OPENING DAY STALEMATE

OPENING DAY STALEMATE

Saturday 13th August 2011 (Premier League)

Fulham 0 Aston Villa 0

Attendance: 25,700

© Stephen Taylor

No goals but plenty of incidents in the Putney Stand. My first experience of Villa fans and they proved to be a bit of a handful, though I think this may have been down to it being the opening day of the season, more than anything else.

Ironically, it was a group of Fulham fans that were the biggest headache, as they had complained about people standing up all around where they were sitting, and expected the stewards to get everyone to sit down. Eventually, I found all seven of them seats in P2, though I later discovered that they had experienced trouble with a Villa fan who was sitting behind them. The only members of the group to thank me, incidentally, were the females.

On a more positive note, I was able to relocate a gentleman with a walking stick to the disabled area, as he was unable to stand up and see the game because everyone around him was doing.

At the end of the game, I had to ask fans to move towards the exits and came across a bunch of Japanese supporters. I overheard one of them talking about Urawa Reds, but bottled out of speaking any Japanese to them, as it might have freaked them out. Thinking back, I really should have said something but next time, I’ll make sure to do so!

The view of the concourse from the top of the Putney Stand

© Stephen Taylor

INTO THE PLAYOFFS

INTO THE PLAYOFFS

Thursday 4th August 2011 (Europa League 3rd Qualifying Round 2nd Leg)

Fulham 2 (Johnson 19, Murphy [pen.] 57) RNK Split 0
Attendance: 17,087

A fairly routine victory for Fulham, meaning that they are now in the Europa League playoffs, where they will meet Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk.

Not much to report except that it appears we have two W77 seats though, of course, one of them is W76. Unfortunately, there are some football supporters who have no sense of logic, so this will have to be fixed as soon as possible.

FULHAM CRUISE PAST CRUSADERS

FULHAM CRUISE PAST CRUSADERS

Thursday 21st July 2011 (Europa League 2nd Qualifying Round 2nd Leg)

Fulham 4 (Johnson 19, Duff 56, Zamora 66, Sidwell 70) Crusaders 0
Attendance: 15,676

After a 3-1 first leg win in Belfast, Fulham comfortably rolled over the Northern Irish part-timers, with an early goal from Johnson and three more in the second half.

In the Putney stand, there wasn’t too much to report, though one guy was very friendly and told me that he’d been following Fulham for more than 50 years. Now retired, he lives in Christchurch, on the south coast, so doesn’t get to many games these days, but he was very knowledgeable about the club, informing me that the Johnny Haynes Stand is the only remaining Archibald Leitch design left in England, though I have since discovered that the other two that are still standing are both in Scotland, at Hearts and Rangers.

In contrast to this gentleman, there were a group of boisterous fans, a bit drunk and waving home-made banners. One of them bore the legend, “1312 Boys” which, I later discovered, is a possible reference to the acronym ACAB, or All Cops Are Bastards. Earlier this year, three Ajax Amsterdam fans were fined £300 each for wearing T-shirts displaying this anti-police message at a game against Ajax Heracles in April 2010. With an ex-Ajax Amsterdam coach in the manager’s seat at Craven Cottage, perhaps they were some of his former club’s notorious “Ultras” that have discredited themselves so often in the past.

FULHAM LEGEND AT CORNBURY

FULHAM LEGEND AT CORNBURY

Saturday 2nd July 2011 (not the date this post was written, but the day when I met John Fraser)

A brief note to add a meeting I had with a Fulham legend at the Cornbury Music Festival, where I was working as a volunteer steward.

On the only night off when I didn;t have to get up early the next morning, I was chatting to a couple from Skipton, who introduced me to their new friend, an ex-footballer who used to play for Fulham. It turned out to be John Fraser, who had played full-back for the Cottagers in the 1975 F.A.Cup Final against West Ham United. We had quite an interesting conversation, not least because he played in the same team as Bobby Moore, a man who he said was a “real gentleman” He was happy to talk about the final, and descibed the “wall of sound’ he experienced as the two teams emerged from the tunnel at quarter to three.

Though Fulham lost 2-0, John was pleased with his performance and forced Patsy Holland to switch wings at half-time. He remembered the manner in which Bobby Moore calmed everyone down with his relaxed mood, having played at the stadium so many times, though I have a feeling that it would turn out to be his final competitive appearance at the place where he’d picked up the World Cup as captain of England nine years earlier.

We parted with John promising to contact me the next time he plans of visiting the Cottage, so we can have a drink together after the game. Hopefully, he’ll remember to do so.

A NEW SEASON BEGINS...IN JUNE!

A NEW SEASON BEGINS...IN JUNE!

