Hangeland for captain?

The Daily Mail is reporting today that Roy is set to appoint our giant Norwegian as the skipper for next season and that's a decision I would wholeheartedly support. It always seems sensible to have the captain stationed at the back as they are in a far better position to see how the game is shaping up, identify where we are being over-run and spot weaknesses we can exploit.

Hangeland was also Roy's captain at Viking when he was barely out of nappies so one would presume he has the communication skills to do the job. And anyway, apart from Brede, who else could do it? Aaron Hughes deputised for Brian last year so may also be a contender. The only fear is affecting a decent player's game in a negative way, as seemed to happen when Cookie gave Boa the armband a couple of years ago.

However, Hangeland must be warned that the captain's armband at Fulham appears to be cursed. Back when Brian ripped his knee apart last August we put together a list of the problems suffered by previous skippers. You can read it here. Fingers crossed nothing happens to him as I am convinced that he will be a vital part of next season's team.

John Terry - what a farce!

If you haven't read the papers yet today then I suggest you don't eat anything until you do as they will make you want to vomit. The ridiculous, sycophantic tosh that is being written about John Terry's 'heroic performance' in last night's friendly against the USA plunges new depths.

Take the Daily Mail for example. Under the headline: "Redemption!", it tells in breathless fashion how the Chelsea captain "eased the pain" of last week's Champions League defeat and quotes Terry himself as saying: "I'm a big man, I like the big games and it was great to score."

Now, I've got a heart. I even felt a bit sorry for him last Wednesday when he fluffed his penalty but this farcical, media-inspired, Diana-esque outpouring of grief just makes us football fans look pathetic. I can see why those who don't follow the game look upon us with a mixture of pity and loathing.

For goodness sakes let's get a grip. Last time I checked Terry hadn't just been diagnosed with an incurable disease and I'm fairly sure that neither of his legs have been blown off. All that happened was he missed a penatly. BIG deal.

More Fulham players to leave?

Roy's axe has certainly been swinging this week with the departure of 10 members of our over-inflated squad, including notable names such as Brian McBride, Carlos Bocanegra and Tony Warner, who have all played prominent roles in the past couple of years. We at FtF would like to thank them all and wish them the very best of luck wherever their careers take them next.

We currently have 26 players on the roster: four goalkeepers, nine defenders, nine midfielders and four attackers. So who is going to leave next? I think we can be fairly certain that more depatures are on the cards but I guess it will be down to how long there is to go on the contracts of certain players - and whether anyone else is interested in signing them.

Of the full list below, I imagine the following could find their positions in doubt: Antti Niemi, Ricardo Batista, Dejan Stefanovich, Chris Baird, Seol Ki-Hyeon, Alexey Smertin, Lee Cook (if he actually exists). But hey, what do I know? Volzy may also find himself surplus to requirements but, personally, I'd prefer him to stay as he is so versatile.

Goalkeepers
Kasey Keller, Ricardo Batista, Antti Niemi, Mark Schwarzer

Defenders
Moritz Volz, Dejan Stefanovic, Paul Konchesky, Aaron Hughes, Elliot Omozusi, Brede Hangeland, Toni Kallio, Chris Baird, Adrian Leijer

Midfielders
Seol Ki-Hyeon, Alexey Smertin, Lee Cook, Danny Murphy, Leon Andreasen, Simon Davies, Jimmy Bullard, Clint Dempsey, Hameur Bouazza

Attackers
David Healy, Joe Kamara, Eddie Johnson, Erik Nevland

Brian McBride - a rare breed

We all knew it was coming but Brian McBride's announcement that he was leaving Fulham still brought a lump to my throat. Although it was increasingly obvious at the back end of the season that old father time was beginning to catch up with our American superstar, he still proved himself to be more than capable of banging in the goals when it really mattered - particularly the crucial strikes against Everton, Reading and Birmingham.

However, there was far more to King Brian than just his goal scoring prowess. He was clearly a leader of men who commanded respect in the dressing room. An increasingly rare phenomenon in the modern game, he was also an educated, articulate, quiet, humble man who always treated with complete respect the autograph-hunting fans that approached him outside the stadiums.

FtF was fortunate to meet him after the Portsmouth game and he was as gracious as you would expect. A lovely guy and a Fulham legend. Good luck Brian and thanks for all the memories. You will be missed, that is for sure.

Tony Warner released

Sad news on the main site about Tony Warner being released. Okay I know he probably wasn't Premier League standard but I can remember him making some corking saves in the past. Perhaps his most impressive performance for us was when he came on as a sub for Mark Crossley in the home game against Liverpool a few years ago. Anyhow, good luck Tony.

Why am I supporting the USA???

