Fulham vs. Preston North End

Fulham hosts Preston North End on Tuesday night. The match kicks off at 2:45pm EDT and will be available on FFCTV.

The one possible bright side of the loss to Derby after having a shot to secure promotion is that Fulham now has the chance to win promotion in front of their own fans. If Nottingham Forest should lose today against West Brom, Fulham will clinch promotion and only have the title to play for. I'll be pulling for Forest today so that Fulham have a chance at least to get promoted on their own terms.

A win for Fulham against PNE is no sure thing. In fact, it feels like anyone has a shot to take out Fulham right now - especially the remaining competition on Fulham's schedule. Preston is in 13th and seven points outside of the playoffs, so they are almost certainly headed for another season in the Championship, but they've still got a respectable squad. When they faced off in November, Fulham got an early lead from Tim Ream - and when Tim Ream is your leading scorer you can guess what kind of day it was: weird. Fulham only had two shots on target and were a bit lucky to escape with a draw.

After giving up back-to-back losses for the first time this season, I think Fulham wins three points, finally finally gets the job done on promotion, and takes the edge off of things a little.

If you want to follow the Nottingham Forest/West Brom match it will be on ESPN+ at 3pm EDT today.

 

Looks like Forest won't do us a favor. Rude. Up to us now.

 

I’m still puzzled why the only match in the Championship today isn’t on ESPN+. Why pay the extra money? Bogus.

 

Time to get the job done! Here's the starting XI:
Rodak
Williams, Tosin, Ream, Bryan
Reed, Cairney
Wilson, Carvalho, Kebano
Mitrovic

Subs: Gazziniga, Hector, Robinson, Chalobah, Seri, De Cordova-Reid, Muniz

I can't say that is entirely the lineup I wanted to see, but whatever gets three points will do.

Here are two trivia questions for you (answers below). There were six players who played some time in both the last two promotion playoff games.

1. Of the six players, which three are in tonight's lineup?
2. Of the six players, what three are no longer on the team?

Fulham's had three different managers to close out the past three Championship seasons, but there are still a number of players who have been through it all.

The three players in tonight's starting lineup that appeared in the playoff matches are Ream, Cairney, and Mitrovic. Not really any surprises there, except maybe Kebano. He was on the team in 2018, but not on the squad for the playoff against Aston Villa.

The three players who appeared in the two playoff matches, but are not on the team any more are Odoi, Kamara, Christie. I had forgotten that Kamara and Christie had played in both the playoff matches.

 

Based on the current table, this is the easiest of Fulham’s final five matches. So I say there’s no time like the present to get the job done. Hopefully they play with a little more urgency and efficiency then recent “go with the flow” matches. I want to see the We’re Going Up banner already.

 

At halftime it sure looks like they want to settle it today in front of the home crowd.

 

We're going up!
PITCH INVASION!!

Gentleman Jim was going on about how he didn't like how people were on the pitch. Then he suddenly stopped mid sentence and said "Oh no." Someone had pointed out his daughters on the field!

 

Classic GJ ^^^^

Now let’s win the title!!

 

Love this. Just wish I got to see it live. Stupid work.

 

The highlights!


Did I say something last match about Fulham taking the joy out of promotion? phhhtttt!! What baloney! This was a joyful night! So glad the highlights included Silva's reaction at the end along with the pitch invasion.

Tonight it was the Fulham that we love from this season. Freeflowing attacks that were so much fun to watch. The highlights didn't show it, but Rodak saved Fulham from falling behind early. That was huge. A Preston player receive a great ball right at the spot, but Tosin threw his body in front to take a lot of power off of it. However, the ball was still goal-bound and Rodak had to reach up and behind himself to make the stop. After that, Fulham took control, scored, and never looked back. That shot they showed from Preston in the highlights was a fingertip save from Rodak that put the ball up off the crossbar. Rodak's efforts should not be forgotten tonight.

But the main event was watching with delight as Mitrovic, Carvalho, Bryan, Kebano, and Wilson linked up to carve their way through Preston's defense. I wasn't sure about playing Bryan, but he has a special connection with Mitrovic and it paid off again tonight. Carvalho's finish on his shot was brilliant since the pass from Kebano took a huge deflection that gave him almost no time to adjust. The highlights also skipped a golden chance that Kebano produced late on that almost gave Seri a clear shot on goal, but was saved by a last gasp interception.

A win on Saturday against Bournemouth will essentially wrap up the title for Fulham since there is no way they will close the 31 goal differential. These are happy days for Fulham!

 

Yes, Mitro scored two today, but I thought his link-up play and passing vision shone especially brightly. Some of these passes were world-class -- should have had a couple assists.

Two jobs left: 1) win the league; 2) get Mitro to 44 goals. It's been a fantastic year to be a Fulham fan.

 

More scenes of the pitch invasion via Sky Sports:

 

How sweet it is! Promotion without the drama of the playoffs! Nice to see the real 2021-22 Fulham return to the form they've displayed for most of the campaign. I've always though Mitro was an above average passer and hold up player. If anyone deserves to be selfish, he does, but he really isn't. He should have far more assists with Fulham, not just this season, but since he arrived. While we certainly deserve to celebrate, it would be nice to complete the job and finish on top. I think our guys are still hungry, and some of them realize this is likely their last four games in a Fulham shirt. Carvalho, of course, is certain, but there most certainly will be others, and they'll want to win a league title for career and personal reasons. Nobody wants to mail in the rest of the season. I don't think we will. But what another memorable night at the Cottage! Tony Fisher and Paul Parrish are smiling.

 

GJ's calls of the three Fulham goals:

 

Love hearing Tim Ream at 1:55 say ‘It ain’t over yet’. Also awesome to listen Marco talking to the team.

 

If I told you that I didn't spend half my day so far watching all these videos (and a few others from the official Fulham youtube)... it would be a lie.

 

So, if we win at Bournemouth, given our goal difference, we're winning the league, right (we'll be 12 points ahead, and they will have 4 games left)? Not sure my math is right.

 

Your math is right. If Fulham wins on Saturday, the best Bournemouth could do at that point is draw even in points with Fulham at 89 points. To win the league they would have to make up the 32 goal gap (minimum, could be more depending on Saturday) that Fulham would have with just 3 games for Fulham and 4 for Bournemouth. That would require something like Fulham losing their remaining matches by 0-5 and Bournemouth winning their remaining matches by 4-0 (plus one 5-0 win somewhere in there). Not going to happen, but still a mathematical possibility.