Fulham 0-1 Southampton

Fulham 0-1 Southampton
Carabao Cup
Tuesday 27th August 2019

An overnight trip to London on 'other business' coupled with it being Carabao Cup Second Round night meant only one result - a trip to the football!

There were plenty of options to pick from. One was at Selhurst Park, where Crystal Palace hosted Colchester United; another was in the 'Special Fares' zone at the end of the Metropolitan Line where Watford met Coventry City.

However, in the end, a trip to Craven Cottage for the first time in just over eight years where Fulham hosted top flight Southampton was too good to turn down.

The Cottagers had slashed ticket prices to just £15 (or less in 'Restricted View' areas - which is practically every seat). As they usually charge astronomical amounts for Football League fixtures and there was a very good chance they could be eliminated from the cup on this night, I wasn't ever really going to go elsewhere.

At present (and for the next couple of seasons), Craven Cottage is a three-sided ground as the club have chosen in their wisdom to redevelop the Riverside Stand. Seemingly, it's been done to capitalise on potential income that corporate/hospitality areas will bring and it will increase the capacity - not that many games here will actually sell-out for a variety of different reasons.

On the pitch, since Claudio Ranieri tinkered with things and flopped in Fulham's battle for survival last season, he's been succeeded by Scott Parker who has implemented a 'total football' philosophy of pass, pass, pass and keeping passing.

It worked when the Whites spanked Millwall, 4-0, last week, but against Premier League opponents in Southampton, it rarely looked like working as too many passes went astray or were in completely ineffective areas that were never going to cause problems.

Fulham, to their credit, did begin alright though and with a shade of good fortune they would have registered an early lead when Bobby Reid's curling free-kick ricocheted off the woodwork towards Cyrus Christie who saw his rebound attempt tipped onto the crossbar by Alex McCarthy.

The Saints slowly began to get more a foothold in the game and with boss Ralph Hasenhuttl naming a strong side, their quality began to shine as they started to create chances of their own in the build-up to half-time but were unable to take any.

I've said several times previously that 'playing out from the back' - that daft philosophy which has, unfortunately, caught on over the past decade since Pep Guardiola implemented it, causes problems for yourselves and twice, after the re-start, the hosts did this and it nearly proved costly.

Whilst I accept it can work, it only needs one stray pass (as happened), a poor touch (as happened) or to be closed down in a tight spot and suddenly you're in danger. On the whole, this tactic has more negatives than positives and the 'old school' philosophy of 'clear the f**king thing' is quite simply lost on some modern day footballers.

Eventually, having started to dominate proceedings, Southampton made their pressure pay when Nathan Redmond's left-wing cross was volleyed home by Michael Obafemi from close-range, just prior to the hour mark.

Even though both Redmond and Obafemi were later substituted with injury worries, it didn't stop Hasenhuttl's side from pressing for a second goal and spurning some glorious one-on-one chances which would have killed off any lingering hopes of a comeback.

Fulham were indebted to their goalkeeper, Marek Rodak, who twice thwarted Danny Ings, whilst Maya Yoshida also went close. Ex-Reading frontman Shane Long couldn't bag a goal in yet another attack in the closing quarter-of-an-hour or so which, remarkably, didn't end in a second goal.

If the Londoners had equalised then Southampton would have only had themselves to blame because of just how many opportunities they spurned, but an equaliser never looked very likely.

The Saints support were creating all the noise, singing and dancing by the final whistle, and I can only imagine their reaction when they heard the news about the mouth-watering Third Round clash which awaits at local rivals Portsmouth.

On the whole, this wasn't the best game, but probably the best way to revisit a club which I find to be quite strange and have little respect for folk.

Fulham pride themselves on being 'the old club down by the River Thames' and because of the history of Craven Cottage as well, they seemingly thrive on that small club image.

However, they do themselves no favours in the likeability test when it comes to ticket prices - which are absolutely ridiculous! When they got promoted to the Premier League less than 18 months ago, matchday prices went up significantly and they've been more or less maintained now they're back in the second tier.

In a couple of weeks, they play West Bromwich Albion live on Sky Sports, yet they're still charging £45 for hundreds of seats situated behind supporting pillars, blocking the goal/goalmouth and it's utterly ridiculous! A decade ago, they were charging similar when they hosted Juventus (amongst others) en route to reaching the Europa League Final.

Even with inflation, extortion and stretching the imagination somewhat, £45 to watch a televised game in the Championship is ridiculous and WBA never have been, nor ever will be, on a par with Juventus. Just ask Enzo Maresca!

Given what's happened at Bury in the past few days, Sky Sports' effect on football has come in for more criticism than usual but when clubs charge silly amounts for tickets and price folk out of going to games, it's hardly a surprise when Sky Sports subscriptions sky rocket!

Nevertheless, at least that statue of Michael Jackson has long-since disappeared from outside the ground...