Before
'Must win' has been a much overused phrase for us in recent years but it's surely appropriate for this afternoon's encounter. Yesterday's results couldn't have gone much better for us with Wolves and Wigan both losing while Pompey did us a big favour by beating Burnley and putting a big dent in their very good home record. With Pompey as good as gone, though no doubt ready to play to their utmost for the rest of the season and likely to produce more shocks against at least one of Hull, Wigan, Wolves and Bolton, there are only two empty seats on the train to nowhere. If we fail to win today and kick off the much hoped-for revival and just continue picking up a draw here and there, I think we could still stay up by the skin of our teeth because we're a few points ahead of our rivals with a much better goal difference than most of them. If we do win, and as ever my natural optimism keeps trying to tell me that we will, we've got the perfect opportunity with three more home games in a row to put some clear water between us and the rest. Catts will be back and it looks like Mensah will be playing and he makes a big difference to our defence as he displays a rare solidity while Fulham will be without the in-form Zamora. I hope we don't just keep pumping high balls into their box as Hangeland and Schwarzer dealt with them easily in the away fixture. We're all hoping that they'll be a bit knackered after their trip to Ukraine on Thursday night but I think that's a hope too far. Certainly their away form has been poor of late with two draws and four defeats on their last six trips. One of my mates is a Fulham fan and once again we've got a £50 bet on about which of our teams will finish highest. It looks like he'll be adding to the £100 I've had to give him over the last two years but I just hope the bet's still on next season. If we win, I'm sure there'll be an explosion of joy at the SoL and wherever our fans may be but a defeat is something I'd rather not contemplate at the moment. Match prediction: (deep intake of breath) 2-1 to us.

The Match
There were no surprises for us when I checked the starting line-ups with only Ferdinand replacing McCartney. Not much to choose between them but I think they're both a liability. My heart sank though when I heard Zamora was playing after all. I tuned into Radio Newcastle and the crowd was sounding enthusiastic. The first event of note was that Gordon touched the ball for the first time after fifteen minutes and then both Hangeland and Baird were yellow-carded within a few minutes of each other. Fulham seemed happy to sit back and frankly it sounded like we were heading for a bore draw. Soon the anxiety of the crowd had enveloped me and an air of gloom was descending. One of our attacks around the half-hour mark summed up our lack of creativity in midfield when Turner went forward and booted a long ball that Schwarzer caught easily. The lack of Henderson, Reid and Malbranque was painfully evident. Our first chance worthy of the name was put over by Jones around five minutes before the break and then Bent hit a free-kick well that Schwarzer got at the second attempt. Things livened up considerably and the crowd responded as the clouds lifted, a bit. Our back four were playing with some bite with Mensah again showing his commitment. At the break it remained goalless and though Fulham would've been satisfied with that , it wasn't much good to us though at least we hadn't conceded. A good shaking up by Bruce at the break would hopefully encourage more of the brighter play of the closing stages of the first half but the Fulham defence had hardly been threatened. It was looking like a 1-0 win but to whom?

There were no changes for us as the second half kicked off and our play sounded worse so I was happy to hear that Zenden was coming on as whatever his failings he can make us buzz. He came on for Cattermole, who'd been below par but so had nearly everyone else. Schwarzer had spilled at least three saves so we needed to have someone, Bent most likely, playing up close to take advantage of this. Around the hour-mark our fans were really getting behind the team with “Red and white army!” coming across the airwaves loud and clear. The commentator informed us that Benjani had scored on his last three appearances against Fulham so it seemed a good idea to bring him on for Jones, who was playing deep for some reason so that he wasn't linking up with Bent very much. With twenty minutes left Fulham were well on top stringing together about twenty passes during one move and maybe a draw was the best we could hope for. With ten minutes to go Benjani finally replaced Jones and received a big cheer. Mensah, who'd surprised us all by playing two games in a row and who'd been our best player, went off injured and was replaced by McCartney. Appropriately Zamora, who'd battled with Mensah all through, was subbed at the same time. It ended 0-0 and that was a fair result for a poor game with Fulham obviously being the happier. Our failure to do better was down to a lack of creativity due partly to a lack of confidence while not all players sounded very committed. Still, a point's a point in these desperate times. It's nine days till we face Bolton and we need to see Reid and/or Malbranque back in the side by then.

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