Fulham (Home) 26.01.2010

Roy Hodgson has used his experience to forge a solid unit at Craven Cottage, with the players playing for each other.  Boosted by the return of Clint Dempsey, they sprang a marvellous win over Juventus last week to over-turn a Europa League first leg deficit and record a famous victory. With that game and another on Sunday against Manchester City, which they lost, will a third game in quick succession be too much for them ?.

Well, the manager replaced Zoltan Gera and Bobby Zamora in Sunday’s defeat by City and Brede Hangeland missed the game with a rib injury, so he is hoping all three are fit for Wednesday’s meeting with Spurs, as they are crucial to the team’s success.  Hangeland is the rock at the back (or big enough to be The Rock anyway), Gera is a skilled passer and clever finisher, while Zamora has been the primary source of goals for the Cottagers this season.

With Spurs likely to recall Wilson Palacios after keeping him on the bench in Saturday’s win over Stoke, the midfield will be more bale to battle for the ball, but the midfield four on Saturday did well both in matching Stoke’s determination to win the ball and to open them up with good passing and movement.  Much of the same will be needed tonight, with the main source of Tottenham’s attacking play likely to come up the left flank with Gareth Bale.  Teams will be getting wise to this soon and maybe, by doubling up on the Welsh full back, Luka Modric can find more space to operate behind the front two, who will probably be Crouch and Gudjohnsen.

Fulham might play a 4-4-1-1 system with Zamora up top on his own, with Duff, Dempsey or Gera playing off him.  The midfield will be the area where they will be keen to stop Spurs playing and it will be our problem to break through, while the visitors attempt to hit us on the break.  As the game goes on, if it is scoreless, then Fulham may come out and leave space to exploit, but it will be a fairly tight game.  Hopefully, Tottenham can progress and I think it will be by a narrow margin …

PREDICTION : –   Tottenham  2  Fulham  1

For more information on the opponents and their history, including full result history of matches between the two teams, click here.

It looked for all the world that it would be yet another game where the oppo’s keeper would play out of his skin, but we know Schwarzer better than that.  His ability was put to the test in the opening stages, with Huddlestone’s low drive from the edge of the box inside the first minute saw the keeper plunge to his right to keep the ball out at the foot of his post.  Tom let fly a couple of minutes later, but hit the keeper with his straight shot.

There was a scare on 12 minutes, as Gomes had to rush from his line to thwart Bobby Zamora as he ran onto a ball just inside the edge of the area.  Three minutes of treatment was needed to get the Brazilian goalie working again, with his right arm being held tenderly.  It looked like Fulham might target Heurelho’s weak side, but they didn’t get a shot on target in the rest of the first half.

It was a surprise when the Spurs goal came, as the play had become untidy with misplaced passes and niggly fouls, but a cross from David Bentley from the right wing saw Schwarzer challenge Peter Crouch in the air, but fail to get a decent hand to the ball, leaving it to travel behind him.  Bjorn Helge Riise tried to run the ball out, but Luka Modric was alive to the possibilities and nicked it back over the Norwegian’s head before it went out and slid a low ball to the near post, where Crouch was on hand to prod home over the diving Schwarzer.  27 minutes in and Spurs were a goal to the good.

Spurs were left chasing possession at times, with Fulham passing neatly between their players, but they did not make any progression with the ball and Tottenham were actively closing down the red shirted opponents, forcing them into making mistakes.  A header down by Crouch was slashed over the top on the volley by Tommy and then into injury time, Luka bamboozled Hughes just inside the penalty area and then curled a shot that went a bit too high and rippled the roof of the net.

The half-time interval passed without any changes in personnel, so the game re-started and Tottenham were soon on the attack, with Palacios playing the ball wide to Bentley and then raced into the box to meet his cross with a header that was too straight and went wide, when he needed to get an angle on his effort to hit the target.  In the 53rd minute, Duff hit a shot straight at Gomes, who held it easily.

In the 59th minute, Gareth Bale, who had another fine game, raced forward and between Aaron Hughes and Riise they stopped his progress and a free-kick was given about five yards outside the left corner of the penalty area.  Tom Huddlestone wanted to take it, but he walked off to leave it to Bentley.  Previously, he had failed to beat the first man with a couple of corners and crosses, but this time doing so wasn’t a drawback.  He hit the head of the last man on the wall – Riise again – and the ball looped away to Schwarzer’s left, leaving him leaden footed and having no chance of saving so it was 2-0 to Tottenham.

It was more or less all Spurs, with Modric’s cross hitting a defender and changing the course of the ball to see it drop just wide of the far post.  Then Bentley tried a shot that was deflected for a corner and following that he hit a free-kick on target, but not far enough away or with enough pace to trouble the Fulham goalie.  With 15 minutes left, Bentley put a free-kick onto Dawson’s head at the near post, but the centre-half nodded wide when well placed.

The decidedly average Dikgacoi managed to get a shot on goal, but it flew just over the bar and substitute Kamara slid a shot across goal when running in from their right side, but Gomes was not forced to save, as he had his angles worked out, as he did with the same player’s shot a few minutes later.  Spurs were seeing the game out better than they had against Leeds and the only threat late on came when Smalling crashed into Gomes, who grabbed a corner and then came crashing down flat on his back.  More treatment saw him carry on for the remaining few minutes.

Even the presence of ex-Spurs Zamora, Murphy and Simon Davies could not inspire Fulham to any great heights and while they have some players out through injury, so had Spurs.  It didn’t need a great deal to beat Fulham in truth and when they once broke through in the second half, Dikagcoi had a shooting opportunity from the right hand side of the penalty area, but he smashed the ball straight in front of him, even though he was about two yards wide of the goal.

Duff was playing like he did for Newcastle last season and Zamora showed the lack of touch that is familiar when players come back from injury.  Davies was busy when he came on, but too often Murphy got caught on the ball or had passes picked off, although when not under pressure he showed he could still pray the ball around and make the team tick.

Harry got things just right.  Bentley played better than he has usually done in a Spurs shirt.  He lacks the pace or trickery to get past the full back in front of him, but he can put in dangerous crosses, even from a standing position.  His free-kick is being generously awarded to his account for the goal, but I think the keeper would have had it covered if it had gone where Bentley intended.

Forty points in the bag, it means that milestone one has been achieved for the season and now, hopefully the team can push on to cement a top six finish.  Anything more than that – especially with the April fixtures to come – would be great.

Burton Bradstock

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The worrying thing was that having started at a great tempo, the team slackened off after they had failed to get the opening goal.  The breakthrough from Crouch helped and Fulham lacked any sort of threat in the final third, even with Gomes only having one working arm after the prolific Zamora kicked him in the first few minutes.  That is prolific in terms of breaking the laws of the game.

Jermain Defoe was looking unlikely to score tonight and Modric was restricted to cameo glimpses of his skill.

We need to start another good run and carry on where we left off tonight at Birmingham City, where it will be necessary to win to keep the chasing clubs behind us.

The Heathrow Spur

While Modric is a skilful runner with the ball, he gets more attention when Lennon is missing and the supply to the forwards becomes limited.

The long ball to Crouch is all well and good, but quite often there is not a plan B, so it was pleasing to see Bentley crossing the ball in – albeit from deep – and Bale getting up the other wing.  Hutton also offers a different attacking threat when he plays.

The use of the overlapping full backs harks back to the days of Knowles and Kinnear and hopefully, it will bring a similar amount of success.

Stanford Rivers