Well, I’m afraid I can’t say that I’m too surprised we lost, but we sure gave them a run for their money. Considering that Chelsea might have one of the most impressive squads around when it comes down to big names they should beat us easily – how come they have to fight so hard then? It all comes down to heart, commitment, attitude and fighting spirit and as you know these are things you just can’t buy.
Fulham fielded a depleted side and Colman opted for the 4-5-1 formation. In fairness I thought that was a good choice, but I can’t for the life of me understand why he chose John to be the lone striker. I Like Collins John, but he tends to be lazy and needs proper back up if he is to create chances, he never sets up that many chances by himself. This also proved to be a fact in this game. He tried and tried but didn’t deliver much at all. I would rather have seen Helguson in yesterday’s performance.
The team was formed like this:
Niemi
Rosenior – Knight – Pearce – Queudrue
Volz – Bocanegra (McBride 77min) – Brown – Diop – Routledge
John 6 (Helguson 77min)
For 70 minutes I thought we were the better team, fighting back Chelsea, even though they did have a few chances to score. It was pretty much flair vs. motivation and hard work. When they did get their penalty in the 73rd minute the game changed a lot. Coleman brought on McBride and Helgusson and switched to a 4-4-2 formation. This turned out to be a bold move which changed the midfield a bit too much for us. We did however create a few chances going forward but we also lost the upper hand in midfield which eventually led to Lampard finding himself a lot of space in front of the box and scored by a fierce shot.
There has been a lot of talk after the game about the referee. Coleman even stated that he will ask the FA to not assign Mark Halsey to games at the Cottage in the future.
‘I will ask not to have Mark Halsey again. I will ask because there’s always a bit of controversy when Mark comes to the Cottage.
‘I’ll ask and we’ll probably have him in another six weeks’ time.’
I think this move would be a waste of time, and might brand Chris and the club as whiners. No good can come from it as I see it. The thing is that I agree with the ref being crap, but he made a few controversial decisions to our advantage too. I think that we’ll just have to accept that when a decision can go either way it is most likely to go in favour of the ‘big club’. It’s not right, but how can we change it with the current set up? We need replays and maybe more technology supporting the refs in order for us to be able to demand more from them.
As always Josie thought that they deserved to win; I disagree strongly I thing shared points would have been fair and a good reflection on the game, but since morale went down the drain after Rosenior handballed and Chelsea could score it would be a though journey to get back in the game.
Once again we gave them a harder game than they expected and eventually we will beat them again. Wouldn’t it be sweet to beat them at their place in the spring?
