Ipswich Town v Fulham
Monday 26th December 2016 – 15:00
Portman Road
Jamma's Opening Thought
Football can be a funny old game sometimes. As I followed the clash against Wigan on BBC Suffolk at the weekend, there was a very real sense of despair that acccompanied the second-half commentary. The Blues had got off to an excellent start and, although fortuitous with the award of the penalty, converted their early superiority through Brett Pitman's well-taken spot-kick. We were good value for our lead, and should have extended this when Tom Lawrence pounced on a wayward Stephen Warnock backpass. But, not for the first time this season, we failed to capitalise on our ascendancy, and the momentum began to swing in the Latics' favour. Once they had equalised, after a reaction save from Bartosz Bialkowski found its way into the path of Yanic Widschut, it seemed only a matter of time before Wigan would turn the score on its head. Wildschut had been giving Luke Chambers a torrid time down our right all afternoon, and we had Bialkowski to thank for keeping us on level terms. And so it was no surprise when the Dutchman doubled up after a mazy run and sparkling finish from the angle. At this stage, things threatened to get ugly for Town, 2-1 down against a team that had failed to score in their previous 5 home matches and looking likely to concede with every Wigan attack. Brett Pitman's second goalf therefore came at a very opportune time, and produced another vivid shift in momentum. Having been on the precipice moments before, it wouldn't have been a great shock if Mick McCarthy had cut his losses and settled for a point. But, having all but admitted pre-match that it was a game we needed to win, it is credit to him and his team that we carried on pushing forward in search of a winner. And, with three minutes on the clock, this approach paid off, with all three substitutes combining as Kevin Bru's pass found Grant Ward, who crossed for David McGoldrick to head home. From a seemingly hopeless position where we were clinging on against one of the league's struggling sides to claiming the unlikeliest of victories, the transformation was sensational, and reflected in the some understandably excitable celebrations amongst the travelling support.
Of course, we shouldn't automatically assume that everything is fine again at Ipswich Town on the back of a 3-2 win against Wigan. What this result has done, though, is produce some interesting debate, with many differing views being aired. We have heard all the usual clichés in the press and on forums and phone-ins. Those who remain cynical about the direction the club is heading in are saying 'one swallow doesn't make a summer' and asserting that the scoreline just 'papered over the cracks' of our well-publicised deficiencies. On the other side of the fence, there are those who believe that Town may have 'turned a corner' with this morale-boosting victory, and that 'a couple of wins will have us looking up the table again'. As I've mentioned countless times already this season, the landscape can indeed change very quickly in the Championship. Without Saturday's dramatic turnaround, we would have found ourselves just 4 points above Wigan in 23rd, and facing the genuine prospect of a relegation battle. But the victory suddenly sees us 8 points above the drop zone and just 5 behind Norwich and Boxing Day's opponents Fulham. While the Canaries have suffered a terrible dip in form (which I'm not tiring of bringing up at every opportunity!
), it is generally agreed that the Cottagers have enjoyed a thoroughly successful first half of the campaign. If we were to finally secure back-to-back wins, it would not only come as an added Christmas bonus, but would also set us up very nicely, ahead of a second successive home game, for what will hopefully be a more prosperous 2017.The Opposition - Fulham
Fulham Football Club based in London was founded in 1879, they will be playing in the English Football League Championship for the first time in 13 seasons after their relegation from the ‘Top Flight’ last season. They were the oldest established football team from London playing in the Premier League.
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 next season, winning 101 points out of a possible 138, after spending £1.1 million to sign Paul Peschisolido from West Bromwich Albion who was top scorer and 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.
They 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 cup 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 history of the club. 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 Fairplay.
On 7 June 2011, Martin Jol signed a two-year contract with Fulham, becoming the successor of 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 on 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.
Kit Symons was sacked as Fulham manager in November 2015. It took 49 days to find a replacement, the club using Peter Grant and Stuart Gray in the interim, before appointing Slaviša Jokanović on 27 December 2015.
Last season, Fulham finished in 20th place with 51 points.
