Wins.................7 (35.00%)
Ipswich Wins.................7 (35.00%)
Draws...........................6 (30.00%)
Fulham Goals...................39 (ave. 1.95/match)
Ipswich Goals...................29 (ave. 1.45/match)
Head to Head at Fulham
Fulham Wins.....................3 (30.00%)
Ipswich Wins.....................2 (20.00%)
Draws................................5 (50.00%)
Fulham Goals....................22 (ave. 2.20/match)
Ipswich Goals.....................11 (ave. 1.10/match)
The Predicted Teams
Fulham
Fulham are still searching for the winning formula after their sixth match without a victory. There were positive signs in their last outing against Brentford, though, with widespread changes therefore not expected. Of the 11 who started on our last visit to Craven Cottage, only Scott Parker, Alexander Kačaniklić and Ross McCormack were involved on Saturday.
1 Andy Lonergan
2 Jazz Richards
5 Richard Stearman
13 Tim Ream
3 Luke Garbutt
11 Alexander Kačaniklić
8 Scott Parker
23 Jamie O’Hara
10 Tom Cairney
25 Moussa Dembélé
44 Ross McCormack
Ipswich Town
It was promising to see Ryan Fraser back in the matchday squad on Saturday, but Tuesday night is likely to come too soon for him to make a return to the starting line-up. In spite of his latest cameo off the bench, David McGoldrick faces a battle to displace either of the front two.
1 Dean Gerken
4 Luke Chambers
5 Tommy Smith
6 Christophe Berra
3 Jonas Knudsen
7 Ainsley Maitland-Niles
8 Cole Skuse
22 Jonathan Douglas
20 Freddie Sears
9 Daryl Murphy
11 Brett Pitman
Match Referee – Trevor Kettle
Final Thought - Frosty
Doesn’t really matter how ugly the performance may have been in the second half, a win is a win and thanks to the other teams around us Saturdays result against MK Dons was a valuable 3 points.
Fulham will be an interesting proposition on Tuesday night, they have not fired at all this season and have only managed 3 points out of an available 15 over their past 5 matches. Included in this batch of games was a 5-2 drubbing at home against the Brum and a 3-0 loss away to Forest, only managing draws against Preston, MK Dons and on Saturday a draw against Brentford.
Their newly appointed Head Coach in Stuart Gray could be just the catalyst to turn Fulhams season around as I thought Gray was bloody unlucky to lose the top job at Sheffield Wednesday at the start of the season and he could make a big difference to the Cottagers going forward.
With Derby coming to visit us on Saturday, it would be good to take something out of this fixture as hanging on to 6th place on the table will be a challenge as Cardiff is at home to Brentford and Wednesdays visit’s Stadium MK gives these sides an opportunity to leap frog us if we come home empty handed from London.
Have a good week all and a safe journey to the supporters heading off to Craven Cottage.
FULHAM 1 IPSWICH TOWN 1
