Roy Hodgson was proud of his players after an eventful 2-2 draw with West Ham at Upton Park yesterday.
Only an injury-time deflected equaliser from Junior Stanislas denied Fulham a deserved victory and their performance was all the more impressive after losing Kagisho Dikgacoi to a red card in the first half.
I would like to think no-one would begrudge us the victory there today because we were worth it for our second-half performance.
We know that games last 94-95 minutes and shots do get deflected. Sunderland were denied a famous victory at Old Trafford yesterday and we have been denied a famous victory here in exactly the same way. It was a harsh way to lose two points after we had done so well to get ourselves in a position to win three.
We played really well in the second half with and without the ball. It’s hard to be happy, or satisfied, but I’m proud of my players, they deserve every credit for the way they played.
Hodgson was disappointed with Dikgacoi’s dismissal.
I come from a generation where violent conduct is, well, violent. I have a problem getting my head round two players going nose to nose and one of them getting sent off for violent conduct.
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I must admit I do not see why KD was sent off and Parker was only booked. Parker pushed KD in the chest and KD stupidly put his hands up in Parkers face. Parker also complained and complained and acted like… well a spoilt child which sadly is what he has become. Yet Upson who commited foul after foul, one of which caused Dempsey to later leave the field, was simply allowed to continue.
So a great come back but the game was shaped again by an inconsistant referees and his many helpers. But well done Fulham. Things may be wrong right now but we do have heart. Something Spam seem to be lacking.
From where I was sitting (and that was on the other side of the pitch obviously), it looked as though Dowd had booked Parker and Dikgacoi before the hysterical reaction of Parker – and half the West Ham team – to being booked convinced him to go and talk to the assistant referee and the fourth official. He then came back and sent off Dikgacoi. From Parker’s reaction, I was expecting to see on the highlights that Dikgacoi had lamped him on, which he didn’t. Of course he shouldn’t have raised his hands and that is a sending off by the letter of the law, but the fact that the instigator of the incident remained on the field and continued to commit niggly fouls did really rankle with me.
As for Upson, I wasn’t impressed with him at all. That foul for the penalty was nonsensical and he did clatter into Clint as well.
I was really impressed with us yesterday. Plenty of spirit and a much improved second half performance. Getting back into the game just didn’t seem likely at half time and I’d have gladly taken a point beforehand given our record of recent ‘non-peformances’ at Upton Park. Beat Hull and we’ll be even further away from trouble.
The same old question. Would you have been happy with that result before the game? Well I guess reality is yes. But after turning it around and getting so close the answer from the team really has to be no.
I only listened to GJ (and tried various streams that worked for 5 minutes then buffered) and it sound that we were poor up to half time then in the second half, with 10 men, played so much better.
Well done Fulham and well done the travelling faithful.
The next question is, with a fully fit team who would you pick against Hull?
Does Kamara keep his place? Does Baird have a role in central midfield while Dickson is out.? How close is Riise to getting a start?