da premier bet： It’s been a tough start to life in the Championship for Fulham Football Club. Before a ball was kicked, the Whites had just spent a cool £11million on Ross McCormack, the league’s top scorer the season before and had at the helm a manager with two Bundesliga titles on his CV.
da wazamba： The bookies had Fulham as one of the promotion favourites; the fans were expecting a return to the Premier League at the first attempt. Six weeks and seven Championship games later, Fulham are second bottom of the table without a league win, having sacked their disgraced manager and their promotion hopes seemingly a distant memory. Home losses to lowly Millwall and Wolves as well as a 5-1 thumping away to Derby were notable lows during a disastrous start to the season.
Kit Symons, the clubs U21 manager was appointed on an interim basis tasked with changing the club’s fortunes. Symons made more than 100 appearances for the club as a player, involved in the Fulham team that gained promotion to the Premier League back in 2000.
Having previously coached the club’s development teams, and gaining further coaching experience as assistant manager of Wales, Symons certainly has the credentials for the job. Originally, Fulham’s struggles continued with a 1-0 loss to Blackburn, summarising the task facing the new man in charge. However, a victory in the League Cup was followed with Fulham’s first league win of the season, a 2-1 victory away at Birmingham. Further victories against Bolton and Norwich further strengthened Fulham’s position in the league, with a 2-0 loss to Middlesbrough the only other blemish on an otherwise perfect record for Symons.
The recent victory against Norwich will no doubt be a pivotal moment in the club’s season. Norwich, top of the table on goal difference, visited Craven Cottage with 21 places separating the two teams. The subsequent 1-0 victory was a huge indicator that the team was finally starting to fulfil its potential, and the players were capable of beating the best in the division. The performance was probably one of the worst under Symons, highlighting the determination and persistence of the team to play badly and still grind out a victory.
The quality of football under the old regime was lacklustre and boring; the players looked uninterested and lost. With the introduction of Symons, the smiles were back on the faces of the fans, as well as the players, who were playing for a manager they believed in.
With victory over Norwich, Fulham are now just 10 points of the playoffs. Promotion was the club’s target before the season, and it is still a realistic aim, which can be achieved. Another positive from the Norwich result was the goalscorer, young Sean Kavanagh, another first team player who has come through the category one academy at Fulham.
Symons has been able to turn around the club’s fortunes without removing the youth players from the first team set up, something the fans are extremely proud of. Of the 11 players who started the game against Norwich, four were academy players, with a further two youngsters coming off the bench.
With fellow strugglers Rotherham, Blackpool and Wigan coming up in the next five games, Fulham now have an opportunity to really kick on and climb up the table. As the talented youth players learn and get better with every performance, the quality of the squad should only increase. If key players such as Scott Parker and Ross McCormack can return to form, then Fulham will be a force to be reckoned with as they climb up the table and strive towards the Premier League.
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