Pregarama 09

Just thought I'd give a quick update on the pregnancy. Things are progressing well and the time has gone pretty fast. Currently we are at 32 and a half weeks. Major issues have been morning sickness that lasts all day, some randomly appearing hives that come and go with no discernible pattern apparent and a hospitalisation for dehydration that lasted 2 nights. Other than that smooth travelling!

Here are some pics of Krystle at 32 weeks

I call this portrait 'Sun shines on Mother with Child'

Looking radiant

Here Krystle shows of her battle scars

Craven Cottage

I have tried to give some idea of the atmosphere of a game, both before and during. Here are some pictures that illustrate what the trip to Craven Cottage is like.

I usually arrive by club helicopter, I wish. This is the view of the ground from the air looking towards Hammersmith (top right corner). The Thames is on the left and the park in front of the ground is Bishops Park

This is a night view of the lights of the ground from across the river

I catch the train to Putney Bridge on the district line. Here is the bridge that was named after the station. To get from the station to the ground you actually walk under this bridge through a tunnel. Too cold to swim.

People coming off the bridge or from under the bridge heading to the ground

Walking through Bishops Park

It's a long walk so it is dark by the time you reach it. Actually the ground just looks cool in the darkness of the night with the lights illuminating the night sky.

Walking along Stevenage Rd towards the ground

You can also walk from Hammersmith station, no park to walk
through though. This is from the other end of Stevenage Rd

This view is from the Hammersmith End walking along the
Thames path. This way is a good exit from the ground if you
are walking back to Hammersmith

Queuing to get into the ground

Walking underneath the Hammersmith Stand

When you reach your seat the clappers may be waiting for you

Unless it's Flag Day, then you get flags

Waiting for the main event, the crowd are reasonably subdued


Billy the Badger gees up the crowd in anticipation

But once the match starts the crowd come alive. The bloke in the
bottom right seems particularly angry that his favourite player
scored and then took off his shirt.

And the fans walk back to Putney Bridge, Fortress Craven
Cottage remains secure and all is good with the world!

The Meaning of Life revealed

I know it seems like all I ever talk about is football and snow, but there is a reason for this. In order to fully convey what it is to live in England I need to immerse you in the culture and way of life. What I'm actually giving you here is a sociological thesis on the English condition, by writing about the football and the weather. It doesn't get more English then that.

So as the snow of winter has been banished and replaced by a strange sort of daily glow that burns your eyes and hurts your head (I looked it up on Wikipedia, apparently its called the sun) We have hit the last 8 games of the Premier League season. Having become the best team in the world by virtue of beating the winners of the FIFA Club World Cup in the previous home game, Fulham looked forward to a visit from a rampaging Liverpool whose last three games had all been big wins againt quality opponents: 4-1 v Real Madrid in the Champions League, 4-1 v Man Utd at Old Trafford and 5-0 against Aston Villa, until recently placed 4th in the Premier League. Liverpool's form and Man Utd's two losses in a row has also reignited the Premier League season by closing their lead over Liverpool to 1 pt (albeit with a game in hand) and in fact if Liverpool beat Fulham they would, at least temporarily be back on top of the Premier League table.

Liverpool warming up

Xabi Alonso shoots and hits the bar

Dickson Etuhu and Xabi Alonso

Torres tackled


Stevie G gets to the ball first. Fulham captain Danny Murphy was a
Liverpool player until Stevie G emerged to take his place.



