Pilko

I was in the Riverside Stand opposite, block Z right next to the Villa lot. None of the fans were doing any singing at all.

Nolan 0 Butt 0 Guthrie 2 (1pen) Barton 1 (1pen) Duff 2 Jonas 0 Smith 0 Geremi 0 Pretty sure Duff has 3. He might well have, I just did it off the top of my head. Ones I remember are Spurs (h) and Everton (a). Oh right. He got one away against WBA too. So he did, original post edited.

Nolan 0 Butt 0 Guthrie 2 (1pen) Barton 1 (1pen) Duff 2 Jonas 0 Smith 0 Geremi 0 Pretty sure Duff has 3. He might well have, I just did it off the top of my head. Ones I remember are Spurs (h) and Everton (a).

Nolan 0 Butt 0 Guthrie 2 (1pen) Barton 1 (1pen) Duff 3 Jonas 0 Smith 0 Geremi 0

I wish I could channel your optimism. Positive orgones.

I wish I could channel your optimism.

Yeah. I was more talking about how well their team is doing and none of them seem to give a fuck.

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.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/thatmitchellandwebbsite/images/396/digbyandginger.jpg

So PM, Sned etc, how did you find it? And where were you sitting?

Zero? Zero is a percent...!

Dunno if you can play for us then minimum height is 6ft. I'm fine putting six past you while wearing a blue t-shirt tbh. No you are not. We'll play like a Redknapp team - nine massive guys with 2 little flair players.

Yeah, the blue team will be a bit lacking in the height department. From memory, I think that Menonema, Dave, Wullie and Greg were all less than 6 foot.

Paul Chow wants to be in there.

I don't think so. He's always had injury problems. For me, of the two mentioned, Ledley would be a far better bet.

Is it just me that thinks Fuller looks like a 55-year old porn star from the 1980's?

Really gearing up now. Not going to have any beer (overdid it a bit at Wembley this weekend) bar the party Saturday night, and even then I'm going to hold back to ensure I'm alive for this.

That was the first thing that was said on getting back in the car after the game. "Fuck me, it's so weird to be coming home from a final feeling this happy"

I'm supposed to be typing up a twelve-page document, so far I've done about four lines.

Good post, I agree.

Best way to view those photos is setting your browser at 50% zoom, until I fix the sizes anyway.

Currently 7. If we beat Boro, I'll go to a 5.

Oh, by the way, was anyone staying in Wembley Plaza hotel on the Saturday night? The fire alarm went off at about 9pm whilst we were in the bar and everyone had to go into the car park. It was here you could see the two classes of people: The clever people (including me and my lot): carried our pints into the car park and drank them out there The thick people: tried to down three-quarters of a pint whilst running through a panicking crowd The funniest part was that the hotel stairways were visible from the car park, glass windows and all that, and a bloke came running down in his Y-fronts. Everyone did the decent thing and pissed themselves laughing

What an excellent day out. 12,212 was the attendance, I'd say at least 7,000 were Bay fans (although it was hard to tell as Glossops home colours were Blue and white as well!) You couldn't have picked a nicer day for a game of football, the weather was absolutely roasting all day long - the Glossop lot got put in the shade, we got the sunny end! Cold beers and shirts off were the order of the day. There wasn't any sign of trouble either, there were obviously some blokes who had far too much to drink but they channeled their drunken energy into chanting the Bay home opposed to starting any trouble. The match itself - After an even first twenty-odd minutes (both teams hit the bar), Lee Kerr robbed a Glossop defender, burst past another and lifted the ball over the onrushing keeper from the edge of the 6-yard box. Cue mass pandemonium in the Bay end! Bay quickly dominated possesion, and with the quick McFarlane scampering down the right flank and causing the Glossop left back all sorts of problems, Whitley could counter as Glossops decent passing game was blocked off and right on the stroke of half time, just after Glossop forced Terry Burke into a few regulation saves, Whitley Broke away, Chow and McFarlane played an excellent double one-two with their heads, Chow raced clear and blasted the ball above the goalie! 2-0 and the Bay end went mental again. After a few cold (pricey!) pints at half time, the second half was played out, Whitley hit the bar again, twice, and they continued to pressure. Both teams made a few subs and the game lost its high tempo a bit, although Whitley did look fairly assured apart from one poor call by the linesman that forced Burke into action. After about an hour, Lee Picton came to take a thrown-in next to the Bay end, he clenched a fist at the crowd and that got everyone on their feet again. With about 75 minutes gone, Glossop started to dominate, forcing a series of corners and almost scored when Burke dropped the ball on the edge of the area. Despite this, Whitley defended well and Kerr and substitute Bell provided great pressure up front and kept the Glossop players on their toes. By this point, shoes were off (if you love the Bay!) and mexican waves passed through the Bay end, into the Glossop end (our lot booed loudly as they did it ). It must be said the game was played in a good spirit by both teams, and there wasn't a single yellow card. The referee was decent (barring a few dodgy throw-in calls early on) and the linesman on the far side missed a few blatant offsides, but nothing to complain about there really. Full time whistle went, the perfect end to a near perfect day. Our lot were fantastic and applauded the Glossop players as they collected their runners-up medals, before cheering hugely as Ian Chandler and coach Gavin Fell lifted the trophy up in front of the triumphant Bay end. The players then got on their podium after going up to get the trophy and everyone afforded them the umpteenth throaty roar and standing ovation of the day. The stadium itself was lovely, very impressive. Must be immense when it's full. Stewards were helpful (and not a pain in the arse when everyone wanted to stand up for parts of the game) and fans of both teams mixed and drank together before the game. Funny chant of the day: A few blokes singing "You couldn't sell all your tickets!" when the 12,212 attendance was announced. Photos: