Fulham 1-0 Aston Villa Play Off Final Post Match Thread

[itbrvilla]

Like many on here, feel more despondent this morning than I did last night.

My only hope is that a fundamental rebuild was needed whether we secured promotion or not, but hopefully it is now a more pressing inevitability facing yet another season in the 2nd Division.  Dr X has to realise that Bruce has failed at the job he was brought in to do, and has been given enough time.  We showed little yesterday to suggest a light touch would suffice.  Root and branch is needed.

I thought root and branch was what they planned to do when they bought the club. We've done what Lerner did which show we never fucking learn.

[David_Nab]

Highlights clip?

Could not stomach to watch the whole game I recorded.

As for the game. Soon as we saw the line up I think we knew. Too many of our better players just did not turn up

Adomah
Snodgrass
Hutton
Hourihanne
Grabban

Without them firing we were doomed

Thought Adamoah and Hourihane were decent in the second half, both were hardly in it first half. Agreed on the other three.

Grabban doesn't seem interested playing up front by himself, woeful last three games. Nothing Snodgrass did came off yesterday, three times in the first half he had chances to slip Adamoah in behind the full back. Hutton had a shocker for the entire game and cost us the goal.

Looking back, Johanson should have finished it for Fulham during our good spell after another bad error from Chester. Mitrovic bullied Chester yesterday. I will give our lads credit for the 20-25 mins after half time, gave it everything but Fulham were far superior all over the pitch. They will do well next season as will Wolves.

Grabben has been poor I agree but he is just not that good at holding the ball up , Hogan was the same.Kodjia is the only striker we have you can do that but even then his link up play is limited ..however look at the players positions Grabben was miles away from anyone else at times and our FH tactic was lumping it to Snodgrass to head on !! Pathetic meanwhile they passed it around us like they were Real Madrid

[Zouch Villa]

Yes, whilst Grabban was ineffective yesterday that was largely due to the tactics. We just don’t play to our strengths under Bruce, who thinks he has the tactical nouse to negate the opposition.  Our best performances have been when we’ve just gone out and played our game.

[Tony Erdington]

Odd isn't it. When that goal went in you just knew that's how it would finish. Plan A out the window; now what about Plan B - oh, do we have a Plan B?
A few observations:
1. I dread to think what our season would have been like next year if we'd scraped through. We may have just avoided a 9-month nightmare. Unfortunately, we may be just about to endure another one in the Championship.
2. SB - love the man; loathe his 'tactics'. Safety first, keep it tight. Noses in front, defend. To an extent he's 'turned the club around' as we keep being told. But it's a bit like turning an enormous oil tanker around - there's no flair.
3. It's alright going on about Fulham being cute and targetting JG, but my god some of the tackles were criminal and Jack got very little protection.
4. Interesting to note that in the Sky interview with that lowlife Fredericks (yes that's what he is as it was a cowardly challenge) there was no mention of his stamp (a la 'were you a bit lucky to be on the pitch after that tackle?'). Likewise in the Guardian report this morning, lots of praise: Quote: 'Ryan Fredericks was again mightily impressive' with not a mention of his darker arts. OK, Fulham are the darlings of the 'proper football' brigade, but a red at that stage for one of their lynchpins WOULD have changed the game. What's worse, it happened right under the nose of the 4th official who ignored it like a passerby conveniently 'not seeing' an assault in the street because he doesn't want to get involved.
4. This thread is full of comments about the dangers of setting up as we did against Boro. I'd like to know what Bjarnasson has done to upset the manager. For a few games in mid-season he was a revelation sitting just in front of the back four; he also scored a couple of lovely goals. Yesterday, just when we needed that creative spark he was nowhere to be seen. Bunging on Onomah, Hogan and Kodjia alongside a tiring Grabban was never going to work.
5. Good luck Fulham.

This post believe it or not, has cheered me up, I'm still depressed but thank you great post.

[Behind Bluenose Lines]

Mike Parry slagging us fans off on Talksport...

[purpletrousers]