Okay, cards on the table time. I'm a proud Englishman (if there is such a thing!) but have divided loyalties ahead of tonight's international friendly as we now have a real bond with our American cousins. I remember having the same bizarre feeling when England were playing Portugal a few years back when Gary Neville (I believe) upended Boa and I found myself hurling abuse at the television! Am I alone?

Is it bye bye Joe

After hitting a staggeringly impressive six goals all season (five league, one cup) Joe Kamara has revealed he's considering his options after being head hunted by rival clubs. Disappointing stuff to hear this, particularly given the fact that he's admitted under-performing for us. Can't imagine for a second that any top 10 clubs would give him a second glance so imagine he's raising the prospect of leaving to help bolster the terms of his contract.

No European tour for us then...

Bad news but I suppose we can't complain given the week we've had. Would have been nice though...

Season tickets on sale

For those who are willing to subject themselves to another nail biting, emotional roller coaster, season tickets are now available via the main site. Those renewing before June 12th will also be given a Great Escape DVD which won't be available in the shops. Click here for more.

Fascinating stats on our season

My unpaid researcher - okay, my Dad - has been ploughing through the statistics surrounding our turbulent season and has come up with some pretty stark conclusions. As you will see, it's actually been our away form that has saved us...bizarre huh?!!

Where did we get points on our travels?
Total: 16

Three points:
Reading
Manchester City
Portsmouth

One point:
Chelsea
Blackburn
Wigan
Sunderland
Bolton
Birmingham
Derby


Who did we pick up points from at home?
Total: 20

Threee points
Everton
Aston Villa
Bolton
Reading
Birmingham

One point
Blackburn
Manchester City
Spurs
Wigan
Derby


Overall fast facts

• We took 16 points off the top nine clubs
• We took 20 points off the bottom nine clubs
• Only 11 clubs scored more points than us away
• Eighteen clubs scored more points than us at home
• We let in 31 goals at home - yet only 29 away
• Only 8 clubs conceded less away goals
• Only 2 clubs scored less goals than us at home

David James wanted us to be relegated

I am hoping he has been misquoted but some not very pleasant comments from David James on the Setanta site, particularly given the rousing reception WE gave him at Fratton Park.

"I suppose I was hoping we would beat Fulham just to put them down - having been in an end of season game and getting relegated [with West Ham United] I wanted someone else to feel that. But I would much rather have been playing.
"And my concerns haven't been the Cup Final, my concerns have been playing in The Premier League. We had a very good run of form until the Man City game, which we lost, and you want to be out there contributing to winning ways."

Volz speaks

As I said, I was disappointed to not be part of it and
have felt left out at times.

But I care a lot about that club and while it
was disappointing not to be in the team as much as I’d have liked, that was all irrelevant compared to the job at hand which was staying up.

I’ve just had to put any individual agendas to one side over the past few weeks. Whatever it was going to take for us to stay up, we had to do.

Good stuff, as always, over on the personal website of Moritz Volz where he talks about his emotions at not being involved in our end of season run-in, and how he headed to Craven Cottage on Sunday to watch our match against Pompey. Really feel for him.

Who put the ball in the net?

Having enjoyed such a clutch of victories lately I had lost track of who had actually been banging them in for us this season. I had a hazy recollection that Dempsey was our leading scorer a few months back but decided to have a trawl through the statistics.

To my surprise four players have netted six times (league and cup). Dempsey is still the top scorer in the league, despite his last goal coming in our defeat at White Hart Lane back in December, while 11 individuals managed to get on the scoresheet at some stage.

Initially I thought it was quite impressive to have that number scoring - but then I looked at some of our rivals and a different picture emerged. At the top end of the table, Man Utd had 15 different scorers (Ronaldo topping the list with 41!!!!), while 17 Chelsea players got on the list with Lampard taking the lion's share of 19.

At the bottom, Derby had 13 players on the scoring chart with Miller top of the tree on six goals; Reading also had 13 scorers with Kitson the best of the bunch on 10, while Birmingham had the same number as us, although top scorer Forssell bagged nine.

Here is our full run-down

Six goals
Dempsey (all in league)
Healy (4 league, 2 cup)
Kamara (five league, 1 cup)
Murphy (5 league, 1 cup)

Five goals (all in league)
Davies

Four goals (all in league)
McBride

Two goals (all in league)
Bullard
Nevland
Smertin

One goal (all in league)
Bocanegra
Bouazza

FtF End of Season Awards

Here are our inaugral just for fun awards...some less serious ones are also on their way...

