Fulham will scarcely be welcome visitors to any Championship ground this season.
Before Wednesday evening’s match, Blackburn had a decent goal difference – but Tony Mowbray’s team seemed unprepared for the onslaught.
In the sixth minute, a Rovers loose ball led to DeCordova-Reid teasing his way past Joe Rothwell to provide Neeskens Kebano with a well-deserved goal. Less than a quarter of an hour later, slack marking allowed Mitro to head home from Jean-Michael Seri’s corner. Finally, Jan Paul van Hecke let his team down with a crazy assault on Harry Wilson. The Welshman does draw fouls, but this was a Kung Fu effort! Or was van Hecke doing an Eric Cantona impersonation? His red card meant that the game was over with an hour still to play.
Although Mitrovic did not add to his own total he made two second-half goals in four minutes for Wilson. Kebano, who deserves a bit of luck after so many near misses, was helped by Tayo Edun’s deflection to make it 5-0, then Rodrigo Muniz, replacing Mitrovic, put two more past the overworked Blackburn keeper Thomas Kaminski. His second, a powerful header from Antonee Robinson’s centre, looked most impressive.
Tributes to Bill Muddyman
Halftime at Fulham’s home matches often includes an interview on the pitch with a figure from the club’s past and the presentation of a memento.
Last Saturday, was slightly different in that the honour was paid to Bill Muddyman, the former vice-chairman, who passed away on the 7 May 2020.
Bill was the power behind Jimmy Hill in the campaign to save the club from extinction in the 1980s and 1990s.
My picture shows him telling supporters about the Board’s abrupt change of policy. This disheartened some of us at the time, but we could hardly complain about the end result. Would the club have survived without Hill and the Muddyman family? That is far from certain despite the prodigious efforts of dedicated supporters to which Andy Muddyman referred when he accepted the award on his father’s behalf.
After Mohammed Al Fayed bought Fulham FC, Bill stayed on the Board for a time and was instrumental in securing Jean Tigana as club manager.
Were you lucky enough to witness the 2000-2001 season when Tigana swept the club to Premier status with 101 points and 90 goals from 46 matches? Our top scorer was Louis Saha (27), followed by Barry Hayles and Luis Boa Morte (18 each). Those tallies, glorious at the time, are already overshadowed by Aleksandar Mitrovic, who went into Saturday’s match with 15 from just 14 fixtures.
West Bromwich Albion, one point behind in the table, offered strong opposition but the home side brimmed with confidence. In the 20th minute, Denis Odoi took possession, feeding the ball to Bobby DeCordova-Reid. Mitrovic ran on to his pass only to be sent sprawling by Kyle Bartley. Referee Michael Salisbury awarded a soft penalty, which Mitro calmly swept past Sam Johnstone.
Albion responded fiercely but wasted their chances – and also found Marek Rodak in top form. Five minutes before halftime, some tip-tapping by the Albion defence led to Robert Snodgrass inadvertently setting the Serb striker up for his second goal.
The visitors continued to press after the interval with Conor Townsend creating opportunities that his opponent Mitrovic in his present form would have gobbled up. The game was settled in the 70th minute when Harry Wilson was brought down by Darnell Furlong. Mr Salisbury deemed it a scoring opportunity and issued a red card. The free-kick produced nothing but twelve minutes later Wilson enabled his team-mate to complete the hat-trick.
The only misstep was the dismissal of Tosin for a clumsy, late tackle on Grady Diangana. Like the referee’s two other key decisions this looked harsh, but it may have taught the defender a worthwhile lesson.
We have learned not to be too optimistic. But these two wonderful victories, the product of a well organised and committed team, appear to indicate a more hopeful future than the seesaw antics of recent years.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
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