Thursday 30th June 2011 (Europa League 1st Qualifying Round 1st Leg)

Fulham 3 (Damien Duff 33, Danny Murphy (pen.) 61, Andy Johnson 70) Nes Soknar Itrottarfelag (NSI) Runavik 0
Attendance: 14,910

Barely four weeks since Fulham walked off the pitch after a 2-2 draw with Arsenal in their last game of the season, the Cottagers were back in competitive action, having qualified for the Europa League by virtue (if that’s the right word) of being the highest placed team in England’s Fair Play League that wasn’t involved in the Champions’ League.

Having got there a little bit early, things were very relaxed, perhaps because it was the first game of the season against an unknown side from some group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean. Yes, the first qualifying round of the Europa League had pitched Fulham against NSI Runavik, currently occupying fourth place in the Faroe Islands’ league.

With advance tickets on sale for as little as £5, I was expecting the crowd to be in five figures, though an hour before kickoff I was beginning to wonder where everybody was. Having been employed in my usual position in the Putney stand, I had a look around the ground to see about 100 people dotted around. However, as 7:30 approached, more people did turn up.

Among the close on 16,000 crowd were about 100 fans of Runavik who, it turns out, had travelled over with the team on their chartered flight. One of them I chatted with after the game was very friendly and even offered me a place to stay if I ever wanted to experience a few days in the Faroes.


Runavik fans who travelled to Craven Cottage from the Faroe Isles

© Stephen Taylor

The crowd was pretty good-natured, though I felt a bit sorry for the lad whose shirt was adorned with the legend “Dempesy”on its back. One man seemed reluctant to leave at the end and it turned out that he hadn’t been to Craven Cottage for 26 years and wanted to savour every moment of his trip.

The game itself was nothing to write home about with, unsurprisingly, a pre-season feel to it though Runavik’s best effort—a shot from 30 yards out by Justinus Hansen—had Mark Schwartzer scrambling a bit after 25 minutes.

Any thoughts the visiting fans had of causing an upset were stifled eight minutes later when Damien Duff fired in the opening goal of the game. Danny Murphy’s penalty just after the hour effectively put things to bed and a third from Andy Johnson 10 minutes later virtually confirmed that it would be Fulham who meet Crusaders in the next round.

EUROPA LEAGUE TEAM LIST 2011/12

EUROPA LEAGUE TEAM LIST 2011/12

EUROPA LEAGUE 2011/12

Seeded Teams                                                             Unseeded Teams

Fulham                                                                         Glentoran (N.I.)
Elfsborg (Sweden)                                                        Milsami Orhei (Moldova)
Tromso (Norway)                                                         Banga Gargzdai (Lithuania)
St. Patrick’s Athletic (Ireland)                                       Daugava Daugavpils (Latvia)
Qarabag (Azerbaijan)                                                  Olimpija Ljubliana (Slovenia)
Jagiellonia Bialystok (Poland)                                      Cliftonville (N.I.)
Rabotnicki (Republic of Macedonia)                            Flamurtari Vlore (Albania)
Aalesund (Norway)                                                      Vllaznia Shkoder (Albania)
Spartak Trnava (Slovakia)                                           Narva Trans (Estonia)
Dinamo Tbilisi (Georgia)                                              AZAL Baku (Azerbaijan)
Honka (Finland)                                                           Irtysh Pavlodar (Kazakhstan)

Varazdin (Croatia)                                                       Shakhter Karagandy (Kazakhstan)

Minsk (Belarus)                                                           Zeta (Montenegro)
Olimpi Rustavi (Georgia)                                             Banants (Armenia)
Rad (Serbia)                                                                Nomme Kalju (Estonia)
Hacken (Sweden)                                                       IBV Vestmannaeyar (Iceland)
Siroki Brijeg (Bosnia & Herzegovenia)                       NSI Runavik (Faroe Islands)
KR Reykjavik (Iceland)                                               Ulisses (Armenia)
The New Saints (Wales)                                             Tre Penne (San Marino)
Renova (Republic of Macedonia)                               Neath (Wales)
Koper (Slovenia)                                                        Kaerjeng 97 (Luxembourg)
Buducnost Podgorica (Montenegro)                          Lusitanos (Andorra)
Birkirkara (Malta)                                                       UE Santa Coloma (Andorra)
Paks (Hungary)                                                          IF Fuglafjorour (Faroe Islands)

Ferencvaros (Hungary)                                              Fola Esch (Luxembourg)

WOMEN'S EURO FINAL

WOMEN'S EURO FINAL

Thursday 26th May 2011 (Women's Champions' League Final)

Olympique Lyonnais 2 (Wendie Renard 27, Lara Dickenmann 85) Potsdam 0

Attendance: 14,303

I didn’t work at this game, as I’d bought a ticket a couple of months before. It was interesting to attend as a supporter though, as it gave me an insight into how it feels to be a customer.

As I arrived at half-time after several pre-match beers with David Hickey, I only saw the second half. It wasn’t a bad game and the second goal was quite a powerful strike.

I left with a positive image of women’s football, though I’m not sure if I’ll be rushing off to any domestic league games in the near future.