Jack and Loz Away from the Cottage - Blog 297

Date: 18th January 2025

Location: King Power Stadium

Opposition: Leicester City

Score: 0-2

Goal scorers: Emile Smith Rowe, Adama Traore

Weather: very cold

Atmosphere: away fan-tastic!

MOTM: it’s been a popular pastime amongst Fulham fans for the last month or so to blame any less than perfect result on the absence of Sander Berge. To be honest, we were a bit sceptical. Is one man - and a new recruit at that - such an integral part of the system that it can’t function properly without him? On Saturday afternoon we had the answer. Sander Berge is the key cog, the main man, the pivot in every sense. And at Leicester he was back and better than ever. Intercepting, blocking, breaking up play, shielding the defence, picking out passes; and it’s all done with a quiet competence and a smooth efficiency.

Lunch: & Kith where we tried the Masala omelette

Drinks and dinner: Knights Garter where we tried a selection of Spanish wines in honour of Adama’s goal. There were no English wines on the list - sorry, Emile.

Leicester is a prosperous, multi-cultural city just over an hour from London by Adama-fast train. It has some attractive old buildings well-concealed by some less attractive new ones, lots of traffic and a good selection of cafes, bars and restaurants.

The King Power Stadium is half an hour’s walk from the station (unless you’re Adama, obviously) and it’s a rare beast - a modern, functional but atmospheric ground. It’s not too big, the scoreboard is easy to see and as an away fan you get a good view. On the subject of beasts, the fox mascot was cute and on the subject of atmosphere a pre-game fire show works a lot better when you can have flame throwers on both sides of the pitch so you don’t accidentally burn your listed stand down.

Fulham arrived at the King Power on the back of some What-Might-Have-Been draws and a nightmare visit to West Ham where if we hadn’t literally given them two goals we would have won. The right reaction was needed.

It didn’t come immediately. Fulham started the game slowly and within the first two minutes Leicester had a corner and a near miss. Luckily, Fulham woke up and slowly grew into the game. Frankly, the first half wasn’t great. There were some good passes but also some bad ones. There were some attacks but they were too hesitant, too badly finished or just too slow. There were some crosses into the box, but only when it was full of foxes. It was a solid defensive display but not without some nervous Moments.

Andersen played some long diagonal passes which were either too long or too diagonal. Although the team have played with Antonee Robinson for years they kept forgetting how fast he is so passes went behind him. ESR made Emile of things on the edge of the box and kept passing backwards. Whilst no one played badly this wasn’t the slick, scintillating Fulham that we know and love. Sander Berge was head and shoulders above everyone else. Literally.

We finished the half strongly with a series of promising attacks in which Emile, Robinson and Bassey all shot wide. We were the better team but we hadn’t made it count.

Marco made a change at halftime because Alex Iwobi had Man Flu. Adama came on and whilst he wasn’t involved in the first goal, his introduction naturally increased the pace of the game and Fulham switched up from threatening to lethal. It was Harry Wilson, who’s come into his own recently, who created the goal. We’ll call Lukić’s miss a feint which did just enough to distract the goal keeper while Emile was throwing himself face first at the ball and nosing it over the line.

How do you solve a problem like Emile Smith Rowe? So much potential, so much talent but so many disappointing performances. Like all Fulham fans, we want Emile to succeed, we want him to become a Fulham hero but we know we’re a long way from seeing the best of him.

Marco Silva who is a Genius and gets (nearly) everything right summed up the situation in December (big thanks to Jack Kelly for transcribing these and all Marco’s words of wisdom), “He has spells. But with his talent those spells will come naturally. He will have an impact in those spells, but to be consistent at this level are completely different things."

In other words, Emile’s worst enemy is himself. When he’s interviewed, he’s so shy he can’t look at the camera. At Arsenal, there were big names to hide behind; at Fulham, he’s the star and everyone expects him to shine. He’s bashful off the pitch and hesitant on it. He doesn’t have to become an extrovert but he does have to find some confidence and self-belief and then the consistency will come. Luckily, he’s got just the right coach to put an arm around his shoulder and guide him through the rough patches. Marco will unlock the potential we all know is there and Emile will become the player we believe he can be.

And his goal was an important step on that journey. It wasn’t a classic finish but his position was perfect and this time he didn’t hesitate. The delighted reaction of his teammates showed how much they care and it looked like he appreciated the away end’s cheers too with his brief wave and cautious tap of the badge. And he may have just face planted, but that wasn’t just grass he was rubbing from his face after he scored.

Now they were a goal down Leicester could no longer sit back and defend but the game opening up benefitted us not then. Harry’s second assist was as good as his first and Adama’s bullet finish was exquisite. The on-pitch celebrations were muted and we have to wonder why but we were two goals up, the Leicester fans were leaving and Fulham were having fun.

It wasn’t all plain sailing. Leicester never looked dangerous but they didn’t give up and we were glad of our two goal cushion. We wasted some chances (Muniz in particular) but so did they. Centurion Bernd Leno can be proud of his clean sheet but for the rest of us that’s just a bonus; it’s the three points that matter.

Popular Monday Night Football pundit Tom Cairney came on and did a very professional job of slowing the game down again and managing it out. Of the other subs, we would have liked to have seen more of Josh and we would have preferred Sess to Diop.

Whilst it was a fantastic day out it wasn’t a great game of football. But the result justifies the means and it was very refreshing after a period of uncertainty to rock up at another club’s ground, score 2 goals and walk away smiling.

More importantly, we got the reaction we all wanted. After his mistakes in the week Leno didn’t put a foot or a glove wrong, this was probably Adama’s best game for us, Emile is on the right track and Berge showed us what we’d been missing.

The team had something to prove, and they proved it.

Random musings:-

- The warmth from the flame throwers was very welcome

- Leicester alumni Castagne was quick to applaud the home fans at the end of the game but we would have liked to see Bobby Decordova Reid

- The Leicester fans’ reaction to some of their subs was extreme and interesting. We’ve never sung You Don’t Know What You’re Doing to a Fulham manager and we were managed by Felix Magath!

- The ref had a pretty good game

- Say Hello to QPR was a good new entry into the Fulham Hit Parade

- The Leicester drum could have been annoying but fair play to the drummer for the musical banter

- Does Adama’s baby oil insulate him from the cold? Or do long sleeve shirts not fit over his arms?

- Tom continued his route to legendary status with the olé interplay. Leno shook his head clearly muttering, “British people are nuts.”

- This is our first double of the season - Leicester Squared

- A note to the media team: the pre-game video featuring the fox who ended up staring out over the ground with his bright blue eyes was excellent and something similar with a badger could work equally well.

This win has propelled us back up the table but even with Fulham in 9th it’s painful viewing when you only need basic maths skills to see where we could be instead.

But with Berge back and Emile finding his feet, if the good performances keep coming the results will follow.

This could apply to both Emile Smith Rowe and Marco Silva’s Fulham but in the short term you’re as good as your intensity; in the long term you’re only as good as your consistency.

Consistency is the key. If we can find it, the chase for Europe is back on.