Player of the season
Winner
Simon Davies

Highly recommended
Jimmy Bullard
Brian McBride


Best new signing (since May 07)
Winner
Paul Konchesky

Highly recommended
Brede Hangeland
Danny Murphy


Best team performance
Winner
Reading away

Highly recommended
Man City away
Birmingham home


Most important goal
Winner
Danny Murphy's header against Pompey away

Highly recommended
Joe Kamara's winner against Man City away
Brian's opener against Birmingham at home


Goal of the season
Winner
Joe Kamara's overhead volley against Spurs at home

Highly recommended
David Healy's super strike against Sunderland at home
Jimmy Bullard's free kick away at Blackburn


Best individual performance
Winner
Joe Kamara against Man City away

Highly recommended
Brede Hangeland against Everton at home
Simon Davies against Chelsea away


Most valuable person for our season
Winner
Brian McBride

Highly recommended
Roy Hodgson
Jimmy Bullard


Unsung hero award
Winner
Simon Davies

Highly recommended
Danny Murphy (yes, I know, unsung by us as well!)
Aaron Hughes


Best goalkeeping performance of the year
Winner
Antti Niemi against Derby at home

Highly recommended
Antti Niemi against Blackburn at home
Kasey Keller against Pompey away


Chant of the season
Winner
We've hit it three times, we've hit it three times, that f*cking crossbar, we've hit it three times
Sung at Reading away after Brian, Jimmy and Hangeland all came close.

Highly recommended
Jim Bullard Bullard, he's better than Steve Gerrard....
We won it one time, we won it one time, the Intertoto, we won it one time


Best atmosphere at a match
Winner
At home against Birmingham

Highly recommended
Away at Reading
Away at Pompey

Totally exhausted

Call it coming down from a great high but I feel emotionally drained today! The angst and worry, followed by the jubilation and euphoria has taken something of a toll on me. I fully appreciate that non-footballing people reading this would probably advise that I be sectioned but surely I can't be alone?!

Could we be going on a European tour?

Amazingly our fantastic start to the week might get even better!!! There is a chance that we have leapfrogged Man City in the fair play league, and if so, that would put us in the qualifying rounds for the UEFA Cup. How mad is that?!!! Click here to read more.

Pompey coverage

Here are links to our coverage of yesterday's momentous day:

FtF goes to Pompey

Player rankings

Portsmouth v Fulham: Player rankings

Here's how I scored the lads in our day of destiny battle at Fratton Park


Keller - 7/10
Despite losing his head for a few seconds and charging around trying to dribble past attackers, he was in great form and made some outstanding saves.

Konchesky - 7/10
Super performance. Solid as a rock and started to come forward more which was good to see.

Hughes - 6/10
Quietly competent.

Hangeland - 8/10
Brilliant performance. Fast becoming our Rio Ferdinand. Looked calm, composed and nullified the threat of Jermaine Defoe.

Stalteri - 6/10
Another decent performance. Put in some telling crosses.

Bullard - 6/10
Feels like treason whenever you talk about Jimmy in anything other than fulsome praise, but not one of his better showings. Gave the ball away a lot but it was his free kick that led to the goal.

Murphy - 8/10
A very good performance, crowned with the winning goal. He 'rose like a salmon' as a mate of mine watching on the box commented later.

Davies - 7/10
The usual bustling display from one of our contenders for player of the season.

Dempsey - 6/10
Again, a decent display. Made way for Nevland in the second half as we stepped up the pace to get that all important goal.

Kamara - 6/10
Frustrating one minute; genius the next. The performance was this guy in a nutshell. Still great to have him in the team and his runs terrify defences.

McBride - 7/10
Led the line and was an inspiration...as always.

Substitutes

Nevland - 6/10
Beautiful bit of skill to take the ball round a defender and unlucky it didn't lead to a goal.

Andreason - 6/10
Solid as usual.

Man of the Match: Danny Murphy. His all-round performance merited it - and the goal put the decision beyond doubt.

FtF goes to Pompey

I woke up yesterday morning in a terrible mood to be honest. I was totally convinced that we'd scrape a 1-1 draw at Portsmouth and Reading would trounce Derby, a result that would have sent us down to the Championship. This state of mind lasted throughout the two hour drive along the south coast...and for most of the match!

After finding a free car parking space two minutes away from the ground (I won't list the place here as I want it for next season, too, but any readers wanting the heads-up should email me!) we headed for McDonalds as there were still three hours to go before kick off.

In the restaurant we met Paul Konchesky's family - including his Dad and two boys - who were very gracious. They said everyone in the team was nervous about the match and just wanted to get on with it. We felt the same.

Into the ground as soon as the gates opened and what a refreshing change. The police were friendly, the stewards were smiling (learn from them Fulham) and we weren't even strip-searched for our bottle tops. Amazing stuff.

Just before 2pm Al Fayed came into view and was serenaded with the 'QPR chant', at which point he came over and gave us a wave. Very few chairman are held in such high regard and the warmth from us fans was genuine.

Waiting for three o'clock to come round was agony. The fans - 2,000, 3000? - were in great voice, though, and went through the entire repertoire of songs, including long-overdue anthems for both Simon Davies and Brede Hangeland.

