Scotty Parker’s wild weekend

Owner’s Column:

Why Fulham, Portland, Ireland and especially Prost Soccer honor Jimmy Conway (Prost Amerika)

Scott Parker had an emotional 48 hours this past weekend, experiencing some incredible 90 minute highs and a 45 minutes which must have sent him back to the proverbial drawing board.

SIMPLY THE WEST

It all began in West Yorkshire on Friday night.

West Midlands side West Bromwich Albion needed just a draw at lowly Huddersfield in West Yorkshire to end West London side Fulham’s slight mathematical chance of automatic promotion. To everyone’s surprise, and Parker and Brentford FC’s glee (coincidentally also from West London), the Baggies succumbed to a 2-1 loss.

In winning, Huddersfield also confirmed that near (and not very liked) neighbours Leeds United would be promoted, their long waited return to the top tier after a 16 year absence.

[See Also – Bielsa has built something very special at Leeds –]

In doing so, Huddersfield also widened the door for both Brentford and Fulham to gain that second place and automatic promotion.

The door was indeed wide open for Brentford, who now could secure their first ever appearance in the Premier League by winning their last two games. They traveled to Stoke on Saturday lunchtime on the back of eight straight wins.

Surely, they could extend it to nine at Stoke and rub salt in Albion’s wounds, ending Fulham hopes in the process.  Like Albion however, the pressure told. Stoke won 1-0. Though Ethan Pinnock was denied a clear penalty when his shirt was tugged.

But that was only a talking point for the immediate four hours after the game, and the story moved on quickly, firstly to the Hawthorns where relieved could not sum up the reaction at West Brom who were once more in charge of their own destiny.

An Albion win in their last game could now dash the hopes of both their West London challengers. More, of course, on that later.

• Couldn’t do it in a cold night in Stoke – Part 1
• Couldn’t do it in a cold night in Stoke – Part 2

BEES LOSS SETS AN UNLIKELY STAGE

Parker’s attention then headed back down the M1 to SW6 and his own side.

Lurking in fourth place, having almost given up on any hopes of automatic promotion were Fulham FC.

Since the lockdown, they had met both Brentford and West Brom and failed to score a goal against either, never mind win.

It was widely accepted that a play-off place was their just desserts from a season with a likely points total of just above 80 points from 46 games. After all, it has been seven years since a total as low as 83 points secured automatic promotion when Hull City finished second with just 79.

Just before kick off, news of Brentford’s defeat began to permeate the more than socially distanced journalists and stewards inside Craven Cottage, as they waited for the kick off in Fulham’s hitherto processional game against Sheffield Wednesday. League tables were being poured over as the websites updated them.

Fulham, they revealed, were not dead yet, although still had to rely on themselves as well as others. Parker it seemed was not expecting it.

With a play-off place already secured, he had dropped three key players who played so well in the 2-0 win over Cardiff City.

Harrison Reed, Joe Bryan and Bobby Decordova-Reid didn’t start, they were replaced by Neeskens Kebano, Maxime Le Marchand and Stefan Johansen.

From the side who drew 0-0 at West Brom in midweek, he dropped Denis Odoi, Bryan, Reed, Decordova-Reid and Ivan Cavaleiro, Harry Arter and Cyrus Christie being the additional two added.

With sides playing three games a week and a two legged play-off upcoming, this seemed like a good time to rest key players and avoid any injuries that would further expose a relatively thin squad compared to others, especially with the injury to Ivan Cavaleiro sustained at West Brom.

Even then, Johansen had performed well from the bench against Cardiff but Kebano had not scored for 959 days. Suddenly Parker’s trust was placed in men in whom he didn’t normally place it.

The start was ropey and for ten minutes, the guests from South Yorkshire looked a little surprised at how much possession they had, and seemed unprepared to use it to the full.

Then came the first on a day of unexpected moments. Kebano looked like a different player. He twisted, he turned, and he tortured poor Dominc Iorfa and Moses Odubajo who presumably knew their opponent hadn’t scored since 2017.

The DR Congolese international scored one and secured the penalty which brought another through his trickery.

Match Report – Fulham 5 : 3 Sheffield Wednesday

Parker’s weekend had gone from great to fantastic as his side skipped off the field 3-0 up.

Neeskens Kebano was playing like Johann Neeskens and Michael Hector was spraying 40 yard diagonal passes about like Liam Brady in his heyday. Aleksander Mitrovic had scored two without breaking sweat and Fulham’s run of 449 minutes without conceding a goal had extended to 494, with Marek Rodak dangerously close to becoming the first spectator close to beating the lockdown ban.

HO HO HO GREEN GIANTS

It’s hard to do justice to the 45 minutes that followed the interval. Five goals, a penalty, a red card are just numbers. None are as large as the odds you would have received on Fulham coming so close to throwing this win away.

The physical presence of Nuhiu (pictured scoring his penalty) Wickham and Murphy caused Fulham second half problems
Photo: swfc.co.uk

It all started with that grey area somewhere between over confidence and complacency. Garry Monk had replaced his entire forward line at half time and told the replacements, Connor Wickham and Jacob Murphy to create a very high line to stop Fulham playing the ball out from the back with such ease. Throw in the gargantuan Kosovar presence of Atdhe Nuhiu and the area around the Fulham penalty box became the most congested part of the stadium.

More Fulham FC

Nonetheless, Rodak, Tim Ream and Maxime Le Marchand tried to pass the ball out from under the gaze of the three Jolly Green Giants and it resulted in Murphy stealing possession and being clattered by Rodak. When Nuhiu converted the penalty, Fulham’s long spell without conceding a goal was over.

At that point, their confidence drained. It drained way more than was appropriate for a side who had just been pulled back to a comfortable 3-1 lead at home. Yet another script had been torn up.

Four more goals were scored to make it five for the half, and a pleasant eight for the day. Nuhiu won a header way too easily for any Cottagers fan’s comfort, but there was a stroke of luck for Murphy when Harry Arter’s all of nothing interception merely deflected his shot into an unreachable corner.

Kebano’s intelligent free kick under the wall showed that the player has an excellent footballing brain to match his trickery, and Bobby Decordova-Reid’s goal was the pick of the bunch, as it did emanating from another Michael Hector very accurate long pass, which found Mitrovic with his back to goal.

OWLS WELL THAT ENDS WELL

It seems obvious to say that Parker liked the first half more than the second, but given the long unbeaten run of his back five, he was relatively gentle in public about their chaotic second 45 minutes: