[Lord Snooty]

Fulham v Huddersfield Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday October 29th - 15:00 ko
at Craven Cottage

Huddersfield Town travel down south to play Fulham at Craven Cottage on Saturday looking to close the gap at the top on Newcastle, who travel to in form Preston. The teams either side of us in the league table, Brighton and Norwich, play each other at the Amex Stadium.

There will be at least one team change in the Terriers' line up. Jonathan Hogg picked up his 5th yellow card of the season on Saturday, which would probably mean that Dean Whitehead keeps his place in the side, as well as the captain's armband, and Aaron Mooy, rested for the start of the last match, probably reinstated for this one.
Manager David Wagner has escaped further punishment following being sent to the stand for the final minute of the Derby game. Sense at last from the FA.


A brief history of Fulham FC: Formed in 1879, they didn't become members of the Football League until 1907, by which time they had already moved into their current home ground, Craven Cottage. The stadium, situated next to the River Thames, became their home in 1896 and the actual Craven Cottage has a history going back over 300 years when it used to be a royal hunting lodge.
Those early FL days were spent mainly in the 2nd division, but they became original members of Division 3 South when the FL was expanded in 1928. They won their first title in 1932, winning Div 3S, with the momentum of a winning team almost taking them straight up again, only to finish 3rd in the days when only two teams were promoted.
They had to wait until 1949 for their First Division debut after winning the Division 2 title. And it wasn't a long stay, only three seasons before relegation. Back up again in 1959, staying a bit longer before being demoted again in 1968. Then they became a yoyo team between the bottom three divisions, although in the 1970s they did become something of a glamour club, attracting star names to the Cottage such as George Best, Rodney Marsh, Bobby Moore and Alan Mullery. With Moore and Mullery, they reached the FA Cup Final of 1975, where they lost 2-0 to West Ham.
In the 90s, Fulham dropped to their lowest position at the foot of the 4th tier. This was when the club was bought out by businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed. He put Ray Wilkins in charge of team affairs, with Kevin Keegan alongside him. Wilkins left soon after, leaving Keegan in charge and he led the team to promotion, before being tempted away to manage England. Paul Bracewell and then Jean Tigana took over and in the blink of an eye, Fulham had been promoted from the depths of the 4th division to the Premier League, finishing the 2001-02 season in 13th position.
They became an established Premier League team until they were relegated in 2014, by which time al-Fayed had left the club and in 2010 they had had a dabble with Europe, reaching the final of the Europa League, losing to Atletico Madrid 2-1 after extra time.

Head to Head




Town lead in the overall head to head with 25 wins to Fulham's 23, with 16 draws. That's in all competitions. In league matches it's Fulham who have the upper hand with 23 wins to Town's 22, with 15 draws. As you can tell from those stats, we are unbeaten against them in Cup matches.

The first meeting of the two clubs was back in our first Football League season when we lost at their place on Boxing Day 1910.
Craven Cottage is another of those grounds where we haven't won for many a year. The last one was way back in 1993 when a Iwan Roberts goal gave us a 1-0 win.
Even further back, we beat Fulham 3-0 at Leeds Road in the FA Cup en route to what to still our last venture as far as the quarter finals. Goals that day were from Les Chapman and a couple from Jimmy Lawson.

More recently, the two matches last season were both 1-1 draws. Nahki Wells put us ahead down there, early in the season, only for Cauley Woodrow to equalise in injury time. And the home game saw skipper Mark Hudson equalise for us after Ross McCormack got his usual goal against us, after some defensive fannying about when Jonathan Hogg misplaced a pass straight to him, unmarked in front of goal.

Last 6 meetings:
2015/16
Town 1-1 Fulham
Fulham 1-1 Town

2014/15
Town 0-2 Fulham
Fulham 3-1 Town

2000/01
Town 1-2 Fulham
Fulham 3-0 Town


So what's new at Craven Cottage? 

Managed nowadays by Slaviša Jokanović, who got Watford promoted a couple of years ago, but then got unceremoniously dumped. He went to Maccabi Tel Aviv after that and got them into the Champions League. But the cut and thrust of the best league in the world tempted him back to England and the job at Fulham, after Kit Symons had been sacked.
In his playing career he had one season with Chelsea and earned 64 caps for Yugoslavia.

Notable players in their squad:- The most notable name is Scott Parker. He's the club captain and has spent the majority of his playing career in the Premier League. He made his debut in 1997 as a 16 year old, playing for Charlton against Bury. He became established in the first team after a loan spell at Norwich and then after seven seasons at the Valley, he made a big money move to Chelsea, where he was such a flop that he didn't make the required amount of appearances to win a Premier League winners medal and was shipped out to Newcastle in the summer of 2005.
Again he did nowt spectacular at Sid James' Park and was sent back down south where he joined West Ham and then Spurs before finally joining Fulham in 2013, skippering them to relegation in his first season.
Similar to his club career, he was picked to play for England by several different managers, who thought they liked the look of him, but 18 caps over a 10 year period suggests he wasn't quite up to it.
Has he found his level in the Championship? My boss, a Barnsley fan, saw him playing at Oakwell the other week and says that Parker absolutely ran the show so much that their Josh Scowen got so frustrated he ended up being red carded for a wild tackle on him.

