Roll up for the new game...Baird-baiting

I will be putting up a full account of FtF's visit to the Bridge tomorrow, but one thing about Saturday's game struck me as important enough to deserve its own post. That is the worrying new sport in which Fulham fans are currently indulging: Baird-baiting.

Now, I have to hold my hands up and say that I have been pretty vocal on this blog that Chris Baird had become a liability and needed to be replaced by Volz. I don't regret making those comments because that was my honestly held view and anyone that saw his woeful defensive performance against Manchester City would probably concur.

However, there was a marked improvement in his game on Saturday. He made some fantastic tackles, battled hard all afternoon and generally looked very solid. At long last, I thought, we are starting to see some of the class that had attracted Sanchez to him in the first place. Sadly, though, it still wasn't enough to prevent some fans from verbally assaulting him.

As if the boos when his name was announced weren't embarrassing enough, the very first mistake he made was greeted with a torrent of abuse from the guy sitting behind me; his veins virtually bulging out of his neck with the effort of screaming his venom. When challenged about it, he even admitted Baird had, up to that point, had a good game! Bizarre.

The whole thing made me feel very uncomfortable. Every player on the pitch made mistakes at some stage. Konchesky - as much as he's been one of the stars of our season - allowed Joe Cole in on a number of occasions but there wasn't so much as a negative word uttered in his direction. I'm not saying there should have been; just illustrating the point.

People on the messageboards were even ranting about the fact that he swapped shirts with one of the Chelsea players at the end and was wearing it when he came over to clap us! Not sure the point they were making...Did they think he was trying to get the message across that he'd prefer to be playing for our rivals? Considering the abuse he gets, I personally wouldn't blame him.

I fear the young Irishman is set to become the new 'whipping boy' - a role previously filled by the likes of Zat Knight - often for pretty good reasons - as well as, to a lesser extent, Andy Melville a few years ago. Every slight error of judgment will be seized upon and used as a bat with which to beat him.

If that's the case it will be totally unfair. Sure he has taken his time to adjust to the Premier League - and he is far from the finished article - but Saturday's performance was enough to convince me that this lad has the potential to become one of our most polished defenders - as long as we give him that chance.