Championship 2019/20 Play-offs (Fulham Promoted)

[Rick]

@Danny fair enough mate, you know your team. It is such a disappointment that you fucked it against Barnsley, that one was so poor. Tonight wasn’t much better. You said several times that you’re a better side than Fulham; that certainly didn’t show tonight. Your big players went missing completely. 

[Devil-Dick Willie]

44 minutes ago, Danny said:

This is such a myth from people who just don’t watch us, or Leeds fan who’ve made a soundbite out of some fairly innocuous statements  We’ve “bottled” one game this season and that was Barnsley. We won 7 games in a row to cut down a 10 point gap, we were bound to tail off. Literally how form works.

Overall there was little to seperate ourselves and Fulham today apart from Bryan’s moment of brilliance, without that I think this goes to penalties. Was a tale of two teams who have just run out of gas after a long season, boring, cagey, no one really shied away from today’s match it was just no one really had any cutting edge. It was just largely “meh”. Other than Bryan’s moment of brilliance of course.

"Moment of brilliance?"
 

maybe recruit a better fucking keeper next time mr best recruitment in the world  

[Mpache]

1 hour ago, Danny said:

This is such a myth from people who just don’t watch us.

Kind of a theme on this forum, I feel ya.

[Lucas]

1 hour ago, Rick said:

Brentford just can’t handle pressure it seems. Against Stoke, Barnsley and now tonight they have shown a real lack of confidence when it mattered most. 

No, I agree with you @Rick fully and I said this earlier in the thread during the playoff semis.

For me, they do not handle pressure when they are favourites. Losing to Stoke, Barnsley, Swansea first leg and now this final where eachtime they would have started the game as favourites show that.

@Danny has his opinion on that which is fine and I respect what he says but for me, that club loves the underdog tag, relishes it and performs when the expectancy isnt on them. However not so hot when it's not. We could go round in circles on that matter so that is the last I'll say on that.

 

Anyway as for the game, less said the better really. It was dreadful but both sides were incredibly cagey and scared. It's such a huge match but no one really took it by the scruff of the neck. It passed a lot of them by.

Fulham changed the way they play to negate Brentford and I think Brentford's front three struggled all night to get in the game. It meant Fulham were not as expansive but ultimately it worked I guess as Brentford just couldn't crack them. Watkins for example had no space whatsoever, Hector was up his arse always.

It was pretty even, Fulham created the more threats I'd say but nothing worth bragging about, neither keeper had a lot to do. 

I would definitely say Harrison Reed and Cairney can count themselves fortunate on another night they could be reds. Id be fuming if they went in on our players like that and only got yellows.

The goal is sickening really. Reya actually has been in good form, I know he had a clanger against us but I thought he was good against Swansea. Just pure lack of concentration really. He never sae it coming.

Very interesting to hear that Bryan said the Fulham staff had done their homework on Reya coming out too much, which Parker confirmed. That was a great spot.

Listening to Parker at the end getting emotional, I felt for him. You can tell it means a lot and Fulham had been there or thereabouts around the Top 3 for a lot of it, so its not like they don't deserve it. 

I really feel for Brentford because they have played some great football this season. They deserved to leave their ground and say goodbye properly in front of the fans and they were incredibly close to going up so they have my sympathies.

I think Sky have gone overboard at times in their coverage on them and over embellished their ability but they are a bloody good side, gave us a couple good battles and certainly pushed us over the line. Keep that team or most of them and they will cake walk it next year.

Plus, with them playing as well as they did post break, we had to raise our game sharpish and ultimately it kicked our asses and gave us the motivation to finish as strong as we did.

It's been a learning curve though for their manager. I'm not a fan of Thomas Frank, he isn't very likeable but that is his style. I think he's got a lot to say at times and Tom Cariney mentioned about it post match as well. He needs to learn to be quiet because he does the team talk for the opposition more than he realises. Too much of this 'they fear us' business. Focus on your own team.

 

[Devil-Dick Willie]

While it's cool to hear Fulham scouted the shithouse bee keeper, it would have been a much more impressive goal were it lashed in with venom rather than bobbled over past a flailing fuckwit watching his career flash before his eyes. 

[Danny]

Long post, hopefully my last on tonight but probably not.

Over 120 minutes Fulham were the better side, marginally as neither side really looked that dangerous or sharp, but they created more than we did. And that goal from Bryan, what a strike. But yeah, they done little to actually threaten a goal, we done even less. Both sets of players just looked absolutely shattered tonight, not just physically but mentally, it's been a long old season, two very tough play-off ties for both and then this, 120 minutes of football, separated by a set-piece that took everyone by surprise.

