Pre-Match Thoughts

Contracts don’t count for much these days but I’m really glad Kenwyne signed a new one and wasn’t lured by Spurs. It’s ironic that Chimbonda’s last match for us on Saturday was probably his best in a Sunderland shirt and he kept us in the game but I can’t say I’m sorry to see him go. Getting Davenport from West Ham would certainly help the bonding of the back four but is he any good? A Hammers website I looked at earlier today used the ominous phrase ‘prone to errors’. Anyway, after Saturday’s decidedly lacklustre match let’s hope we have tastier fare this evening. I’ll be taking a leaf out of Chimbonda’s book and wearing gloves but I expect there’ll be a few more bodies around me in the East Stand to keep the temperature up. Cisse and Kenwyne seem certain to return along with Whitehead. My favourite, Reid, had a real off day on Saturday and no doubt will be replaced by Diouf while Healy and Chops didn’t do much to further their chances of starting in future but may well feature late on. Fulham haven’t won away this season and without star man Bullard and, as far as I can see, key defender Hangeland I can’t see them winning tonight. I think we’re going to win it and what with the unusual closeness of the table and the way fixtures for tonight and tomorrow have worked out, three points would see us move up a lot.

The Match

This was much better than Saturday’s kickabout though we still have a long way to go before we can say that we’re playing as well as we should be. There were too many basic errors in the first half with lots of misplaced passes and lack of anticipation though we were a lot better in the second and I think we deserved to win. Fulop, Ferdinand and Collins again hardly put a foot wrong while Tainio and Reid impressed me. Kenwyne was very warmly received as the teams were announced and he didn’t do that much effectively till ten minutes after the restart when he pounced on a block by the Schwarzer to stab home the winning goal. This followed a great battling run by Reid during which he was fouled but kept going into the box. Reid was in the thick of everything after that and the rest of the team also displayed a lot of battling spirit that got the decent sized crowd going. So, quite why Reid was subbed with fifteen minutes left was a mystery to me but as he was replaced by Edwards I wasn’t going to argue much. McCartney and Tainio both took knocks and were replaced by McShane and Leadbitter respectively so there a deep intake of breath all round but we held out, apart from the usual hair-raising moments as the clock slowly ticked through the three minutes of stoppage-time. Fulham had several good chances but thankfully they lacked the killer touch tonight and with a few other results going our way, we’ve certainly moved up several spots. By the way Dickson Etuhu received a good ripple when his name was announced and an even bigger one when he was subbed. There was much relief and joy as the whistle finally blew and all in all this was a good night’s work. With two very winnable matches against the Mags and Stoke coming up, we can really improve our position in the next fortnight.

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