Have we recovered from Saturday yet? I’m not sure if I have. It was a performance that included everything bad about Fulham this season. For certain games and periods of games we have looked so good, but for the most part we have been pedestrian and devoid of ideas. Yes, we have managed to get the results that have us up in third place, but bar the Millwall home game back in August we haven’t really played out of second or third gear. I honestly believe that this squad has so much to offer, but we are playing with shackles on, and if we don’t release them soon we’ll find ourselves out of the top 6.
But let’s not get too down on ourselves. As I say, we are still in 3rd place and while the last couple of results have seen us miss a huge opportunity to move into second, we are still very much in this fight. Fulham are actually 6th in the form table when you look at the last six Championship matches. Remarkably, there is only one side from the top six above us in the form table, and that’s Preston North End. The last two results have sucked, but when we look at the bigger picture, things aren’t as bad as they could be.
While all of our games are considered as ‘must win’ at the minute, Derby on Friday night has become important for more than just the result. The team have to come and put in a performance that shows us that they are up for this. We haven’t played at Pride Park since we lost the first leg the play-offs in 2018, but earlier that season early goals from Ryan Sessegnon and Aleksander Mitrovic were enough for all three points. I was at that game, and the way we played in the first half, you’d have thought that we were going to win about 7nil. We were sublime, and Derby couldn’t contain us at all, but we let them into the second half, and nearly blew it at the end. We need the Fulham of the first half from that game in 2018 to show up for 90minutes on Friday. Derby have had a reasonably poor season, but they have been a bit better recently and Wayne Rooney has helped to boost the mood around Pride Park. They taken 10points from the last six games, which isn’t awful considering that they are down in 13th in the table.
For the promotion race, arguably West Brom and Brentford have the hardest games this weekend. Brentford host a Blackburn side who are at the top of the form table and who are closing in on a top 6 spot themselves, while West Brom face Bristol City away, who are in 7th. There’s no easy game in this league, but you’d expect Leeds, Forest and Preston all to get wins this weekend, so we need to put the pressure on by taking 3points on Friday night.
Football is a funny game. While the result on Saturday was terrible, it was the manner in which we performed that was the most disappointing. Barnsley didn’t come and nick a 1nil victory, they played us off the park. But the good thing about football is that there is always the next game to put things right. Roll on Friday night.
#COYW