Odd isn't it. When that goal went in you just knew that's how it would finish. Plan A out the window; now what about Plan B - oh, do we have a Plan B?
A few observations:
1. I dread to think what our season would have been like next year if we'd scraped through. We may have just avoided a 9-month nightmare. Unfortunately, we may be just about to endure another one in the Championship.
2. SB - love the man; loathe his 'tactics'. Safety first, keep it tight. Noses in front, defend. To an extent he's 'turned the club around' as we keep being told. But it's a bit like turning an enormous oil tanker around - there's no flair.
3. It's alright going on about Fulham being cute and targetting JG, but my god some of the tackles were criminal and Jack got very little protection.
4. Interesting to note that in the Sky interview with that lowlife Fredericks (yes that's what he is as it was a cowardly challenge) there was no mention of his stamp (a la 'were you a bit lucky to be on the pitch after that tackle?'). Likewise in the Guardian report this morning, lots of praise: Quote: 'Ryan Fredericks was again mightily impressive' with not a mention of his darker arts. OK, Fulham are the darlings of the 'proper football' brigade, but a red at that stage for one of their lynchpins WOULD have changed the game. What's worse, it happened right under the nose of the 4th official who ignored it like a passerby conveniently 'not seeing' an assault in the street because he doesn't want to get involved.
4. This thread is full of comments about the dangers of setting up as we did against Boro. I'd like to know what Bjarnasson has done to upset the manager. For a few games in mid-season he was a revelation sitting just in front of the back four; he also scored a couple of lovely goals. Yesterday, just when we needed that creative spark he was nowhere to be seen. Bunging on Onomah, Hogan and Kodjia alongside a tiring Grabban was never going to work.
5. Good luck Fulham.

This post believe it or not, has cheered me up, I'm still depressed but thank you great post.

Yes well said Martyn, sorry we didn't get to meet up yesterday. Still too gutted to say anything much, need time to focus on other stuff. The what could have been, tactics and fairer refereeing decisions, it's just painful to think about it.

[rob_bridge]

Mike Parry slagging us fans off on Talksport...

He is the fake scouse accent bloke who grew up in Chester

[Clampy]

Mike Parry slagging us fans off on Talksport...

He is the fake scouse accent bloke who grew up in Chester

The same man who also had a pop at a fellow journalists alcohol problems a while back. He's a massive twat.

[Marlon From Bearwood]

Isn’t Fredericks also the one who got Kodjia sent off at their place last season? Horrible little shit.

[brontebilly]

Highlights clip?

Could not stomach to watch the whole game I recorded.

As for the game. Soon as we saw the line up I think we knew. Too many of our better players just did not turn up

Adomah
Snodgrass
Hutton
Hourihanne
Grabban

Without them firing we were doomed

Thought Adamoah and Hourihane were decent in the second half, both were hardly in it first half. Agreed on the other three.

Grabban doesn't seem interested playing up front by himself, woeful last three games. Nothing Snodgrass did came off yesterday, three times in the first half he had chances to slip Adamoah in behind the full back. Hutton had a shocker for the entire game and cost us the goal.

Looking back, Johanson should have finished it for Fulham during our good spell after another bad error from Chester. Mitrovic bullied Chester yesterday. I will give our lads credit for the 20-25 mins after half time, gave it everything but Fulham were far superior all over the pitch. They will do well next season as will Wolves.

Grabben has been poor I agree but he is just not that good at holding the ball up , Hogan was the same.Kodjia is the only striker we have you can do that but even then his link up play is limited ..however look at the players positions Grabben was miles away from anyone else at times and our FH tactic was lumping it to Snodgrass to head on !! Pathetic meanwhile they passed it around us like they were Real Madrid

True our football in first 30 mins or so yesterday was awful, like our first half v Boro at Villa Park let's be honest. Our midfield two are so technically limited all it took was a simple press from Fulham for us to revert back to Johnstone to hoof towards Snodgrass and give Fulham the ball back.

Wouldnt fault Grabban too much in the first half but in the second when we had the ball he was anonymous. Another one that let the game pass him by. Kodjia at least gave us a presence when he came on.

[Marlon From Bearwood]

I can only speak from experience and whilst we obviously have a few dickheads, my experience of our fans was very positive yesterday. I took my 9 year old lad travelling by train and despite it being a boozy atmosphere at times people gave up their seat for him and made sure he got to the front of the toilet queue, all totally unprompted.

At the final whistle he was inconsolable, crying his eyes out and loads of fans came up to give him a hug and cheer him up. The people around us in the stadium were fantastic too. And a few different Fulham fans offered some very nice words after which I didn’t really want to hear, but their intentions were good.

Shame about the result. We go again.

[andyh]

When has throwing all the forwards on for the last 10 minutes when chasing the game EVER worked for us?
Why would anyone keep doing it?

[KRS]

Mike Parry slagging us fans off on Talksport...

Why? What did the fans do to deserve a public slagging?

[ChicagoLion]

When has throwing all the forwards on for the last 10 minutes when chasing the game EVER worked for us?
Why would anyone keep doing it?

It was nonsense.

[Axl Rose]

Isn’t Fredericks also the one who got Kodjia sent off at their place last season? Horrible little shit.

That's him, mate. What goes around, comes around with people like him, though.

Sorry we couldn't win for your lad. I'm sure he'll have something to cheer in the not too distant future. I remember being a kid and being mortified whenever we lost.

Up the Villa.