Game 10 - Fulham away (Carling Cup 2nd Round)

27th August 2008

Carling cup 2nd round day and a return to the scene of one of THE great nights in following Leicester. Craven Cottage, home of premiership Fulham. After an early start at work and a lunchtime departure, I headed off to the walkers stadium to make my Fox Travel debut for the season. It seems like I wasn't the only tired one though as the kids were clearly worn out before we'd even reached the services. Bless them.

We parked up the coaches about five minutes away from the ground and after a quick walk over to see what was going on, me, James and John made our way into Putney for a quick drink in what can only be described as a wine bar. Not quite the Eight Bells pub which we were aiming for but it served alcohol and therefore was good enough for us (even if it was possibly the worst and most expensive pint known to man kind). In fact it was so bad that I left those two there and headed off through the park on my way back to the ground to see who was out and about.

After a long chat with Colleen through the gates, Helen finally showed up along with the foxestalk lot and we made our way up into the stands to see what fun and games we would be in for. Could this really compete with the 4-3 game of the FA Cup two years ago?

The players made their way out onto the pitch and pretty soon we were off. A fairly even start to the game kept the spirits in the away end up and it was only a heavily deflected Zoltan Gera effort that put seperated us at the break. You could sense the optimism in the densely packed stand as the atmosphere reached epic proportions as the game went on. In fact at one point it was practically two men to a seat.

At half time, the now world famous foxestalk flag made an appearance and a random guy appeared taking photos of us and the flag. This caused a number of mixed emotions..... Jamie on the left didn't like it and was in tears, Jodie couldn't bare to be seen with us, Chloe was loving the attention, Ched has never been happier, Lil Dave has never been drunker and Angry Dad was pulling his hair out. And as for me..... I chose to ignore him, hook my thumb through the belt loop and appear to be ready to do some line dancing....How can one photo show so many emotions?

Back to the match though and within two minutes of the restart and the introduction of Maxi Gradel paid off. The new song inspired him and he was an inspiration setting up Paul Dickov to equalise. Celebrations? You havent seen anything like it till you've been in the middle of a trademarked Foxestalk pile on. Hugged from all sides, being thrown around like a rag doll and by the time your finished you're never in the same row let alone the same seat. 4 bruises and bent glasses just demonstrate how much carnage it was!! Unbelievable!

In fact it took about two minutes to recover.... and by then Andy King came storming in to score a second for us and put us ahead. Cue further carnage and more bruises but boy was it worth it!! We were in dream land once more in the cottage. And we wernt ready to stop there. City pushed on and on looking for the third goal to seal it. Howard had one disallowed and shots flew just wide as we looked like we could pull off the shock of the round........

But as is the way in that part of London, it wasn't to be and in an exact replica of the last Fulham game, and Chelsea last season, late heartbreak was to come our way. A Jimmy Bullard screamer made it two goals a piece (not bad for someone who poses as a photographer at City games!), and an injury time deflected effort from Danny Murphy put Fulham through to the next round. Jammy buggers!!

Boy were we proud though and we let the players know it, singing them off the field. 90 minutes non-stop singing and an emotional rollercoaster had left me well and truly drained of all energy.

We switched coaches on the way home so we could sit with Chloe and Jodie and so much for my plan to sleep!! Dexter's Delights made sure that I was kept well awake. In fact it was quite an eventful trip home involving teaching pensioners what Max Gradel would be doing with their wives, whether we would want children with him and how long can a battery last once it's been down Chloe's bra. For future reference, a disappointing 10 seconds!! Sweet balancing is much more of her talent - keep up the good work Dexter!!

So that was Fulham. Two matches at Craven Cottage and two heartbreaking performances that left us full of pride. Pride is all well and good, but at the end of the day, we're out of the competition and that's one less trip to Wembley for the diary..... but as we sang on the night.... Que Sera Sera!!