Jack and Loz at The Cottage When Mitro Scored Another Hat Trick - Blog 197

Date: 30th October 2021

Opposition: West Bromwich Albion

Score: 3-0

Goal scorer: 🔥🔥🔥

Weather: autumn sunshine

Atmosphere: hat trick-tastic

MOTM (hat trick scoring): 18 into 15 shouldn’t go but Mitro can make the maths work. After the match, our super-striker said he’s in the form of his life but we knew that already. This is our 5th season of Mitro and we know his moods well. He is happiest when he’s trusted by his manager and he’s playing in front of his devoted fans. This season, the fans are back and so is the trust. Mitro is Marco’s main man - the key to his system of mercilessly attacking football. Mitro is loving the responsibility and the attention. His fitness levels and work rate have never been higher and nor has his passion for the Club. His skills have never been in doubt but in the past they have dipped with his mood. Recently, they have soared to the point where he his now out-scoring entire teams. This is his second hat trick of the season. And it’s October. How many more will he score?

MOTM (clean sheet keeping): of course when someone scores a hat trick they are Player of the Match but we, like Mitro himself, have to acknowledge what went on around and behind him on Saturday. Mitro isn’t a one man team and most of his colleagues played very well. Tim Ream’s renaissance continues to be remarkable, if understated. As well as throwing himself into defensive blocks and clearances, Tim made several pin point perfect cross-pitch long passes, switching play from defence to attack in an instant. This was a vintage performance and, as with Mitro’s hat tricks, we think there are many more to come.

Brunch: Bills

Pub: the Blue Boat

Saturday’s match against West Brom was Fulham’s biggest game of the season so far: second versus third in a league where the smallest gap between those two places can end up being an unbridgeable chasm between two leagues.

The match began with a beautiful tribute to fallen heroes, a medical emergency in the Hammersmith End and some fast attacking play from West Brom. The emergency was well dealt with and so was the West Brom press. Fulham turned the tide and the action flooded to the Putney End.

We had a poor view of the tangle in the box but a good view of the resulting penalty. Replays suggest that the penalty was a soft one but Mitro was undoubtedly brought down. He didn’t appeal or even object to the challenge but whilst the ref was inconsistent all afternoon, he wasn’t wholly inaccurate.

How good is it to see Mitro scoring penalties again? Sure, we’re not quite at the point where Penalty to Fulham means Goal to Fulham as we were in the days of Danny Murphy and Oliver Norwood but we no longer have to watch Mitro lining up from behind our clappers. Against Forest he went left, against West Brom he went right. And in both directions he was deadly accurate.

The West Brom goalie wasn’t just terrified of Mitro, he’s now having nightmares about him. His problems started at that point and continued all afternoon. The second goal, although it wasn’t the Man in Pink’s fault, was another moment to forget for the visitors as they presented Mitro with a Silva plated shance and, as we all know, he doesn’t miss those.

So at half time Fulham were 2-0 up without having scored a decent goal. Whilst this sounds like luck it’s got far more to do with the endeavour of the team and, of course, Mitro’s skill. West Brom’s errors weren’t just accidents - they were forced by the pace and perseverance of Bobby Reid, Neeskens Kebano, Harry Wilson and Harrison Reed. And Jean-Michael Seri wasn’t exactly twiddling his thumbs either.

This is how the next two paragraphs usually go: -

“Fulham started the second half slowly….” ✅

“West Brom’s goal was always coming….” But it didn’t. Things were precarious for a while as the Baggies redoubled their efforts and disarray set in. The crowd chanted Kevin McDonald’s name. In his absence, we were expecting to see Josh Onomah but Marco held his nerve and Fulham held on.

Kebano had a shance to seal the match but forgot both the size of the goal and the fact he could have passed to Mitro who was in a good position (as usual). The third goal, when it eventually came, was the easily the best and owed more to Harry Wilson’s drive and determination than Mitro’s neat finish. But our hero had his three goals, and Fulham the three points.

As well as the penalty, the match involved a series of incidents in which the ref was more central than the players and he got two of them right (both red cards) and one of them wrong (the lack of red card for the brutal challenge on Antonee Robinson). Assuming the penalty decision was also correct, three out of four probably isn’t bad. We are only really concerned about one of the incidents anyway which is Tosin’s bizarre decision to make an unnecessary challenge when we were 3-0 up with 5 minutes to go. He had had a fantastic game up to that point.

Having praised Mitro ad infinitum and Tim Ream briefly, it is time to mention that the other stand out performers were Harry Wilson and Harrison Reed (particularly in the first half). Both Kebano and Seri gave the ball away a lot but they worked hard, as did Bobby, particularly in the lead up to the penalty. Rodak made a couple of very good saves but his distribution was erratic. Denis had another excellent game and if Antonee’s decision making was as good as his running we would say the same about him.

Overall, this was an assertive performance against a very physical side but we still feel that the team hasn’t really got going yet. Whilst the score line in no way flatters us, a better team than West Brom would have scored against us. But there are only two teams in the league better than West Brom and we are one of them. Second place is now very much ours to lose and we must focus on the real prize: the champion’s spot. And while Bournemouth are less than 6 points ahead, that’s ours to lose as well.

Random musings:-

- we really hope the person who suffered the medical emergency is ok and thanks to the medical staff and stewards for dealing with the situation so efficiently

- whoever left the leaky blue pen in the bag with West Brom’s kit will be in trouble

- it was great to see Bill Muddyman honoured with a Forever Fulham award at half time

- the triple sub was a good tactic and it was good to see Fabio again (but for how much longer will we enjoy watching him…..?)

- we were pleased that Marco delved into his black jumper collection again and the one he chose set off his FFC poppy badge particularly well

- after the second goal, one of the men working in the Riverside stand popped out to check the score. Perhaps he was a Baggies fan as we didn’t see him again

Stevenage Road musings:-

We were lucky enough to meet up with Fulham’s commentary duo Gentleman Jim and Jamie Reid after the match. It was great chatting to them about players old and new. While we were waiting for them we saw:-

- Mark Schwarzer strolling along looking very trim and dapper. We said “hello” and nearly fainted. He said “hello” and seemed less fazed about the encounter

- Harry Wilson and Harrison Reed casually leaving work for the day (separately)

- Denis Odoi waiting for a mini bus

- Tim Ream with his hair down (not a good look)

- Antonee Robinson in his cut off trackies (also not a good look) in search of attention

- a random steward who told us we were beautiful (honestly!)

We have to end back where we started, with Mitro. After the final whistle and the applause for the other players, almost the entire stadium waited for him to finish his interview with sky so that we could show him our appreciation. Mitro toured the ground with his match ball and MOTM trophy, waving to the crowds and patting his chest more like a Serbian tenor than the most prolific scorer in the country.

This is his season. Enemies will tremble, records will fall. In the words of his own song, “People just want more and more” and he will deliver; “Freedom and love, what he’s looking for” and with Fulham (and Marco) he’s found them.

Mitro loves Fulham. And we love him.