FAN ARTICLES

From my seat: Academy League Final

By Paul Marshall :  14/05/2011 :  Comments (6) :

As a London blue and with nothing better to do on a Friday night after work I rocked up to the cottage hoping for more of an entertaining game than the 0-0 that I?d witnessed the senior team mange back in September. Good level of support for the blues, I reckon on par with the Fulham lot and interesting to be all mixed in with the Fulham fans in the Haynes Stand! I was enjoying the obligatory pre match beer and sausage roll in the stand when Bill Kenwright walked past; had a quick word with him and good to see him showing support to the lads!

Never having seen the U18s before I was interested to see how some of the more recognisable names like Garbutt, Bidwell and McAleny performed. The lads lined up 4-3-3, with Forrester leading the line. I must admit most of the first half was quite hard work to watch. Not too many clear-cut chances, with Fulham happy to sit back and let their monster centre backs mop most of our attacks up and then try and counter us on the break. Best player on the park in the first half was our no.8 (from the names on the official website I reckon this was Donegan) who showed some great drive going forward and the ability to skip past a few challenges. Forrester was quite isolated at times as Thomas and McAleny struggled to get the ball in good areas of the pitch. Our no. 6 Barrow had a huge throw on him (ala Delap) and this was used on countless occasions to try and pick out Forrester and look for a knock-down. Although this gave us a few half-chances, I was disappointed the lads used the long throw every time and didn?t mix it up a bit and use a short throw and play to feet!

Second half and we?d moved seats to get out of the way of a post, but unfortunately we moved right in front of some Fulham fans who basically gave a rubbish running commentary of the events unfolding. Anyway, the game progressed in a similar vain, with a few half chances for both sides, but no keeper really having to work that hard. Our defence looked very solid, Dier (the English lad we?ve signed on loan I think from Sporting Lisbon) and Bidwell keeping it steady, and the fullbacks dealing well with a skilful looking Fulham forward line. The right back, Browning was quick and strong, but unfortunately seems to the distribution skills of Hibbo in his early days; let?s hope he gets better with age like our Tony! Bidwell the left back has great left peg on him, put in some good corners.

Anyway, the action finally started with about 15 minutes left! The first incident of real controversy was a mistake across our back four, with the Fulham no. 9 poking the ball past Bidwell through on goal, and with no full-backs to cover, it looked like Bidwell dragged him to the ground, but lucky days the ref waved play on! My first reaction was that he was last man and was a lucky boy to stay on the pitch! This sparked the crowd into life and the blues looked shaken, so much so it only took a few minutes for Fulham to take the lead as a break led to the ball rolling across the box for their no.8 to rifle the ball into the top corner; quality finish.

But the blues reaction was class! Barrow was removed in favour of a Crouchy lookalike Waring; and what an inspired move it was as it gave Forrester (who?d worked his socks off) some more support to pressure the two big Fulham centre backs. We won a free-kick wide right, the keeper didn?t deal with the initial ball, and Thomas was in the right place to shoot low into the empty net! Now we were all over them, Fulham were 2nd to every ball and you knew who the winners were going to be. A great move down the left opened up their defence and a peach of a cross found Waring who nodded a cracker of a header back past the keeper! The lads looked like they enjoyed that celebration, and I enjoyed rubbing it into the Fulham fans sat behind me! To be fair to Fulham, they had a golden chance to equalise in extra time when they carved open our defence, only for one of their subs to blaze over.

Overall, a great performance by the lads, especially the character shown to come back into the game after going down 1-0 with only 15 minutes to go. Hopefully some of them can develop into decent first team players, there?s certainly the potential there. Although the game didn?t spark into life until the second half, I?m glad I went along and saw the lads playing with pride and delivering some silverware this season! And that?s why I love being a blue!

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