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

[martyn ellis]

Thanks for the comments Tony Erdington. Got a few things off my chest. Very therapeutic this forum.

[Clampy]

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.

I'd normally agree but in a game like that and being 1-0 down, I understood it.

[BoVillan esq]

Sickening awful feeling this morning, how can you set a team up to play like that, first half, then, as if by magic, resolve the issue to play the way we did in the 2nd half, what could Bruce have said to the players at half time, to change things so much, had we have played that way for the whole 90 we would have slaughtered Fulham, feel so sorry for Jack Grealish, head and shoulders above everybody else on the park, totally brutalized, completely unprotected by the referee, clearly Fulham set out to do a job on him and they did, no way should Fredericks have been allowed to stay on after the stamping incident. Not sure if Southgate can make late inclusions into the England squad but there is no question Grealish should be on the plane going to Russia. 

[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.

I'd normally agree but in a game like that and being 1-0 down, I understood it.

It worked brilliantly.

[in exile]

It has genuinely left me feeling numb and pretty much lost for words

[Clampy]

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.

I'd normally agree but in a game like that and being 1-0 down, I understood it.

It worked brilliantly.

No it didn't and it hardly ever does but in a game as big as that where we needed a goal, I can see why he did it. Thanks for the unsurprising sarcasm though.

[Tugby Villain]

Fuck off villa

[VinnieChase84]

The game summed up Steve Bruce to a T. We all know we HAVE to score the first goal or we are done for. Sets us up too negatively then it’s a mountain to climb. Too cautious and ultimately not good enough despite second half effort.
A terrible start to the season, the December form then the QPR/Bolton/Norwich debacles have cost us. Too inconsistent and we don’t deserve to go up.

Huge summer of change ahead. Hopefully a more dynamic, pace led, energetic approach with a forward thinking set up base around youth is to come

[brian green]

That's the spirit.

Well posted Martin,  especially about Bjarnasson.  When the heat of the day and the legendary strength sapping of the Wembley pitch started to take its toll on both sides Birkir would have given us a lift because he is very fit and has a great engine.

[saunders_heroes]

Well this feels even worse than relegation.

[eamonn]

Not seen it mentioned but we didn't even take advantage of a marginal gain like the sun being in their keeper's eyes for the whole of the first half but moving from that same goal during half time across to the stands meaning Johnstone didn't have to deal with it in the second half. We couldn't play through Fulham in the first half so it was crying out for a few cracks at goal from distance to give their keeper something to deal with.

I also don't know how injury time wasn't at least close to double the allotted five minutes at the end. There were six subs, a Fulham keeper taking his time over every goalkick, one of their strikers who was subbed-off booked for taking his time to leave the field, every restart from Fulham taking ages and two or three of their players going down injured. Not to mention the guts of five minutes between their player being sent off and the game resuming with all the drinks being handed around. The ball must have spent less than five minutes in play for the last quarter of the game. I know we would have done the same in Fulham's position to disrupt any momentum but given their refreshing approach to playing the game generally, it made feel more begrudging of their superiority.
In a way the worse thing to happen was the sending off as all our impetus disappeared due to the stoppages and Fulham's gamesmanship.

[sirlordbaltimore]

Unlike some, i'd got over it by about 9pm when we got back to Birmingham in all honesty.

I've said all along that i don't miss the premier league and i don't. The only benefit i could see from promotion is to the clubs financial state, but ignoring that and looking at it purely from my own selfish viewpoint, in terms of just enjoying going to the match it wouldn't have improved anything for me personally.

My, nephew who's just turned 16 was and probably is still absolutely gutted mind. Maybe it's an age thing, but as much as i love the club i just can't get THAT bothered by anything football related these days. I haven't watched more than five PL matches in total since we got relegated so i genuinely have no idea what we're missing either. All i want in my life from football these days is to enjoy going to the match and to feel like the team are trying, and they have been all season. Sadly for us there were three better teams and that's life.

But back to yesterday, the first half performance was unforgivable. I see Bruce is getting the usual pelters from the usual people but there's no way he sent that lot out to play that badly. Not one player came out of that first half with any credit to me. To a man they were all sub par.

Second half they clearly did follow Bruce's half time instruction and at least showed some urgency and fight, but you can't only do that for 45 minutes against a very good Fulham side and expect to win. So at the end i had no complaints about the result.

Looking forwards, we can go one of two ways as i see it.

We can try and do this quick fix patch up job once again, and bring in another set of experienced pros or we can take a few steps back and take a broader view of the state of the side and implement a new longer term strategy which involves a more youthful set up and a lot more patience.

