After going to Craven Cottage this weekend to see their game against Villa, there are some things worth sharing with you all.
The stadium itself is in the middle of almost like a "suburb" type part of London, built on the back of normal houses, in a leafy street. The sun was shining and fans were wandering around the street. Everything looked really good. We went in (near the away end, not in the neutrals like I thought but in the home end) and the whole place was dead clean, away and home fans were mingling by the side of the river and the beer was flowing.
Before the game, at about 2.50pm, they played this stupid song, which went along the lines of THEY ARE REAL MADRID, THEY ARE BARCE-LONA, WE ARE FULHAM EFFERRSEE AND WE ARE GONNA OWN YA! THEY'VE GOT NO POINTS, WE'VE GOT THREE, HOO HOO HAA HAA HEE HEE.! As this song was played, the stadium announcer exclaimed "and welcoming onto the pitch, your chairman, Mohammed Al Fayed!" and out he came, twirling a Fulham scarf round his head and doing a lap of the pitch as this ridiculously cringeworthy song was played. None of the Fulham fans seemed arsed about any of this, a minority clapped, they sat their stony faced whilst my lot had a right laugh at the song. The Villa fans (who were a total credit to themselves all afternoon, sang their hearts out even when 3-1 down) gave these events a WHAT THE FUCKING HELL WAS THAT!?! and rightly so.
"Imagine if Ashley done that," said one of my mates. "They'd be chucking pies at him"
Anyway, the game kicked off, Fulham went 1-0 up after about 12 minutes and the fans cheered when Murphy netted the pen. Then, after this, stark silence. No applause, no chants, no GOOOAARRRN!!! every time the home side picked up the ball, no nowt. For a team who are sitting 7th in the table and pushing for a Europa League spot, the fans were a fucking joke. Two teams were playing out a decent game of football (particularly the home side) and these snobs sat and snoozed in the sunshine. The Villa fans were all we could hear, chanting away, both for their team and criticising the Fulham support all game long, fantastic.
All of the Fulham players had good games, apart from Zamora who got 10 minutes and missed a good chance. Aaron Hughes, solid as a rock at centre half - surplus to requirements at NUFC. Pantsil and Koncheksy were brilliant all game long at fullback, and at the end, Pantsil did a lap of the pitch, clapping all the fans, cheering, jumping in the air and making clenched fist gestures. I cannot imagine any of our players doing that at the moment.
It took 38 minutes for the first home chant. And even that was a Fulham! clap clap clap Fulham! clap clap clap by one side of the ground. I was sat there thinking "imagine the noise at SJP if we were playing good football and pushing for a European spot" - it would have been an electric atmosphere. The home fans were shit considering where their club was about 10 years ago.
To summarise: Fulham - nice little ground, lovely weather, good football team, good manager - shocking fans.
