saintant

Phew! That makes me feel a whole lot more confident. Nice to know we can relax now and look forward to the play-offs 🙂

I have a nagging worry about Norwich at home because they'll be no pushovers. Having watched them yesterday against Leeds, although they lost 3-0, they had plenty of good moments and showed they can produce some very good football. I think they have a long injury list too so presume they'll have players to come back in when fit who will do a job. Leeds were good yesterday and deserved to win but Norwich showed enough to convince me we'll do well to beat them at St Marys.

Tom Fellows has been a major disappointment. For whatever reason he seems to have lost his way and is very low on confidence. I think we all expected to see him flying down the wing and whipping in dangerous crosses, creating chances and weighing in with a few goals. It just hasn't happened for him. There must be some way for the coaching staff to get him firing again. I get that he's a poor finisher so isn't going to be a regular goal scorer but we need to get more out of him or he may as well go at the end of the season. With Leo doing his stuff on one wing it would be great to see Fellows in full cry on the other because we'd be a so much better side. It's a head scratcher for sure because the guy has bundles of talent.

I think I get your drift but don't agree with your wording. Yes Fulham were well ahead on most stats (apart from the most important one) but for all their possession, corners and shots they didn't really create much at all that could be classed as decent chances. We, on the other hand, with far less possession created much the better decent chances and should have won more comfortably. We certainly weren't 'outclassed' statistically or in any other way.

Big shout out to Matsuki in the lead up to the penalty. He's in midfield when their keeper clears and he springs tremendously to head the ball forward. It reaches Stewart who moves it on to Azaz who chops inside and is caught. Doesn't happen without Matsuki winning that header.

🙂

So you failed to notice that Fulham had players in the box when we were taking a goal kick then? Or maybe you just don't know the rules.

Never lost an FA Cup tie.

Always been a very bad loser.

Manning takes a lot of stick but I thought he was very good today. Fellows is still my biggest disappointment as I expected a lot from him but he's just not delivering.

Well deserved win. Fulham had loads of possession and umpteen corners but we carved out the better clear cut chances. Great penalty under pressure from Ross who deserves more of these moments. Well played boys.

Fellows again has been lightweight and hardly involved. He's failed to grab another opportunity. Maybe replace with Edozie or Matsuki. Stewart is cleverer than Larin so would cause Fulham more issues. We've had our moments but failed to make the most of them. Fulham will probably bring on their big guns and win the game.

The 'Hatters' ???????

Time for Fellows to step up and show what he's made of. He needs to give Fulham problems and is overdue a good performance.

Fulham resting quite a few but obviously leaves them with a strong bench.

I think our badge is one of the worst in professional football and should be scrapped for something less like an amateurish childish design that is long overdue an update with none of its features retained..

They'll likely be battling to be champions so won't ease off the gas.

As the remaining matches get less and less I reckon nerves will start to kick in big time because of the magnitude of what is at stake. It'll be all about which sides deal best with the pressure. We have a side with a fair few players who have experienced the run-in to the play-offs before so that may work in our favour. Right now it looks as though it's going down to the wire. It's made for an exciting season because at one stage we looked to be out of contention but we've now built up some momentum with 20 points out of 24.

Potential banana skin avoided. In truth it was a fairly comfortable routine win achieved without busting a gut. All we can do is keep winning our games and see where that takes us.

So as well as being hard work it's dangerous too!

Hard work this walking football you know 🙂

Following on from this I was thinking we have scored 4 goals in periods of 30 minutes or less on 3 occasions now - Charlton, Leicester and QPR. Proof that this team can rattle in the goals if they stay on the front foot and don't go into pass for passing sake mode. Need to show this ruthlessness more often because its in our wheelhouse.

Centre backs for me always perform better as a pair in a back four. Get two who gel together and they will grow into a strong partnership the more games they play as a pair. We are seeing this with Stephens and THB both of who struggled as one of three centre backs but are now going from strength to strength helping make us far harder to score against. Have to admit I'd written off Capt Jack but he's turning in some consistent performances alongside THB.

Can't argue with that. Considering his age and lack of experience his record to date is remarkable. He has the potential to manage at the highest level if he continues turning in these numbers. Probably a bit early to know what the future holds for him but you can't question his record with us so far.

He's surprisingly good in the air as he showed last night and I think he also scored another good header in another match...maybe the Doncaster cup tie. Has a decent spring on him.