Of the current squad, i would have the following clear out assuming we can find buyers for the ones not on loan or out of contract of course

Bunn - Bye, surely out of contract anyway ?
Gollini - Bye
Hutton - Bye
Samba - Bye
Terry - Bye
De Laet - Bye
Richards - Fuck off and goodbye
Elphick - Bye

Jedinak - Bye, no other reason than he's only going to get slower and worse and the thought of him being used as a centre back scares the shit out of me
Whelan - Bye, as above really. Only going to get slower
Snoddy - Bye, unless we can get him for a really cheap fee and on low wages
Onomah - As above
Gardner - Bye
Gil - Bye
Lansbury - Still have completely no idea if he can be of use due to his lack of playing time

Gabby - See Richards above
Ross - See Gabby above
Grabban - Unless the fee was cheap then bye. I'm not convinced by him truth be told despite his fairly impressive goal scoring record this season


Could be a busy summer. But i can't wait for August to come around and have another crack at it.

[sirlordbaltimore]

I also don't know how injury time wasn't at least close to double the allotted five minutes at the end. There were six subs, a Fulham keeper taking his time over every goalkick, one of their strikers who was subbed-off booked for taking his time to leave the field, every restart from Fulham taking ages and two or three of their players going down injured. Not to mention the guts of five minutes between their player being sent off and the game resuming with all the drinks being handed around. The ball must have spent less than five minutes in play for the last quarter of the game. I know we would have done the same in Fulham's position to disrupt any momentum but given their refreshing approach to playing the game generally, it made feel more begrudging of their superiority.
In a way the worse thing to happen was the sending off as all our impetus disappeared due to the stoppages and Fulham's gamesmanship.

We hardly helped by taking ages over throw ins, where a player right next to the ball that had gone out waited for Hutton to trot along at donkey's pace to take a throw 5 yards that he could've taken himself on numerous occassions

[KRS]

A realistic list of 18 but only 7 of which have much game time this season. Speaks volumes when you see it in black and white.

[andyh]

Unlike some, i'd got over it by about 9pm when we got back to Birmingham in all honesty.

I've said all along that i don't miss the premier league and i don't. The only benefit i could see from promotion is to the clubs financial state, but ignoring that and looking at it purely from my own selfish viewpoint, in terms of just enjoying going to the match it wouldn't have improved anything for me personally.

My, nephew who's just turned 16 was and probably is still absolutely gutted mind. Maybe it's an age thing, but as much as i love the club i just can't get THAT bothered by anything football related these days. I haven't watched more than five PL matches in total since we got relegated so i genuinely have no idea what we're missing either. All i want in my life from football these days is to enjoy going to the match and to feel like the team are trying, and they have been all season. Sadly for us there were three better teams and that's life.

But back to yesterday, the first half performance was unforgivable. I see Bruce is getting the usual pelters from the usual people but there's no way he sent that lot out to play that badly. Not one player came out of that first half with any credit to me. To a man they were all sub par.

Second half they clearly did follow Bruce's half time instruction and at least showed some urgency and fight, but you can't only do that for 45 minutes against a very good Fulham side and expect to win. So at the end i had no complaints about the result.

Looking forwards, we can go one of two ways as i see it.

We can try and do this quick fix patch up job once again, and bring in another set of experienced pros or we can take a few steps back and take a broader view of the state of the side and implement a new longer term strategy which involves a more youthful set up and a lot more patience.

Of the current squad, i would have the following clear out assuming we can find buyers for the ones not on loan or out of contract of course

Bunn - Bye, surely out of contract anyway ?
Gollini - Bye
Hutton - Bye
Samba - Bye
Terry - Bye
De Laet - Bye
Richards - Fuck off and goodbye
Elphick - Bye

Jedinak - Bye, no other reason than he's only going to get slower and worse and the thought of him being used as a centre back scares the shit out of me
Whelan - Bye, as above really. Only going to get slower
Snoddy - Bye, unless we can get him for a really cheap fee and on low wages
Onomah - As above
Gardner - Bye
Gil - Bye
Lansbury - Still have completely no idea if he can be of use due to his lack of playing time

Gabby - See Richards above
Ross - See Gabby above
Grabban - Unless the fee was cheap then bye. I'm not convinced by him truth be told despite his fairly impressive goal scoring record this season


Could be a busy summer. But i can't wait for August to come around and have another crack at it.

Great post.

Other than ‘can’t wait till August’ I could have written that post, word for word.
I also was ok by the time I got home and thinking quite positively.

Yes the PL is where we need to be, but I honestly don’t miss it either.