England's Scott Parker

Up front for Fulham, Sone Aluko, ex Rangers and Hull City, isn't even the best player in his family as his sister is the England and Chelsea Ladies' star player Eni Aluko. He will be partnered in attack by either Chris Martin, on loan from Derby, ex Leeds beanpole, Matt Smith or Lucas Piazon, on loan from Chelsea.
Jozabed Sánchez Ruiz, Tom Cairney and Ryan Tunnicliffe are the Fulham midfielders tasked with holding the onslaught of our superb, creative and tenacious Terriers' midfield. Whilst the defenders will probably be Belgian Denis Odoi, American Tim Ream, Black Countryman Scott Malone and the scurge of the England attacking line up at the Euros, Iceland's Ragnar Sigurðsson. See how you cope against the likes of Nahki Wells and Elias Kachunga, sunshine!
The goalkeeper is David Button, who signed from Brentford in the summer.

Club Connections:

Malcolm McDonald: was born in Fulham in 1950 and after a career as a superstar centre forward for Newcastle, Arsenal and England returned to his birthplace to manage the local football team in 1980. He won promotion to the 2nd division with them and almost took them up to the first division. After being seen as certainties to go up for most of the season, a slump at the end saw them fall at the final hurdle, controversially losing at Derby when the match was cut short following a pitch invasion. McDonald tried in vain to get the match replayed and he was replaced by Ray Harford as manager during the following season.
His time at Town was one of the worst periods in the club's history. He was here for less than a season, but in that time we lost 10-1 at Man City and were relegated having conceded 100 league goals in the season and finished 19 points adrift of safety. It was later revealed that he was an alcoholic, which was brought on by the pain suffered by the knee injury which had earlier caused him to cut short his playing career. He is widely regarded as the worst Town manager of all time.



Dale Tempest: played for Fulham during the McDonald era of the early 80s scoring 6 goals in 34 matches. He was signed for Town by Mick Buxton in 1984 and went on to score 27 goals in 65 matches for us, being the leading scorer in 84/85.
After us, he went to Gillingham and Colchester before disappearing out to the far east. He moved to Hong Kong in 1989 and became something of a superstar out there, playing for South China and becoming the leading league scorer for 5 seasons in a row. He was granted Hong Kong citizenship and even represented the country at international level.
Nowadays he is back in England and anybody who has Sky Sports will know him as the bloke from Sky Bet.



Lee Clark: in contrast to McDonald, he was the best Town manager of all time. Well, in his own mind anyway.
Appointed in 2008 as the first manager appointed by new chairman Dean Hoyle following the sacking of Stan Ternent, he got us to a reasonable 9th. His first full season saw him win three Manager fo the Month awards and the team reached the Play Offs, eventually losing to Millwall.
It was Play Offs again the season after, with a memorable semi final victory over Bournemouth, followed by a less than memorable defeat at Old Trafford against Peterborough.
That defeat didn't count as a regular league match though and in the next season our run of unbeaten league matches was extended to an amazing 43, a Football League record, which some fans think was irrelevant due to the Peterborough defeat and the fact that it didn't actually lead to promotion. But nonetheless it's still an FL record whether the cynics like it or not. One of those cynics would appear to have been Mr Hoyle though and Clark was sacked and replaced by Simon Grayson not long after.
In his playing career he was one of the few players to have played for both Newcastle and Sunderland. His Sunderland career came to an abrupt end though. While on a night out with friends in London, he stopped to pose for photos with a group of Newcastle supporters, who put a t-shirt on him bearing the phrase "Mackem Bastards". He claimed he knew nothing about what was on the shirt, but it ended up with him being transferred to Fulham.
Unfortunately for us, his time at the Cottage coincided with the meltdown of the Steve Bruce era at Town and his man of the match performance in our end of season 0-3 defeat down there in May 2000 saw us miss out on the Play Offs after being in the top 6 since October. The following season, Town got relegated and Clark played a major role in Fulham's promotion to the Premier League.




Recent Form: Town are 3rd in the league with 28 points and Fulham are 14th with 18.

