The Tanner Report/A memorable day
It was a long but satisfying day travelling up to Sheffield by car with Bob Tickler’s Godson Jamie and 2 other Fulham supporters. Sheffield Wednesday fielded a team of reserves and despite taking the lead were all but overwhelmed by a stronger Fulham team who won 2-1 but failed to maximise their chances. We play Reading in the first of the play offs Saturday. Having won 5 out of 6 games coming into the play offs we are certainly the team to avoid. Sheffield Wednesday with a canny manager and massive support will be the team we want to avoid.
Fulham rested Stefan Johanson arguably our best player over this successful cycle and Ryan Sessesgnon. I expect both to return and Ayite to play instead of Chris Martin. Slavisa Jokatovic took Tom Cairney off with 20 minutes left. So we will have relatively fresh team ready for Saturday against Reading with the additional advantage of having momentum and a record of 3 wins, two draws and one defeat with our competitors in the play offs. Against that we have yet to win a play off match.
After the game I consoled with Ivan. His Brighton were so close to being crowned champions when David Stockdale failed to get his body behind a soft shot letting the ball and Newcastle in. The Seagulls and Stockdale have had a fabulous season, are in the Premier for the first time and there is much more to celebrate than mourn.
When in the away end I look for friendly faces I know. I was delighted to be hailed by a Yorkshireman Ray who though based in Leeds is a massive Fulham supporter and follows the Whites as much as the geographically can. He sat next to us and comforted us with the statistic that Fulham have won 20 games after going one nil down. Another one is that had we converted 9 of the penalties we missed we would almost certainly be back in the Premier already.
In the great Rust debate of attendance v tv watching, the latter was not an option though it is for the away play off game when the tickets will be gold dust. Jamie certainly enjoyed the expectation, travel, visiting a new city and stadium, the camaraderie of the fans but truth be told it was a long day of 18 hours and on return at 8-45 pm I was pooped.
