View from the South – Fulham v Birmingham City

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom friend of the maturing sun,
Conspiring with him how to load and bless,
The vines that round the thatch eaves run.

That is how John Keats described this time of the year in his poem ‘Ode to Autumn’ but not on Saturday it wasn’t! It was pouring with rain with violent gusts of wind as I left for the train from Farnborough to Clapham Junction before changing for the Putney connection. It hadn’t been a productive week for Blues with only a single point to show from home matches against Wolves and Blackburn. Wolves beat us comfortably and deservedly whilst Blackburn came for a draw which they duly got. I didn’t write reports on those matches as the Wolves game I watched on the telly like many others I suspect and although I did go to the game on Tuesday virtually nothing occurred! Dull does not even begin to describe that match and although the second half improved on the first, that fact was frankly not difficult.

Moving on to the Fulham game I hoped for a better performance and a little more excitement. Despite the two disappointing results following on from the defeat at Hull, Gary Rowett had remained calm and measured in his comments to the media which is one of the many features I like about him. I remain confident in his ability to guide us to a good league position this season but I still think play off talk is premature and the recent setbacks have hopefully put a bit of reality back in some people’s minds.

I arrived at Putney about ten to two and there was time for a quiet pint before going on to the ground in the Duke’s Arms where I met Rick, Lee and Andy who appeared to be as mad as me in that they travel far following the lads. They had come down from Blackpool and Bolton and we enjoyed said pint before moving on. I decided to have another inside the ground and – though I was impressed with the speed of the service unlike that which I’m used to at St Andrews – unfortunately, all they were serving was lager which looked like fizzy p*** and I’ll leave it to you to imagine how it tasted. £4.30 a pint to boot didn’t add to it!

For all the lack of entertainment on Tuesday, this match had it in spades. The goal drought was broken and how! Blues got off to a sloppy start however by giving away a free kick 25 yards out and the 4000 noses present kept fingers crossed as Jamie O’Hara stepped up and took it but the shot cannoned off the wall to safety. Blues then looked bright and purposeful and it became clear that Gray and Maghoma were going to exploit the spaces behind Fulham’s wide players in their 3-5-2 system. Blues scored a cracking opener on 19 minutes when Maghoma rolled a square ball into the path of Gleeson who didn’t have to break stride before depositing the ball into the bottom corner from 25 yards. Three minutes later, Toral (who was superb all game) slid a peach of a pass through a statuesque Fulham rearguard to Clayton Donaldson who was unceremoniously upended by Lewis, for a clear penalty. The Blues faithful were baying for blood but it was only a yellow. The keeper was sent the wrong way as Paul Caddis dispatched the spot kick for 2-0. Then on the half hour mark, Maghoma did well to chase down a brisk through ball to the byline and just managed to cut it back to Jon Toral who took a touch before smashing the ball into the roof of the net for 3-0. The hosts were completely shell shocked and in truth it could have been worse; so dominant were a rampant Blues at this stage. The ever-dangerous Jamie O’Hara this time curled a free kick successfully over the wall a few minutes later and Blues were fortunate that the effort clipped the bar and back out to preserve the full advantage going into the break.

I expected Fulham to come at us in the second period but two agricultural and overzealous challenges by a clearly frustrated James Husband did for their battle plan as the home player was rightly dismissed. The game was up for Fulham at this stage and it wasn’t until about 20 minutes to go that anything went right for them. They brought on the muscular Kacanikilic and started to play more direct. They did hit the post with an effort by Matt Smith before scoring a consolation following a ball into the box. There was a knock down, appeals for a penalty, before the striker scored – in off the far post. Fulham had a bit of a flurry at this stage but their hopes of a comeback were quashed when a snap shot from Kieftenbeld was parried by Lewis for Clayton Donaldson to bury the rebound from eight yards into the roof of the net. McCormack did get another consolation in stoppage time following a fortunate rebound from a clearance that rebounded off Smith and fell into his path; it was a smart, neat finish though, from 20 yards, giving Kuczcak no chance. However, Fulham’s misery was completed with a well taken solo finish from well inside his own half by young Viv Soloman-Otabor, who dribbled seventy yards twisting his tracking defender, Stearman, this way and that before completing a 5-2 drubbing with the last kick of the game; Fulham I suspect were at least pleased about that!

I met another southern supporter of the mighty Blues, Steve, on the way back on the train along with his son Harry. They were from Basingstoke and it was good to talk about such a convincing performance after our recent indifferent form. I caught the train from Putney at 17.30 made my connection at Clapham Junction smoothly and was home in under an hour! The weather had brightened up in the afternoon and we had actually seen some late autumn sunshine that Keats had written about; all was well with the world! 😀

The Good: Everything about the performance which was excellent and thoroughly appreciated by the 4,000 of us that had made the trip and roared the team on all game. We made a hell of a noise!

The Bad: The price of a pint at the ground; they’re taking the lager in my opinion! 😀

The Ugly: James Husband’s tackles which led to his expulsion. At least one of them was worthy of a straight red.

Fulham: Joe Lewis 5, Richard Stearman 5, Dan Burn 6, Tim Ream 5, Lasse Vigen Christiansen 5 (Alexander Kacanikilic 45, 6), Ryan Tunnicliffe 6 (Luke Garbutt 74, 6), Jamie O’Hara 6, Tom Cairney 6, James Husband 4, Ross McCormack 7, Moussa Dembele 5 (Smith 55, 6).

Subs not used: Marek Rodak, Shaun Hutchinson, Scott Parker,  Cauley Woodrow.

Goals: Kacanikilic, McCormack.

Yellow cards: Lewis, Husband (x 2) McCormack.

Birmingham City: Tomas Kuczcak 7, Paul Caddis 8, Michael Morrison 8, Jonathan Spector 8, Jonathan Grounds 8, Jacques Maghoma 9 (Mikael Kieftenbeld 76, 7), Jon Toral 9 (Viv Soloman-Otabor 80, 7), David Davis 8, Stephen Gleeson 8, Demarai Gray 9, Clayton Donaldson 8.

Subs not used: Adam Lezgdins, Reece Brown, Andrew Shinnie, Shane Lowry, Nikolai Brock-Madsen.

Goals: Gleeson, Caddis (pen) Toral, Donaldson, Soloman-Otabor.

Yellow cards: None.

Referee: Iain Williamson 6: Overall the officials didn’t have a bad game and got the major calls right. However, I did feel he was lenient in allowing Lewis to stay on the field when he felled Donaldson to concede the penalty. I gave the benefit of the doubt from the other end of the pitch having surmised that there was at least one defender getting back to cover the line whereupon a yellow card was appropriate. I’ve seen the footage since and the keeper should have gone. The defenders are never getting there and it was a clear goal scoring opportunity. James Husband could easily have received a straight red for at least one of his frustrated tackles early in the second half. He did ignore the antics of our Clayton Donaldson and Fulham’s Kacanikilic who both went to ground too easily.

Attendance: 18,888

KRO Bazza