Stevie G too good again

Schwarzer denies Liverpool again

While Pepe Reina toches the ball for the first time

Rafa watches AJ sit on Kuyts face

And the celebrations begin

As a life long Liverpool supporter . . . . . What? sorry, didn't you realise that my new found love of Fulham FC has basically begun this season. They will forever be etched in my mind and heart as my second favourite team, consolation prize I know but its the best they can hope for compared to over 20 years of waiting for Monday's paper to deliver me scores 36 hours old (the old media), staying to listen to games on the radio then finally being able to watch games at 2 o'clock on a Sunday morning. I'd put in the hard yards supporting my team. And my main motivation for becoming a season ticket holder was to see Liverpool play. Strangely though, a season watching a side play also builds up quite a bond, so I had strangely mixed feelings watching my sides battle it out. Of course I was sitting in the Fulham home supporters section, so had to hide my Liverpool allegiance, but I was actually happy to cheer and sing in all the right places. Liverpool dominated the game, could have been 4-0 up at half time if not for the goal posts, but the game reached injury time after 90 minutes with the game still locked at 0-0. Then 2nd half sub Yossi Benayoun scored with barely seconds to go and I hide my delight from the crestfallen Fulham fans around me. Most could admit though that they had been beaten by a better team on the day. I was just happy that Liverpool were back on top of the table.

The Good the Bad and the Ugly

Although this is titled The Good the Bad and the Ugly, I'll actually deliver this post out of order.

The Bad

There has been two months worth of games since the Portsmouth win and it has been a mixed set of results. But with 8 games to go Fulham sit 9th on 40pts, a tally that's considered enough to avoid relegation, and are only one point off 7th place and a chance to play in European competition next season. It could've been more, apart from the 'bad', in this case the results that should've gone differently. A 3-0 loss in February to Manchester Utd was to be expected, but two home defeats to struggling Hull and Blackburn left Fulham on 34 pts and supporters wondering if the bubble had burst. The spectre of last seasons relagation battles loomed large. The Hull result was most disappointing as the game was dominated for 70 mins before the Whites fell asleep for the last 20 mins and conceded in the last minute. The 1-0 result meant Fulham's first loss at home since September.

Despite dominating Hull physically,

And outplaying them with superior skill and technique

No way could be found past the keeper

Another midweek game, the 3rd in March as postponed and FA Cup matches saw a plethora of Football at the Cottage, saw a second home defeat, promoting the fear that the wheels had fallen off. Added to this was an annihilation by the team chasing 5 different titles and on a run of 12 victories in a row, Manchester Utd, who destroyed Fulham at 'Craven Fortress' with an emphatic 4-0 victory in the FA cup. Fulham were in this game for all of 20 minutes, but once they conceded they seemed to stop playing.

Match Day and anticipation is high

Celebrity spotting before the game

An early chance for Fulham as a mix up between Vidic and
Van der Sar almost allows AJ to score a sneaky goal

Unfortunately Carlos Tevez is given too much space at the back post

Clint Dempsey still trying hard

Simon Davies corner kick from the Hammersmith End riverside corner

Danny Murphy too strong in midfield

By the time Blackburn beat them 4 days later, Fulham had lost three in a row.

The Good
In between the doom and gloom there were a number of entirely memorable highlights. An FA cup win against Championship side Swansea set up the FA cup quarter final against Manchester Utd. Such was the form at Craven Cottage that supporters briefly dreamed of the chance to go to Wembly for the semi-finals being a possibility.

Footage v Swansea 6th Round of the FA cup

For the FA cup we Swansa we were sitting in the Johnny Haynes Stand

Billy the Badger leads the crowds cheering

Olivier Dacourt, a January signing from Inter Milan

Clint Dempsey gives a masterclass in control

Zamora scores an important equaliser

Solid away draws during February and March, against Wigan and at the Emirates against Arsenal had continued the season on a course of finishing in the top 10. A 2-1 win in late February against last placed West Brom left the side confident, but that was of course dented by the three loss on the trot.

Zamora unleashes and almost kills the goal keeper

Bobby Zamora scores his first league goal since September

Mark Schwarzer saves a chance and gets the thanks of his team mates

The problem after the Blackburn loss was that Fulham had a tough run home with difficult fixtures against top four sides, including a third meeting in a month against high flying Man U. The away form remained dismal, highlighted by the 15 second package of Fulham away goals this season shown on TV before the Bolton game at the Reebok, the princely total of three in the Premier League. This total was doubled though in a 3-1 win away against Bolton, a result that cemented a top ten position and eased concerns before a tough home game against the league leaders.