Last 6 matches:

Town 1-0 Derby
Preston 3-1 Town
Town 0-1 Sheff Weds
Ipswich 0-1 Town
Town 2-1 Rotherham
Reading 1-0 Town

Villa 1-0 Fulham
Fulham 2-2 Norwich
Barnsley 2-4 Fulham
Fulham 1-2 QPR
Nottm Forest 1-1 Fulham
Fulham 0-4 Bristol City

Leading League Goalscorers:

Town:
Elias Kachunga (5)
Nahki Wells (3)
Kasey Palmer (2)

Fulham:
Tom Cairney (3)
Sone Aluko (2)
Lucas Piazon (2)

Hugs for Nahki at the Cottage last season

Pre match bevvies:

Well there's an event at the Half Moon pub, organised by the Southern Terriers, where Andy Booth and David Taylor will be doing a Q&A. The address of the pub is 93 Lower Richmond Road, London, SW15 1EU.
Read more at http://www.htafc.com/news/article/2016-1...3gcMxYC.99

[WakeyTerrier]

Nice M'Lord, 6 of us traveling down on the train on Saturday and meeting 2 others down there so a good little turn out from us and the other 2000+ who have bought tickets. I don't know what it is about Fulham that makes it so popular with Town fans. The ground isn't great, the stewarding isn't great. It's a fair old walk to the tube station(or swim as it was 2 seasons ago), the beer isn't cheap in that area of London either. Why do Town fans love it?

My head tells me that any point away from home in this division is a good point, but my heart tells me we really should be coming away with 3 points this weekend. Fulham aren't the best but they do seem to get results against us of late.

[SHEP_HTAFC]

Great thread Snoots....very informative
I was at that 3-0 loss to put us out of the play offs in 2000. Absolutely packed with Town fans that day. Bruce was a complete idiot that day for his so called tactics.
I think we can win this.....play possession footy in first half and grow into the game in the 2nd.

Footy trivia fact..... Scott Parker is the only player in England history to win his first 4 full caps playing for 4 different teams (Charlton, Chelsea, Newcastle, West Ham).

[jjamez]

clark made a rod for his own back with some of his comments and actions, along with the number of signings he made.

but i do think he gets some unfair stick from some quarters, he was passionate about the game and kicked every ball, three managers we had when he left didnt appear as passionate on the touchline, wagner shows that passion and the crowd start getting involved again. some of his signings were turd, but some were gems, pilks, rhodes, novak (we ended up using him wrong), clarke, pelts mk1, ward (loan), afobe. theres a lot of talent there and a lot of them began showing it at town.

his first full season was the best season i've had at the club, some of the football on show was quality as was the atmosphere, this season is the first one that rivals that feeling both on and off the pitch and i think a lot of it is because deano has gone back to what made him truly enjoy being the chairman, a young enthusiastic manager who really wants to make his own mark on a club, or project as sir david calls it.

the loss against milwall hurt clark, he became more reserved, not wanting to lose, rather than being in the 'we'll score one more than you' school, this is where he gets his stick for his football, but its not the worst we've ever had at the club, he just shot himself in the foot rather sticking to his ideas. its hampered his managerial career and i dont think he'll ever come back from it. his first full year here will be the best of his managerial career.

[WakeyTerrier]

A word of warning to anyone travelling to this the District Line(green) is closed for engineering works so here are your best options

If arriving the train at Kings Cross- get the Piccadilly line to Earls Court and change for the district line to Putney Bridge(this section of the line is open)

Arriving at Euston- get the Victoria Line to Green Park and then Change to the Piccadilly Line for Earls Court, change at EC for the district line as per KX instruction

Arriving by car, probably best to head for Watford Junction and get a Southern train in as far as West Brompton, Change at West Brompton for the District Line and you'll be in Putney Bridge before you know it.

Loads of boozers around Putney Bridge way but the last time I went (2yrs since) they were rammed so be prepared to queue for liquid rehydration. Me personally, I'm getting off at Parsons Green station and heading towards the Oktoberfest Bar down Fulham Road for a stein of German beer, bankrupt by 2:30pm

[theo_luddite]

An excellent read M'lud and some good tips and thoughts from the rest of you. Fulham's defence has been truly awful for the last two seasons, shipping 83 and 79 league goals. McCormack's goals certainly went a long way towards keeping them in this division along with Dembele last season. So what do they do? Sell leading scorer McCormack to Villa and let Dembele join Celtic on a free.

They have spent a fair bit of the McCormack brass on new players mind and set off like a house on fire this season. 3 wins and two draws in their first 5 games put them up there in the top 6 with us in the early running. That the only game they've won since was the match at Barnsley that Snoots referred to has seen them slip down to mid-table. So all in all it's a good time to put our miserable run of results at Craven Cottage to an end.

[Lord Snooty]

Wagz sayz Scanz doubtful for Saturday. Still struggling with hip injury.

[WakeyTerrier]

Hudson will start on Saturday as well.

[Lord Snooty]

Three changes. Hudson for Hefele. Mooy for Hogg. Bunn for VLP.

[jjamez]

Paurevic on the bench too