Jack and Loz at the Cottage - Blog 299

Date: 15th February 2025

Opposition: Nottingham Forest

Score: 2-1

Fulham goal scorers: Emile Smith Rowe, Calvin Bassey

Weather: wintry

Atmosphere: excellent

MOTM: it’s hard to decide what we like best about Calvin Bassey - his abilities as a defender, his commitment to the team, his irrepressible good humour or a smile brighter than the Craven Cottage floodlights. On Saturday we got to see all of that in a consummate defensive performance crowned with a goal that any striker would be proud of. His celebration with the entire team was the best thing of all. A shout-out to Sasa Lukić for his effortless dominance in the first half.

Lunch: Pret

Drinks: the Riverside

Dinner: Bua’s Thai. A shout out to the chef for his massaman curry

It’s become a hallmark of this season for Fulham to play well but not get the points we deserve. That’s led to a lot of rueful analysis of the table and speculation as to where we might have been if things had gone slightly differently. If we hadn’t drawn with West Ham, for instance, or Everton. Or Ipswich. Or Southampton. And if we hadn’t lost to Wolves. Or Man U. Twice.

We might have been right up there in the Champions League places with Nottingham Forest, a team who are consistency personified while Fulham have been brilliant but wayward. Forest’s European chances are guaranteed, Fulham’s are flickering and deceptive like will-o the wisps.

The fact of the matter is, we are running out of time to secure a European spot. Maybe it would be less stressful if we just wrote the whole thing off. But every time we make it harder for ourselves by throwing points away, we go and do something like beat Newcastle to put ourselves back in contention. To fulfill our potential we have to start winning the matches we’re supposed to win, not just the ones we’re not.

So, even before it began, Saturday’s match against Forest felt like a seminal Moment in the season - a test, a staging post, maybe a turning point.

Fulham started the game very well. Fast, incisive, threatening. And that was just Adama! Nottingham Forest are famous for playing a low block. We’re not quite sure what this is but it seems to be a bit like parking the bus when you haven’t scored yet. Low blocks are apparently very difficult to break down and Forest’s is lower and blockier than everyone else’s. But that doesn’t matter when you’re Adama Traore. You just sprint round the block or blast through it.

In fact, the entire team combined flawlessly. We’ve mentioned him already but Sasa Lukić was running the show - manifesting wherever he was needed to intercept a pass or set up an attack, reassured in the knowledge that his BFF Sander Berge was sweeping up behind him. After a few wobbly games, Andersen was back to his best, Iwobi has shaken off his man flu and Castagne has got over his crisis of confidence. Robinson was swinging crosses in from the left and Adama from the right and Raúl was scrapping with some big defenders as he tried to get on the end of them all.

Recently, we’ve mentioned that we’ve been a bit dissatisfied with ESR. Other fans have pointed out that he’s played ok and that’s true. But we expect more than ok from our record signing. On Saturday, Emile took the hint and stepped up his game to become the clever, polished, hard-to-handle footballer we know he can be. We were literally just saying how well he was playing when he literally scored, leaping to meet one of Adama’s laser guided crosses.

We were deservedly in the lead having scored a stunning team goal, we were in control, everyone was playing well, things could only get better…..but we are Fulham.

Leno and the defence had a spectacularly solid game, nullifying Forest’s many attempts to counter attack and keeping their dangerous forwards at bay. Forest looked a bit clueless after we scored, unused to a team who could cope so well with their tactics. Unfortunately, as so often, there was one administrative error and Forest’s striker, a fine example of nominative determinism, was able to pounce and score.

The other notable Moments in the first half were Adama tracking back and winning the ball so ferociously that the he won a free kick and the rapturous applause of the crowd; and the Fulham subs watching the game like spectators when they were supposed to be warming up. No doubt they enjoyed the dominant display as much as we did; but perhaps they were also worried that we’d come to regret not making more of the chances we created.

Another hallmark of this season is that a good first half is often followed by a bad second. Nuno Espírito Santo, who seems like a very nice man and the type to do his homework, was alive to this and Forest looked menacing for much of the second half, keeping possession around our box and winning a series of corners. But their threats were empty and Fulham were (almost) able to show these so-called expert counter attackers how it’s really done.

But whilst our threats were credible, the Forest keeper was having the game of his life, flinging body parts in front of every shot that came his way, supported by his able defence. But one of those shots, from the still-lively Traore, was deflected wide. Fulham had a corner, Lukić flung it in, Raúl floated it on and Calvin Bassey powered it into the top corner like a 20-goals-a-season centre forward.

The game was far from over but Fulham had it firmly in their grasp. We should have had more goals, particularly after the introduction of Willian and Sess but the Forest keeper made some more incredible saves and Fulham saw the game out with no fuss or drama.

We deserved to win that game and we won it. The crowd felt it and the players felt it too, and showed it in their exuberant celebrations after Bassey’s goal and at the end of the game. This was a big win and a big Moment in the season.

Random musings:-

- as always, the Celebration Day tributes were understated and moving. As always, there were a lot of people to remember, some taken much too soon

- thanks to the Forest fans for their wholehearted support of the minute’s applause

- Thanks also to the Forest players for a clean game and not, like the players of most Top 4 clubs, celebrating their goal by sneering at the opposition fans

- why didn’t they wear their red kit? The pink and purple looked a bit Championship

- it was nice to see Ola Aina and Neco Williams again

- That’s our third double of the season

- the ref was a lot better than some but inconsistent

- Sasa Lukić has been on 9 yellow cards for as long as we can remember

- let’s hope he’s not injured! We will miss him if he can’t play and Berge will be bereft

- Marco got everything right in this game including the subs. And is he beginning to realise, as Fulham fans did long ago, that Sess isn’t a left back….?

- Sess was Ivan’s interviewee in the Riverside after the match which was lovely. Everything he said was answered with cheers although as it’s Sess he could have read out his shopping list and we still would have cheered

- wine was supposed to be £3 per glass but not everyone got the memo and we were charged £8 per glass for one of our rounds. Still, the Club have got to pay Willian’s wages somehow….

- ……. As he showed in his short cameo, he’s still got it

- We Emile-iorated the low block.

This result has elevated us to 8th in the table but we’re still looking up - Forest are third and we’re every bit as good as them. As we said at the beginning of this blog, there’s a feeling of what might have been amongst Fulham fans.

But, after that convincing win, there’s also a feeling of what might still be.