Final handshake

With the passing of Mark Hughes (RIP QPR) from his ambitious club (who knew his ambition was to manage in the Championship?) I decided to relive his glory years - ie those as a player which had originally given me so much pleasure.
However as I was scouring YouTube I came across this, which seemed appropriate for this blog:


It's not as catchy as the ridiculous John Arne Riise sandwich song (which still keeps me up at night occasionally) but worth a watch, if only for the Martin Jol drawing.

Sponsored by BetButler - FUL 1 - 1 CHE

Today's post is sponsored by BetButler. Knowing I would be down in the south over Easter I called in some favours and persuaded Fulham's betting partner to score me a pair of tickets for the Easter Monday derby with Chelsea. And they did. With gusto. I was only expecting a pair of common or garden tickets, but instead they furnished me with the full on Craven Cottage corporate experience, providing two tickets that individually would have cost more than any one of my Fulham season tickets.
We were let in at 5.30 at the Stevenage Road reception and walked through the stand to walk around the pitch to get to the Riverside. It was actually quite nice being in the empty stadium (apart from the stewards getting a pep talk in the stands) and Colin and I were reminiscing about the goals we had witnessed on the pitch (Dempsey v Juventus in particular).
We were 'hosted' by former Fulham player Fred Callaghan, which really entailed two short trips to our table to talk about the game. In fairness to Fred, with 75% of our table being Chelsea fans I can understand why he didn't bother with us too much. Still the champagne was provided freely as we looked onto a rather high and grim looking Thames and the food, when it came, was fine albeit a bit rushed. I would have been disappointed had I paid for it (but BetButler did - what a great idea for a company).
Our seats were in the 'directors area' which in truth, were just behind the proper directors area when Mo usually sits - although I didn't see him at this game. We did see a couple of Chelsea reserves sitting near us - Paulo Ferreira and Henrique Hilario. Strangely both seemed to be in training gear and tracksuits, as if they arrived at the Cottage with a chance of being in the squad.
Anyway the view from the directors area was superb - there's even a little TV in the roof where you can watch action replays. Actually it was more like action plays, as the TV was around 20 seconds behind the action right in front of us.
As for the game itself, well I was disappointed that Ruiz got injured at weekend, as he was one of the few players I hadn't seen live, but the cameo from Kerim Frei more than made up for it. A desire to run with the ball which is only usually seen by a) the young and fearless or b) the supremely talented and assured (Dembele) was extremely entertaining. The only problem was that because Fulham had lined up in a more traditional 4-5-1 to counter Chelsea's 4-5-1, there was not many options open to the young Austrian/Turk/Moroccan/Swiss winger once he had ghosted past Ivanovic (and Ramires) once again. Jol clearly fancies Frei against Chelsea for some reason - this was the young lad's third start against them this season and he didn't let his manager down. Several times crosses came in and they were easily mopped up at the front post by Cahill or Terry.
The first half saw Fulham rather comfortable and in control, albeit with no real danger on Chelsea's goal, so when Clattenberg awarded Chelsea a pen, it was even harder to take. On watching it live I thought it was no way a penalty. Watching it 20 seconds later, I thought it was a penalty. Then watching the action replay, I wasn't so sure again. But of course everyone was looking at Danny Murphy's challenge, not Stephen Kelly's. No-one apart from the ref realised Kelly was anywhere near. Which he wasn't.
Anyway Lampard put away the penalty (the only thing he really did all night) and took the opportunity to celebrate in front of the Hammy End, which was fair enough given the amount of times they called him a fat bastard when he went to take a corner. Fans have got to be bale to take it as much as they can give it. I've seen Frank have a laugh with that corner of the ground before now, so it's a love/hate relationship really.
The goal gave Chelsea confidence and they started the second half actually playing nice football and controlled the game for about 15 minutes. Credit to Fulham, they played their way back into the game and when they scored it was from a little sustained pressure. Cech made an astounding save from Hughes from a corner by pushing the defender's barnstorming header over the bar. However Dempsey was quick to retrieve the ball and throw it back out to Duff for a second corner which found the American completely unmarked. Goal machine Dempsey's header somehow found its way through the throng and bounced in at the far corner, Chelsea paying the price for not marking Fulham's top goalscorer.
BetButler also paid the price - I had a fiver on Dempsey to score the last goal. I love BetButler - it's the firm that keeps on giving. Also a special mention for FXPro through whom I also manged to get four free tickets for this game, although Jarrod was a bit upset to find their seats in the Putney End among the Chelsea fans than the Riverside, which is where we expected them to be.