And then the game that wiped away all disappointments and frustrations this season. Man U had hardly put a foot wrong since the start of the year when they returned to the Premier League with the crown of World's best club side, having won the FIFA club world cup in December. No Premier League side had scored against them since their defeat by Arsenal in late October and they had won 11 league games in a row to turn a 7 pt deficit in the table to a 7 pt lead with a game in hand. Papers declared that they were romping to the title. Then the amazing happened. I'd like to think that the fear of coming to the Cottage scared Man U, who that manager Sir Alex Ferguson was so preoccupied working out how to overcome Fulham that he forgot what he was doing, but this is unlikely. Maybe they were believing the press, but the week before facing Fulham, Man U hosted title pretenders Liverpool. Liverpool had been leading the table until Man Utd's rich vein of form, and the game at Old Trafford was their only chance to stay in the title race. A 4-1 thumping by the mighty Reds renvigorated the title race and bought Man U to Craven Cottage on the back foot, but hungry to bounce back after such a heavy defeat.

Manager Roy Hodgeson puts the side through their
paces in preparation for the Man Utd game

"Listen here Roy, I think I know how we can beat these chaps, tally ho"

So the scene was set for Saturday the 21st of March to be a momentous day. Fulham were written off all week by the pundits who pointed to statistics that showed Man Utd had not lost two games in a row in 143 games, or that Fulham had not beaten them at Craven Cottage in 45 years. The game started similar to the FA cup tie with Fulham holding their own comfortable for almost 20 minutes. Then the pivotal moment that proved a turning point in each team's fortunes in the game. The much maligned Bobby Zamora collected a rebound from a blocked shot that resulted from a Fulham corner. Heading towards the top left corner, Man Utd legend Paul Scholes decided to try a new position and threw his arms up stopping a certain goal. In return he recieved a red card and Fulham were 1-0 up from the resulting Danny Murphy penalty. They then preceded to dominate the first half and should have had a bigger gap at the break.

Danny Murphy accepts the responsibility of taking the penalty

And duly puts Fulham 1-0 up

Zamora showing strength and poise

That boy Clint Dempsey

Berbatov: Out of ze way, old man
Murphy: Who you calling old??

Same old Evra, always cheating

Still 1-0 was pleasing, though it lurked in the minds of all supporters the Manchester are notorious for coming back and gaining late results. Ferguson took off some stars (D Berbatov 25million pounds) and replaced them with other stars (W Rooney 30million pounds, C Tevez 25 million pounds) and started to build momentum that an equaliser seemed inevitable. But Fulhams defence stood tall and strong (A Hughes 1 million pounds, B Hangeland 2.5 million pounds, J Pantsil 3 million pounds, P Konchesky 3.25 million pounds) and repelled wave after wave of attack. The real star was goalkeeper M Schwarzer ( 0 million pound free transfer) whose double save prevented what seemed a definite leveller. When Z Gera ( million pounds) doubled Fulham's lead with an overhead screamer, W Rooney was sent off with a second yellow for unsporting dummy spitting the humiliation was complete. Fulham recorded a famous 2-0 victory and I can say I was there!

Zoltan Gera makes up for an horrendous pass in the FA
cup 2 weeks early by coming on and sealing the league win.

John 'Pants' Pantsil takes his traditional lap of honour

One phrase says so much, read it and weep Rooney

Al Fayed thanks the crowd for their support and
promises us all a free Harrods shopping trip

Smile Giggsy, you were outplayed, that's all!!

The Ugly
Only one choose here, Christiano Ronaldo. Feted as the best player in the world, courted by Real Madrid who were willing to pay a potential world record 75 million for him, holder of the Ballon d'Or and the FIFA World Player Award, he was a complete embarrassment to football. He showed a few tricks but spemt most of the day trying to get players sent off by diving, yelling at the referee and in general behaving badly as his team floundered. Also he is ugly, as highlighted by this recent exchange with Newcastle defender Steven Taylor.

You can see the cheating technique of Ronaldo here, his only
thought is to dive and make it look as bad as possible then proceeds
to argue with the referee who did not fall for his blatant cheating

Yet he has no problem hacking down Danny Murphy in a terrible two-footed tackle