Jack and Loz at the Cottage - Blog 305

Date: 6th April 2025

Opposition: Liverpool

Score: 3-2

Fulham goal scorers: Ryan Sessegnon, Alex Iwobi, Rodrigo Muniz

Weather: Top

Atmosphere: Top, top, top, top (©️M Silva)

MOTM: it seems odd for a defender to be our Man of the Match in a game in which we conceded two goals. But on Sunday, Calvin Bassey was a lot more than a defender. Proving that you don’t have to be small and agile to be a winger, you don’t have to be a striker to attack and you don’t have to be a forward to…..go forward, Calvin was a one-man embodiment of total football. And more than that, in a match where fighting spirit was as crucial as goal-scoring prowess, Calvin was our commander in chief.

Lunch: picnic by the river

Celebratory drinks in the sunshine: the Riverside

Dinner: Bua’s Thai

It was a tough week for Fulham Football Club. After an undignified exit from the FA Cup, the only positives from a trip to Arsenal were a Muniz consolation goal and the smallest possible dent in our goal difference.

To Top off 9 days of footballing frustration, we had to welcome Liverpool to Craven Cottage. They arrived not just Top of the league but so dominant they’ve practically won it already. Most significantly, they hadn’t lost away from home all season, or at all since September. They wouldn’t have been anyone’s choice of opponent when we needed to bounce back and keep our fading hopes of Europe alive.

But one of the tenets of Fulhamishness is just when you least expect it, just what you least expect, and this season more than any other Fulham have got into the habit of winning games we’re not supposed to.

We started the game well with a penalty shout in the first few minutes that might have been given if we’d been playing someone else. The players didn’t dwell on that and got down to the business of attacking with intent, winning the ball smartly and then keeping it in dangerous areas. We have to mention Andreas immediately and not just because he was upended for the possible pen. Our brilliant Brazilian was everywhere causing trouble, disrupting and misdirecting the usually rock solid Liverpool defence.

Unfortunately, the good start was undone by a wondergoal that came out of nowhere. This is what Liverpool can do - no warning, no time to prepare, hardly any build-up. Blink and the ball’s in the back of the net. Fulham hadn’t done much wrong but we were now in a battle to get anything out of the game.

So we started fighting.

Don’t listen to the pundits who said Fulham were lucky, or Liverpool were defensively frail or already on the beach. They were only defensively frail because we carved them open, we were only lucky because we didn’t give up, and wasn’t there a speech about fighting on the beaches?

We already knew there were warriors in the team - Bassey, of course, built like a tank and just as fearless, Andersen the Viking, Iwobi tough and combative, Lukić smooth and deadly, and Robinson, so fast he was untouchable.

Ryan Sessegnon, our reinvented left-footed right-winger is Fulham Top to toe, he’ll always fight for the Club he loves, but what was Andreas’s excuse? And isn’t Timmy Castagne supposed to be more about mussels than muscles? And who was that guy up front, scrapping away, giving as good as he got, a defender’s nightmare? Was that really Fulham’s current number 9? With the sun in your eyes you might think it was someone else….

The first goal came from a sustained period of pressure (which might or might not have been a high press.) The indomitable Andreas swung the ball in, the Liverpool defenders (who look anything other than frail, by the way) were baffled and Ryan’s left foot smashed it past the flailing goalie.

The second goal came from Liverpool cracking like an Easter Egg as Fulham swamped them. Iwobi resurrected his sparkling form from the start of the season, forced an error and made the goalie flail again.

There was no let up. Liverpool were retreating, defending desperately, clinging on until half time. In the stands, the atmosphere was exactly as Marco described it for the Cup game (why use a word when once when four times will do?) but this time we liked what we were seeing: Fulham on Top against the Top of the league.

And it got even better. The third goal came from we will kindly call a miss kick from Iwobi. But Muniz pounced on it hungrily, spinning away from his defender while he controlled the ball, knocking it on with his knee before lining up a lethal shot.

Liverpool conceded 3 goals in a half for the first time since the Premier League began (which is also, of course, when football began) and Fulham fans were in dreamland. It’s not just that we were winning - the 2 goal cushion meant the entertainment was stress free! But we knew the second half would be a different story.

The big question was, when would Liverpool score? At what Moment would it be bearable for us to concede? How long could we hang on? We had the 80th minute in our heads. After some big names whirled through the revolving subs door (bet Liverpool subbed players don’t usually leave the pitch that quickly!) they actually scored in the 72nd minute. The drama of Fulham defending a one goal lead began and the battle on the pitch intensified.

There’s one player we haven’t mentioned so far, who played a big part in the fight. Huge, in fact. Sander Berge doesn’t look like a fighter, or even a footballer. He looks like he works in marketing. But if he was good in the first half, long limbs reaching for the ball, wiry strength holding the attackers at bay, he was even better in the second. As the play was all at the Putney End with almost no relief, Sander was the calm head in the crisis, the quickest to react to danger, the first line of defence.

Liverpool brought on some more big names but hard though they tried they couldn’t make a mark on the game. Leno was tested but not found wanting, Bassey was still the best player on the pitch and Andersen dealt with trouble by hoofing the ball into the crowd. We were delighted to welcome back Kenny Tete in a defender without portfolio role and he was joined by experience (Raúl), energy (Harrison), solidity (Adama) and……ESR.

Despite fans urging the players to “take it to the f*****g corner” the match became increasingly nervy as Liverpool hit the bar and won a free kick in a Top position. Fulham’s free kick in a similar position was, to put it generously, wasted by Harrison but this was a useful cameo from him as the clock ran down.

The final whistle brought a sense of disbelief. Triumph didn’t really sink in until we were sipping Chateau Sessegnon in the sun. That match had it all - good football, Top drawer goals and fighting spirit. Fulham showed our resilience as well as our skill. And we came out on Top.

Random Musings:-

- It was good to see Andy Melville receive his Forever Fulham award at half time and Reena receive her 1,000 shirt in recognition of her fundraising

- It was even better to see various Liverpool fans evicted from the Hammy End

- For a ref that we have history with, Kavanagh did a reasonable job and blew the whistle promptly at the end of the 6 added minutes

- Do we have to pay a 10% tariff on Antonee Robinson?

- Just when we were thinking Castagne needs a rest, Kenny’s return has revitalised him. That’s going to be an interesting Slot to fill for the rest of the season

- As is right wing. Sess is making the position his own and the fans just want to watch him play

- Harrison was Ivan’s guest in the Riverside. Like every player who speaks now he said, “we’re confident” and we know who gives them that confidence.

So Fulham have Topped up our points and consolidated our position in the Top half of the table. We will probably finish there but how near the Top? There are seven matches left and it already feels like the season will go down to the wire.

To get what we want is going to be very difficult; we will have to fight like we did against Liverpool in every game. But don’t count us out, don’t write us off, don’t put us down. We are Marco Silva’s Fulham, and our sights are set on Europe.