Monday, September 24, 2007

Fulham 3 City 3

I didn't catch the majority of Saturday's game, having been glued to preceedings down at The Oval so only the caught the radio coverage over the last twenty minutes or so.

From listening to it, it gave the impression that it was a game that would continue to have goals in it. Despite Fulham games seeing a lot of goals this season, I thought our record would ensure a fairly low-scoring affair but how wrong I was.

Plenty of positives from the game with three goals being scored - Petrov notching two, and us showing the steel to twice come from behind but it is disappointing to concede three goals in any Premiership game if we have genuine ambitions of being a top six side - merely coincidence that we were without the presence of Hans Back? They were errors rather than as a result of play that was overly attacking or gung-ho, and perhaps they are inevitable from a side which is by an large still gelling and taking shape with several new faces and a new philosphy.

Reaction:

"I am a little bit disappointed. I am not worried, concerned
or sleepless.
"I know that we are a new team and a gelling team, and
probably we must count on doing some mistakes. But it's much more positive than
negative things in the games we've played."
He added: "We will stick to the
system because we are doing rather well and I can't see any reasons why we
should change that. The type and style of play will be the same.
"We play
good football, in almost all the games we play good football. In many games we
created a lot of occasions but haven't scored many goals.
"This time we
created and scored, but you are never completely happy because we conceded goals
a little bit more easily than we did in the past.
"But 3-3, as a show, is
better than 0-0."
-Sven-Goran Eriksson.

"They have had a good start and kept clean sheets but they
have also had a bit of good fortune. If they maintain that good fortune then
they will stay up there but it's a marathon not a sprint and anyone can be up
there after five or six games. I would think they would be looking for a
top-eight finish."
- Lawrie Sanchez.

Reports:

Substitute Danny Murphy scored to earn Fulham a point from a thrilling Premier League clash with Manchester City at Craven Cottage. -Sky Sports.

Funny game, football. Just when it seemed we were about to endure another of those formless duels for midfield control, Simon Davies scored a peach of a goal for Fulham: the overture to an hour of bumper-car fun. -The Telegraph.

Well I wanted excitement this season and we’re definitely getting that. A second 3-3 draw in consecutive home games and whilst we’re struggling to hold on to leads we are at least proving difficult to beat. -Hammy End Chronicle.

vote it up!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I take issue with the comments that conceding three goals was due to 'errors' and because we are a young side learning how to play together. With the exception of Murphy's goal where they came straight through our middle, I thought the other two goals were more down to some good play from Fulham rather than any obvious defensive weakness on our part. One was a fantastic free kick, and the other a well executed glancing header that we possibly should have prevented but you can't have impenetrable defense 100% of the time.

As much as I was disappointed to see the three goals go in, I feel that at least half the credit should go to Fulham for putting them in just as we are taking a lot out of the three we scored.

Anonymous said...

I think we'll come away with a lot from this match. OK Fulhams last goal was offside, but I didn't notice until it was pointed out.

I've said before that we would take time to bind, and the goals against just pointed that up (the free kick excepted).

I wasn't lucky enough to be at the match, but I listened, as usual, on GMR. Fred Ayres would have had Petrov taken off after 20 minutes. About the same thoughts as I've had about Lampard on his last couple of England appearances.

What the hell happened then? Did Sven send out some sort of magic sign for Plan B? Or did Petrov look around, said "Bollocks to this" and went for it? I'd like to think it was the former, but if not, I'd just like to point out that our only high points of last season were when Micah seized the initiative and stormed up the wing.

Also, anyone notice how good Sun is getting now? Supersub - reminds me of Dave Connor in our heyday.