Not paying the penalty

Just been watching the highlights of last night's game on the official Fulham website and it seems that the Fulham back line did a good job of holding out, one missed header by Brede Hangeland aside, and had a fair few chances themselves, albeit of the long range variety.
We no longer have Sky so I was getting updated by the BBC Sport website and on the 89th minute when it said 'Fulham have a strong appeal for a penalty...' I was furiously bashing refresh to find out the outcome. Looking at the highlights I would say it is a penalty - not a stonewaller as some like to claim - but Michael Carrick does clip Danny Murphy's ankle.
However also looking at the highlights, you can tell why referee Michael Oliver doesn't give it. Irrespective of it being the 89th minute at Old Trafford, there is a copse of legs making it hard to clearly distinguish the action and the ball clearly moves in the direction that Carrick is kicking, suggesting he took the ball. He didn't and the referee got it wrong, but he got it wrong for the right reasons in my opinion.
While Fulham fans on the whole seem mainly sanguine about the decision, it has enraged fans of other clubs who don't want United to win the league - claiming the Old Trafford bias was in action again, despite the fact there there have been penalties against United at OT this season, some of which should not have been allowed. But the lot of the football fan is selective memory, through conscious or subconscious means, through stereotype reinforcement. City fans (rightly) laugh at United's claim for a first half penalty for handball when Patrice Evra fired a cross that hit an oblivious Stephen Kelly on the arm, but how many care to recall their very similar awarded penalty just two games previously against Chelsea? And Fulham fans won't have forgotten the Adam Johnson 'trick' where he kicked Chris Baird on the way down for another soft City penalty. But it is swings and roundabouts - I can remember Senderos fouling someone in the box at the Cottage and getting away with it. Referees can make mistakes as easily as the defenders making accidental fouls.
Anyway it's all getting a bit tense at the top and while the managers might be able to handle the pressure; it's telling on some of the fans. Just witness how quiet the crowd can be at both the Etihad and Old Trafford until their team scores.

Driving attendances

Bought a new car last week. Goodbye sexy convertible VW Eos, hello sensible KIA Ceed hatchback with 7 year warranty. Why's this of interest? Only because the company we bought the car from 'Premier Kia' are sponsors at Boundary Park and offer holders of its loyalty card two free tickets to Oldham Athletic games. I'm not sure if this applies to every game, but I've already secured tickets to watch two of my teams face off - Oldham v Preston in what is likely to be a drudge of a game in the bottom half of League One on 21 April. I say I have secured tickets, I've been given an A4 sheet asking the ticket office to give me two adult tickets to any game. I don't think they are that choosy at Oldham at the moment - they just want to get bums on seats. Indeed, the club has recently launched a promotion selling seats at five home matches for a total of £15.
I've also secured tickets for the West London derby, also as a freebie, via Fulham's betting partner BetButler. My only other game of the season was another free one - the dull Everton v Manchester United game back in October. Next season I shall start paying for games again, I promise. Unless I'm going to start going to Boundary park regularly!
As for tonight, another of my two favoured teams are playing. As I'm still refusing to give the Glazers any of my money, I shall have to follow this game on the wireless. And looking at the table, I want Man United to give Fulham another shoeing for the 'greater good'. Fulham are 11 points and five places from the drop and safe. United need to turnaround the four goal deficit on City before the Manchester derby at the end of next month. However United tend to be at their most vulnerable when they are at their most overconfident and given Fulham's dreadful away form (only QPR and Wolves are worse) they are overconfident now. As they were before getting beaten at Old Trafford by Blackburn Rovers.

What's a decade between fans?

A Sheffield Wednesday fan is understandably impressed at how his Owls tattoo has come out. Unfortunately, The Wednesday were actually established in 1867.

The club was a cricket club when it formed in 1820 as The Wednesday Cricket Club (named after the day of the week when they played their matches). A meeting on the evening of Wednesday 4 September 1867 at the Adelphi Hotel established a footballing side to keep the team together and fit during the winter months. They played their first match against The Mechanics on 19 October the same year.

Still, as football tattoos go, it is nowhere near as bad as some examples out there. Manchester City fans in particular seem to have a bad ink habit.
At least the only people who will know this is wrong is Sheffield Wednesday fans and even then, QED, they might not be totally sure when their club was formed.

EDIT: It appears it's a fake! Ha! Thought the tattooist had made a good job of making those 7s look really similar. I'll put this in my box of reasons to dislike Sheffield Wednesday along with the 1991 League Cup final and an ex-girlfriend hailing from the city.