After 44 years, Fulham retain charm, hospitality and have added a great team

by Steve Clare

in 1974, a wide-eyed nine year old kid went to his first football game, taken by a Glaswegian cousin who was a stranger to London. Not knowing the layout of the stadium, the pair ended up in the Putney End, the one closest to Putney Bridge Station, itself the geographically closest.

“You’re supporting Sunderland,” the cousin cheekily informed the kid, who as you may have guessed by now was me.

The home side was Fulham and we were standing at the Putney End of the stadium, reserved then, as it is now, for visiting fans at their unique Craven Cottage stadium. That game was in the old Second Division and Sunderland won 3-1. They were 3-0 inside the first twelve minutes due to an own goal by World Cup winning captain Bobby Moore and two from Bryan ‘Pop’ Robson. I may be the only Scotsman alive whose first ever live goal was an own goal by England’s World Cup wining captain Bobby Moore.

Alan Mullery pulled one back in the 85th minute but by then we had left to beat the traffic from the 14,193 crowd. To continue the World Cup connection, Jack Taylor who had refereed the 1974 World Cup final months before was the referee that day.

In 1974 Sunderland missed out on promotion by two points that year and Fulham finished ninth. It would be an understatement to say English and world football has changed a great deal since that day, as has my relationship with it.

In the intervening 44 years, my football journey has taken me to some of the world’s greatest venues including the Maracana, Wembley, Westfalenstadion, Hampden Park, Parc des Princes and Old Trafford to name a few I’ve been privileged enough to enter.

My connection with the World Cup final started by Bobby Moore and Jack Taylor, men who were giants on the day to one little boy, continued through to 2014 when I was lucky enough to be an accredited journalist at the World Cup Final in Rio de Janeiro.

Yesterday I returned however to Craven Cottage for the first time as a journalist.

Whereas the changes at some of my other childhood haunts such as Stamford Bridge, Wembley, Highbury and Hampden are gargantuan, I was pleasantly surprised how little at Fulham has changed.

Fulham are known in London as a friendly club. This is often in stunning contrast to their near neighbours at the other end of the Fulham Road, who suffered at the hands of hooligans in the 1970s and 80s and suffered terrible publicity from belligerent owners until the venerated Matthew Harding set the club on its present much more successful and praiseworthy path.

On the day, there were engineering works on the District Line which deprived me the opportunity to go on one of the loveliest walks to a football ground London has to offer, that walk from Putney Bridge Station to the stadium through Bishops Park and along the banks of the River Thames.

Not wanting to be deprived of my little bit of cultural tourism, I took the 74 bus directly to Putney from Baker Street  – and what a route it is.

Baker Street itself is the location of the Sherlock Holmes Museum and Madame Tussauds. The bus route passed Marble Arch, Selfridges, the Hilton, Hyde Park Corner, Buckingham Palace, the Mall, Harrods, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Earls Court and High Street Kensington, almost everything a tourist would want to see in West Central London.

Eventually, the bus drew up to Lambrook Terrace. There is no sight of a Premier League stadium and the stop is curiously not named after the nearby team but the otherwise anonymous terrace. But just a short five minute walk up one of the residential side streets. Along Ellerby Street, Finlay Street or Greswell Street lies Craven Cottage.

My first view of the stadium surprised me.

It is rare in England to capture any view of a stadium that can truly say it is unchanged in half a decade. Not so at Craven Cottage, where the cottage itself is a listed building and has protected architectural status.

As I approached the ground, the sign on the cottage wall was my first view; almost certainly as it would have been in 1974. Bizarrely, the reaction was not dissimilar to the deep intake of breath when I first saw the magnificence of the new Wembley and the modernity of the new Stamford Bridge – a sharp intake of breath.

However, the best part of Fulham lay inside.

Protocol prevents me naming names, but the welcome from the Fulham Media Relations Officer was warm. EPL clubs can be a little impersonal, often by necessity, due to the large number of foreign journalists who make occasional visits. Not Fulham. The welcome was just as warm for the visiting dignitaries from Burnley FC.

From thereon in, there were friendly conversations to be had with those serving the food, stewards, and the doormen, all of whom were happy to share their experience of club history, and listen to mine. If there is a warmer and friendlier welcome at an EPL club, I’d sincerely like to experience it.

In the press row itself, there were fans right behind us.

An amicable conversation soon ensued with the fans around us showing both a warmth and friendliness which were a credit to the club, and a genuine understanding of the work we do. To be able to say, ‘yes Mitrovic was offside’ and not be called a snowflake or a purveyor of fake news is a luxury increasingly less available to journalists around the world.

With all due respect to John Cutbush and Ernie Howe, the team is a very different and improved animal. In 1974, nine Englishmen were in the Fulham starting XI. Only Maltese born John Cutbush and Irishman Jimmy Conway who went on to legendary status at the Portland Timbers, bucked the trend.

On Sunday, the numbers were reversed and goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli and Joe Bryan were the only home born players in white as the game kicked off.

Report: Vivacious Fulham beat Burnley 4-2 at Craven Cottage

Neither had a bad game but the outstanding performers in Fulham’s 4-2 win came from a variety of countries.

Some televised pundits gave striker Aleksandar Mitrovic the man of the match award for his two headed goals. I am less sure that the numbers alone justify that. Three other players caught my eye.

Until he left the field after an injury, Fulham captain Tom Cairney stroked the ball around like a maestro. Not only was his distribution top quality, he was on hand to receive the ball from his back four as they endeavoured to move the ball forward from Bettinelli with style and accuracy.

As the game progressed, Germany’s Andreas Schurrle began to have more and more influence, and thoroughly deserved his late goal having caused a variety of problems for the Burnley back four. Jean Michael Seri scored the best goal of the match within 200 seconds and though he never quite recaptured that moment, he looked as if he may grow into a very effective option for the Cottagers.

More excitingly for Fulham fans, they played all but the final few minutes without Ryan Sessegnon who was relegated to the bench. New signing Alfie Mawson is yet to start at centre back and US international Tim Ream is one game short of his comeback from injury. This will give manager Slavisa Jokanovic ideal replacements for the accident prone and nervy Maxime Le Marchand and Kevin McDonald who, to be fair looked serviceable in the role. Togo international winger Floyd Ayité is also poised to leap from the treatment room.

New signing from Marseille André-Frank Zambo Anguissa also began the game on the bench. There’s some decent depth here and this may be a team who survive the latter half of the season better than others with perhaps a showier starting XI but less options.

They have Exeter in the Caribou Cup before one of their most intriguing fixtures of the season, a trip to Brighton. So far, the club has not left London.

There are, this year, a good number of clubs in the top tier, that are not traditionally among the English game’s behemoths. Fulham are joined by Burnley, Huddersfield, Crystal Palace, Bournemouth, Watford, Brighton and few others. All of those sides will be eyeing matches between them as a source of potential points. Brighton, having already beaten Manchester United at the venue, will present a solid test for Fulham.

If they continue from Sunday’s form and have the kind of dream season Burnley had last year, we might find that this time next year, it is Fulham who are trying to balance the Europa Cup with the early days of a league campaign.

One thing is for sure. The success won’t go to their heads and the club will not sacrifice its charm for the glory.