Jack and Loz Away from the Cottage - Blog 203

Date: 11th December 2021

Opposition: Luton Town

Venue: Kenilworth Road

Score: 1-1

Fulham goal scorer: 🔥

Weather: almost sleeting

Atmosphere: good but disappointed

MOTM: it’s never a good sign when we have to award this by a process of elimination. However, on the way back to the station in the cold rain we decided it’s Seri on the bases that a. He was less bad than everyone else, and b. We like his new hair. Shout out to Kenny Tete for some moments of good defending under pressure

Pub: there weren’t any

Fulham are top of the league. But we don’t look it. We have the best squad in the league, but on Saturday they didn’t play like it. We have the best striker in the league but his fire is flickering. We probably have the best manager in the league, but he’s started moaning about the officials a lot.

No one says it’s a pleasure to go to Luton. Unless you’re going to a football match. The town is bleak, run-down and soulless, but Kenilworth Road is a quirky gem of a ground - old fashioned, tiny and tightly packed with fans. You literally enter through someone’s house. You literally can’t sit down even if you want to because the owners just plonked some seats on the terraces where they don’t actually fit. We think that at Craven Cottage fans are close to the pitch, but at Luton you’re almost in the goal and the far end is easily visible even to those of us who have gone to Specsavers.

Our last visit to Luton was during the advent of the Triangle of Doom - Fulham drew 3-3 in a match which began with incompetence and ended in chaos. It’s a hard place to visit, and so it proved again. The Luton team are tall, strong, large, physical, athletic, fast, powerful and did we mention tall? They were well prepared and feisty and they raised their game to meet the league leaders head-on. They were first to nearly every ball, they forced mistakes and flung everything they could at the goal.

Fulham, meanwhile, still looked under the weather one way or another. At times we were slow, indecisive and tentative. Often we were careless, erratic and panicky. For a team whose main fault is giving the ball away too much we reached record breaking levels of generosity, the chief culprits being Bobby, Harry and Tosin. We know it’s Christmas, but this was ridiculous!

Fulham’s goal (which was a good one) was almost the only time Mitro and Harry combined and whilst it was great to see Mitro back on the scoresheet, this was his only worthwhile contribution to the game. Whilst Joe Bryan has improved in every department since the Bournemouth match, including having to ride some of the worst of Luton’s challenges, Tom Cairney made far more impact off the bench last week than he did in the starting line-up this week. Rodak made some decent saves but his distribution was suspect on the small, narrow pitch.

Although the possession stats were good, particularly in the first half, we’re worried that Scott Parker’s return to the Cottage may have confused the players who regressed to Parkeresque sideways and backwards passing and showed a tendency to slow play down allowing everyone in orange to get back behind the ball. And don’t get us started on some of the “defending” which was truly terrifying when it was happening right in front of us and then even worse in the second half - the entire team just stood and watched the ball sail into the net.

As for the subs, it would have been good to see the energetic Fabio and the enthusiastic Muniz earlier. And not to have seen Josh Onomah at all.

Marco is right to have doubts about Championship officials. Saturday’s ref started with the admirable aim of letting the game flow until the fouls became so rough that he had to start giving free kicks and then he gave a free kick for every challenge, usually in Luton’s favour. And yes, maybe we should have had a penalty or two but we shouldn’t have needed them and it’s not a good look for the classiest team in the league to be complaining all the time. Let’s score some more goals and get on with the job.

There are two ways to look at this result: a hard-earned away point against a tough team in difficult conditions, or two points dropped to a team who wanted them more than we did.

There are two ways to look at the last two months: an eleven game unbeaten run which has somewhat inexplicably tailed off into a series of unsatisfactory draws, or an inevitable blip during an epic season when a team still recovering from illness is playing badly but not losing.

As with nearly everything in life, both points of view are valid. On the match, we agree with Marco that we dropped two points - our greater skill was blunted by Luton’s greater determination, their goal was always coming and a team with sharper shooters could have scored more. On the season so far, we’re still first and it helps that Bournemouth lost and we have edged further ahead. But we are not going to win the league by draws alone and we need to get back to winning ways pronto.

Random musings:-

- when the subs strolled across the pitch just before kickoff, they were all so well wrapped up in their layers that it was a game of Guess the Player

- Luton’s mascots, Mr and Mrs Hatter, were on the pitch so close to kickoff that we wondered if they were playing

- it was refreshing to play a team who didn’t waste time or roll around on the floor for no reason.

- the Luton fans were tuneful but mainly sang about Watford

- as for the Fulham chant of “We want our dick back”, the less said about that, the better….

- it’s quite flattering to be on the other end of “Who are you?”

It’s worth remembering that we’re in territory which haven’t explored for more than 20 years. We are top of the league and it’s not as easy as it sounds - when you have someone to chase, you know where you are. You can’t fly under the radar when you’re the target.

We know our assessment of the Luton match is harsh but we are holding the players to the high standards which they have set. This season is our chance to show English football that Fulham aren’t just a playoff team and, ultimately, that we’re not a yo-yo club. And we can’t let it slip away.