When kick off finally came it signalled the start of 75 minutes of sheer hell, followed by 15 of nail biting terror - but looking back it was worth every minute. Pompey certainly couldn't be accused of letting us win, they were all over us like a rash and how we held out I will never know.

The home supporters, who were fantastic to us throughout the day, even patiently waited as we saluted our heros after the final whistle before they could welcome their own team back out onto the pitch for the traditional end of season lap of honour.

Both Sean Davis and Papa Bouba Diop got great receptions from us which was great to see. They were both good servants to our club - particularly Sean, who was given a rousing rendition of: Who put the ball in the Blackburn net?

Bully and Murphy then came out again to clap the fans that had stayed behind. We then chanted: We want Roy, We want Roy - and finally our manager appeared and came over. What a reserved man he is eh? No glory taking, just quietly fitting into the background. He looked genuinely pleased with the reception he was getting which was thoroughly deserved.

McBride and Healy then came out as well before it was finally time to leave the ground. Personally I would have preferred to have stayed there all night!

Outside we gathered behind a barrier near the Fulham coach where a good number of the players, including Boca, Hangeland, McBride, Healy, Murphy and Bullard came over to sign autographs...we managed to get Hangeland and Brian's - both of which will soon be on the wall!

An amusing song/carol for Healy too which went along the lines of:
Away in a manger, no crib for a bed
The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head
The stars in the night sky look down where he-leay, he-leay, he-leay!!

On the way back to the car we met with Brian (and his lovely wife) shook his hand and thanked him for everything. A true gent and a Fulham legend without a doubt.

Needless to say the journey back home was the complete opposite of the earlier trip. Radio Five Live blasting out, chatting, joking, singing. Great stuff and a wonderful, fairy tale ending to a pulsating, frustrating season. I can't wait for August...

We are staying up!!!!!!!!!

To experience games like yesterday at Fratton Park is the reason we all follow football. An unbelievable, emotionally draining 90 minutes of sheer agony, and then undiluted joy. Amazing stuff. Will be back on later with a full report on our trip along the south coast but for now I have just one thing to say: The Whites are Staying UP!!! Sounds good, doesn't it?

Great video

I defy anyone to watch this video without the hairs on the back of their neck standing up...or maybe it's just me...

How can I get through these next 48 hours?

Seriously, I don't know how I can retain my sanity at the moment. Sunday's match is dominating every thought and making it virtually impossible to function. I fully appreciate how absurd this sounds but it's the truth...aaarrrgggh!

Fuham v Birmingham: Player rankings

Here's how I scored the lads against Birmingham...

Keller - 6/10
Nothing much to do but no mistakes either.

Konchesky - 6/10
Solid game from Konch. Remains one of the stars of the season

Hughes - 7/10
Vital clearance early on. If he hadn't reached that ball it could have been a different story.

Hangleand - 8/10
Outstanding display from the big fella. Confident, strong and had Quedrue in his pocket.

Stalteri - 6/10
Not sure if he is the long-term answer to this position but reasonably solid today.

Murphy - 8/10
Excellent...now, that's a word I never thought I'd associate with him.

Bullard - 7/10
You've got to love this guy's effort - even if loses the ball a bit too cheaply at times.

Davies - 7/10
Another great display from arguably our player of the season. Even made The Sun's dream team.

Dempsey - 7/10
The biggest news is he's already signed a contract extension. Solid again today and still our top scorer even though he hasn't had the ball in the back of the net for ages.

McBride - 8/10
What can you say about this guy? The pace is gone but the effort is there and a marvellous opener set us on the road to victory.

Kamara - 7/10
Caused the Birmingham defence endless problems. Definitely warrants his position.

Substitutes
Andreason - 6/10
Solid - as ever.

Nevland - 7/10
Storming goal. When he was charging towards goal you just knew where it was headed.

Healy - 6/10
Always looks dangerous.

Man of the Match: Brede Hangeland. A close one, though, as either McBride or Murphy could have been equally worthy winnners.

Heart in mouth time

What a couple of weeks it has been eh? Sorry I've been unable to keep this blog updated since our dismal showing against Liverpool but to be honest I don't think I would have made much sense anyhow! I couldn't make the Man City game and was listening to TalkSport in the car and planning a: 'Roy Hodgson is a great man but should he remain our manager?' type piece as we were trailing two-nil while Birmingham were two up against Liverpool. By the time I got home both games were level and then: YES!!!!! Unbelievable stuff.

The fightback continued last weekend with a great performance against Birmingham although I felt very uneasy at the chants of: 'We are staying up....' as, being an eternal pessimist, I'm still convinced that we'll drop into the Championship. Naturally I would hate that to be the case, but I'm still very proud of the way the players and fans have performed over the past couple of months.

Roll on Sunday...