I’ve never really warmed to Dara O’Briain as a comedian but find his Guardian column on a Saturday strangely compelling. He’s squeezed in a snippet about Fulham today:

To compound this error, we move to error No2: “With all of the major business pretty much done and dusted all we have ahead of us is the sight of John Terry, vindicated, as he raises silverware above his head in triumph.”

Whoo, that doesn’t make happy reading for the author. Terry spent a crucial part of the Saturday protesting his innocence on the long walk to the tunnel, looking much less vindicated than I had hinted.

No, we have so much more to look forward to; not least Fulham’s charge for Europa League silverware. If they win, I would rank it alongside some of the greatest achievements of any English team in Europe, and I’m including some of the real high-points here.

In the knock-out rounds Fulham have beaten the holders, Shakhtar Donetsk, Juventus and the German champions, Wolfsburg. With Hamburg and either Atlético Madrid or Liverpool to play, this is a set of scalps that would sit very well with, say, Aston Villa’s European Cup in 1981 (opponents: Valur, Dynamo Berlin, Dynamo Kiev, Anderlecht, Bayern Munich), Nottingham Forest in 1979 (Oster, Arges Pitesti, Dynamo Berlin, Ajax and Hamburg) and Liverpool’s in 1977 (Crusaders, Trabzonspor, St Etienne, Zurich and Borussia Mönchengladbach).

None of which is intended to diminish those clubs, but to elevate the achievement of Roy Hodgson’s team.