Some players played well tonight including Raya, our entire back line, Watkins for the little he was fed...others didn't, Mbeumo, Benrahma, Jensen fairly pedestrian. There are clearly issues regarding some performances tonight but overall it was what it was, we just ran out of steam after a long old slog and a great 7 game win streak after the break to bring us back into contention. To put this season into context, last season we finished 11th after Thomas Frank took over midseason. 11th. This season we have finished 3rd and reached a play-off final, that is a massive jump and can only be commended. Yes we spent £30m last Summer, but look what we spent prior to that, also look at wage budgets that we can't compete with. Of the team we have, 5-6 regular starters hadn't played Championship football before. Of our regular starters 7-8 players joined in the Summer.

Leeds and West Brom were in the play-offs last season, Fulham were in the Premier League. We finished 11th. Genuinely can't be prouder of this team and the manager, they've produced wonderful football and have taken this club to the very limits of Premier League football. It wasn't long ago people were questioning whether we'd drop after so many midtable finishes without improvement, we finished last season on 64 points and finished this season on 81.

@Lucas has just mentioned Thomas Frank riling people up and I agree that it's a learning curve for him, I went to see a comedian called Sofie Hagen for my girlfriends birthday and she is Danish and there is a large section of her showed based around how to the point Danish people are, in Britian an email asking for a document is "Good morning, hope you're OK. Please may I have the document regarding x, y and z when you're available to send it. Kind Regards, Shelley"....whereas in Denmark it's pretty much "can you send the document". I don't think much of a fuss is made in Denmark over the things Thomas Frank has said this season, but I think in this country people are a lot more sensitive, the press will cut a small piece and turn what was Thomas Frank saying we were the worst possible opposition for Leeds at the time into something for that team to hold onto and drive forward with. I think the only time Thomas Frank has purposely said something that might upset the opposition was saying he was 100% sure we'd beat Swansea, but he wasn't wrong, and it wasn't arrogance, it was belief in the face of a hurdle that was that red card, and then we went out and played them off the park for 80 minutes and won 3-1 on the night. And I don't think Frank will care that he has rubbed people up the wrong way, but I do think he's intelligent enough to realise he'll need to adjust himself to British footballing culture a bit more to prevent these moments.

But, as said above, Frank has taken us from 11th to 3rd, and if this is the way he's made that improvement for us, then I say more next season. I agree that we've not done well in the big pressure moments, but I don't think it's an issue that we can't handle pressure. We were 1-0 down to Swansea after an awful run of form and smashed it, that was not a pressure free game for us, that was us against the ropes. This is just a young team, the first time it's been so high up the table, new pressures, new obstacles and we done brilliantly enough to get to where we have. If next season the same issues arise then that is a problem, but this season, you just can't ask for much more than what the players gave us considering where we finished last season. Also let's not forget, beginning of the season everyone's going on about how we're really going to miss Maupay, will struggle without a goalscorer....now it's we should have got automatics with Watkins and co. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Couple of side notes, Fulham very lucky not to be down to 9 men. We've certainly been unlucky with red cards throughout the play offs. David Raya is a machine and has been class for us regardless of that goal

On a positive note, the last time we lost a play-off final we secured automatic promotion the next season. Let's hope we can recreate that. You Bees.

[Spike]

54 minutes ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

"Moment of brilliance?"
 

maybe recruit a better fucking keeper next time mr best recruitment in the world  

Cunt you wouldn't know brilliance from a turd in the water watching Werder Bremen all season. Your brain has rotted and not from the ashes either

[Danny]

Also the more I watch that Mitrovic push the more I reckon if that's reviewed on VAR he gets sent off too...but oh well 

[Devil-Dick Willie]

1 hour ago, Spike said:

Cunt you wouldn't know brilliance from a turd in the water watching Werder Bremen all season. Your brain has rotted and not from the ashes either

And like a turd in the water we float on motherfucker. We aren't playing 2nd division next season

[Spike]

54 minutes ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

And like a turd in the water we float on motherfucker. We aren't playing 2nd division next season

Sometimes it takes two flushes to remove the turd in the bowl

[Stan]

6 hours ago, Danny said:

Also the more I watch that Mitrovic push the more I reckon if that's reviewed on VAR he gets sent off too...but oh well 

Absolutely no doubt. I've got a feeling Reed's challenge early on gets upgraded too. 

[Bluebird Hewitt]

11 hours ago, LFCMadLad said:

?

Cant fucking stand Fulham personally. 

 

10 hours ago, Stan said:

Didn't a lot of fans want Brentford up? 

Tbh, it's been for at least the last couple of years, when they were promoted in the 17/18 season because they play tippy tappy, slippy slappy, nippy nappy, wippy wappy, bippy bappy football and the wanking hasn't stopped since (how they deserve this, deserve that etc). 

Just getting tiresome now.