The Gaffer – Slavisa Jokanovic
Past Match - Video Highlights - Trev
A look back to last season, when we took all 3 points at the Cottage:
Media Watch - K L Blue
Black Cats and Webster:
https://www.clubcall.com/sunderland/web ... 34556.html
Brett Pitman says he's getting sharper:
http://www.itfc.co.uk/news/article/2016 ... 77171.aspx
Irish defender linked:
http://footballleagueworld.co.uk/ipswic ... -defender/
Form Guide
Ipswich Last 5 Matches - Currently in 15th place with 28 points
Wigan Athletic 2-3 Ipswich Town
Birmingham City 2-1 Ipswich Town
Ipswich Town 1-1 Cardiff City
Bristol City 2-0 Ipswich Town
Ipswich Town 3-0 QPR
Fulham Last 5 Matches – Currently in 9th place with 33 points
Fulham FC 2-2 Derby County
Fulham FC 2-1 Rotherham
Wolverhampton 4-4 Fulham FC
Fulham FC 5-0 Reading FC
Brighton 2-1 Fulham FC
Fixtures of Interest
BRENTFORD VS CARDIFF
WOLVES VS BRISTOL CITY
NEWCASTLE VS SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY
ROTHERHAM VS WIGAN
Match Referee – Oliver Langford
The Don Cup Competition
Couple of weeks' worth of scores....... Some crackers in amongst them.
Scores
Cardiff
Gold&Black 5pts
Shed on Tour 4pts
DerickIpsw 3pts
Herforder 2pts
Wigan
Patthegimp 5pts
Tangfastic 4pts
IpswichtownNo1 3pts
Gold&black 2pts.
League table
Gold&Black 40
Herforder 38
DerickIpsw 36
Nicscreamer 32
Blueblood 30
Bluemike 29
Frosty 28
Ando 27
Quasar 24
Patthegimp 17
Watership Down 15
IpswichtownNo1 14
Tangfastic 13
Shed on Tour 11
Number 9 11
Ashfordblue 6
LoudNProud 5;
Supershred 3
Longjohn 1
Foxy Lady 1
Barmy Billy 1
ItfcTrev76 1
Have a go at this for the Fulham Boxing Day fixture........ Let the bevvy flow and let's hear some absolute beauties.
Final Thought - Bluemike
The relief I felt up at Wigan at the sound of the final whistle was massive. MM had described the game as a real six-pointer so to come home with the points was a very pleasing outcome. However, for much of the second half we were very much second best and looked for all the world like we were going to get outfought again. But this time one or two things went our way and we did not let our heads go down, which has to be applauded. The table could have looked very precarious right now as we head into the all important festive period. It was pleasing to see MM ring the changes that every man and his dog had been crying out for. Some even felt Mick made too many in one go, which may or may not be the case, but we can't have it both ways. Young Andre Dozzell getting his first start of the season was probably the most surprising, while Jonny Williams finally got a starting place, so it looks like MM has decisions to make going forward.
I think historically it is true to say that Town have more often than not been a second half of the season team. Yes, there have been exceptions but by and large that is the case. So will this be replicated again in 2017? Well it certainly needs to be or the season will drift by without ever really getting going. The key is that we must, at some point, string 3+ wins together. It would make a massive difference. Of course, we have two home games coming up, which gives us a chance to do just that. I also look at the fixture list and see other opportunites to get a run going ,but it needs to happen sooner rather than later.
I suppose the next big worry for us fans is the January transfer window being just around the corner. With the news that we have again posted a sizeable loss, I doubt we can expect to see too many big money signings coming in the door. The bigger concern is will Bart, Webster, Dozzell and co. still be here come February? Losing Bart and/or Webster would without question sound the death knell for our season, which ain't great as it is. It would probably see a bigger mutiny by Town fans than the one carried out by Fletcher Christian on the Bounty. It doesn't bear thinking about so let's hope January passes without any major outgoings. Next up, it's Fulham on Boxing Day. Let us hope it is Town pulling all the punches as we strive to get that elusive second win on the bounce. It has to come some time, it will come soon, yes it will come against Fulham.....Home win!!!!
IPSWICH TOWN 2 FULHAM 1
^ Superb.
