When Dennis Turner, the club’s official historian, published Fulham’s Promotion Seasons in 2012 he had chosen a manageable project.
In more than a century’s membership of the Football League, the Whites had been promoted to the top flight on just eight occasions. All but two (1948-49 and 2000-01) involved regaining status after relegation.
Dennis saw his book as ‘a timely reminder to many supporters who now take Premier League for granted’. Sadly, he passed away not long after publication and just as the yo-yo years were beginning.
The miserable 2013-14 season saw the club relegated. Promotion followed in 2018, relegation 2019, promotion 2020 and relegation 2021. Barring any disasters, we will return to the Premier League this August.
Rovers return
Back in November, Blackburn Rovers were beaten 7-0 on their own ground, a humiliation that galvanised them into making their own bid for promotion.
They arrived at the Cottage on Saturday determined to turn the tables. But the match followed the pattern of most of the other matches from visiting teams, defending in depth in the hope of a profitable breakaway. Generally, this does not provide great entertainment though resident commentators Jim and Jamie also attributed the lack of atmosphere to the early (12.30pm) kick-off.
Naturally, it did not take long for Aleksandar Mitrovic to hit the deck and demand a penalty. Referee David Webb was prepared for this and for the accompanying histrionics of Harry Wilson and others. Nor could the fourth official have been surprised by Marco Silva’s outburst. It was so unnecessary. Mitro had two decent chances to score, both of which he wasted.
The breakthrough came in the 25th minute. Neco Williams’s long-range drive should have been simple for Thomas Kaminski to gather, but the keeper failed to control the ball, allowing Neeskens Kebano to poach a goal. Shortly afterwards, Williams surged into the area only to be nudged in the back by Harry Pickering. The Welshman appealed but got no more sympathy than his teammates.
Rovers’ Tyrhys Dolan was the next to try for a penalty after a promising run. He received a yellow card from Mr Webb, who perhaps should have used this sanction earlier in the game to reduce the play acting.
Lead doubled
Ten minutes after Kebano’s opportunism, Fulham doubled their lead. Tosin spotted an opening in the defence and put Harry Wilson through for a beautifully executed goal. Cheekily the crowd chanted ‘We want seven’. That was improbable but the match was effectively won.
The visitors put up a fight in the second half, but found Marek Rodak equal to their efforts. The most exciting action came when Neco Williams gathered the ball on the edge of his own penalty area and took it upfield, letting fly from the halfway line. Kaminski, left stranded, was relieved to see the crossbar shuddering from the impact. George Cohen once did something similar. He did not score, either.
Three well-earned points brought promotion closer. Harry Wilson was deemed Man of the Match by Sky Sports, a choice endorsed by the Fulham supporters, who also commended Harrison Reed and Neco Williams. Few would argue with those judgments, but Marco Silva was right to be proud of all his players.
High scoring days
If you look on the club’s website for the extended highlights of Tuesday evening’s game at Swansea, you will click onto a still of Mitrovic sitting on the turf with arms aloft in supplication for a penalty.
His contribution was much more positive than that, which was just as well since City dominated the first half. Five minutes before the interval Ryan Manning ruined his team’s hopes of victory with a late and dangerous lunge at Harry Wilson, which caused the referee to issue a red card. No play-acting was involved; Harry was lucky to escape serious harm.
No sooner had the home side regrouped after the interval than Mitro put Fulham ahead.
Playing from the back the goalkeeper Andy Fisher made a poor clearance. The ball was seized on by Harrison Reed and Harry Wilson and sidefooted into the net by our top scorer. Reed and Wilson had a similar involvement in the second goal, which was accidentally diverted by Swansea’s Ben Cabango. Harry then enabled substitute Bobby DeCordova-Reid to head the third.
Even with their three-goal lead, Fulham should have closed down Joel Piroe before his elegant header revived Swansea’s spirits. Neco Williams responded with two exciting goals of his own – a just compensation for his unlucky near miss on Saturday.
Just when it seemed that Fulham’s high-scoring days were over...
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
Want to read more news stories like this? Subscribe to our weekly e-news bulletin.
