Pre - view

I've not seen Fulham play for a while now - over a month actually - so I'm looking forward to tomorrow's game. I missed the Everton game because I was in Cyprus, although I did manage to watch the game on some kind of international ex-pat channel. What did surprise me was the appearance of Rob McCaffrey as the game's studio anchor - I though he'd been banished from our screens for being generally rubbish but here he was holding his own on Showtime Arabia asking Iain Dowie and Derek Whyte for their analyses on the game.
When I was working in a bar in Gran Canaria I came across this guy who reckon he ran a Sunday football league team in which McCaffrey played and that whenever there was any bother on the pitch McCaffrey would cower screaming 'Not the face - I'm in TV'. It always struck me as a slanted story told by a bitter man, yet it stayed with me and whenever I now watch McCaffrey on TV I imbue every false utterance with a sense of cowardice. It's amazing how slight suggests can pollute someone's perception in such a way.
Anyway I was very impressed with Fulham against Everton, especially in the second half. Coming from behind to win takes some character which I'm not sure that the team possesses in abundance. In fact it only happened once in the league last year - at Eastlands. Again. A bit more of that grit and determination will do the team well this year and it seems that there is competition for every single position except left back with Roy's bizarre experiment of having separate league and cup teams. He suggests that such an approach has come to an end, but I'll believe that when I see the line up for the home match against Basel on Thursday.
As it is I'll be dashing to tomorrow's game from Ascot where I'm the subject of considerable corporate hospitality by the good people at Extrabet. So if you are think of having a bet with anyone, I recommend those guys.

• Oh and congratulations to our erstwhile season ticket companion Colin, who's about to become a father for the first time next year. I can see why he didn't renew now.