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All the preparations had been done, we had gone over scout reports, video footage and gone through everything we could with the team in preparation for our first game, the game itself had a few milestone events, my first ever game in charge of Fulham or in fact any club, and it was also the first ever competitive game at Arsenal’s new ground, Emirates Stadium.
We arrived at the ground after a short trip across London in the team bus with our 18 man squad, everyone knew their roles for the afternoon game as the side had been finalised yesterday Niemi was in goals as expected, with Rosenior and Queudrue at right and left back with Bocanegra and Mariappa playing as the centres, Diop playing just in front of the back four with Davies, Bullard and our captain Michael Brown in the centre of midfield, up front Helguson would partner Collins John. The subs bench had Lastuvka, Pearce, Smertin, Dempsey and Runström on it and we brought along both Thomas Radzinski and Claus Jenson along in case of emergencies.
Stepping off the bus and into the ground I was immediately asked for an interview by Sky Sports reporter James Fisher
“Tough first up game for you here at the new Emirates Stadium how do you see your side performing today?”
“It’s up to the players now, me and the rest of the staff have prepared them as best we can and now we just let them play, We realise it’s going to be a tough game, but we can only try our best and see where that gets us”
“With the Fulham fans unhappy at your appointment, and reports of player unrest, the pressure of the first game in charge must be mounting, how are you handling that?”
“Well most of those things are really out of my hands, all I can do is guide the team as best I can and hopefully it leads to some success and its brings the fans around, as far as the pressure goes sure its there but its more an excitement for me, I’m confident I have the ability to succeed at this level so hopefully that’s enough”
“Thanks Mr Black and good luck today” I walked away down to the away change rooms as James Fisher turned and talked back to the camera “So there we have it new Fulham boss giving his thoughts on the game today here at the new Emirates stadium, and according to Sky Bet he’ll have his work cut out for him with Fulham at 7/2 to win, 9/4 for the draw and Arsenal 4/6 on to win the Match, this is James Fisher for Sky Sports.”
Dermot Gallagher blew the whistle to start the game and I watched on in my first competitive game, hoping for a respectable result, getting blown out of the water in the first game wouldn’t be good.
Arsenal had foxed us a bit, Henry lined up on the left with van Persie and Adebayor up front which meant we went to plan B at the start.
It didn’t take long for the action to hot up Mariappa blocking two attempts from Adebayor within the first 10 minutes and cleared another as Arsenal imposed themselves on the gain.
The 15 minute mark seen us have out first chance with John poised on the counter, but Arsenal closed down the play pretty quickly and John’s tame shot was well wide.
Diop tripped van Persie as he was coming through and got a yellow for his trouble, the free kick took a a deflection of the wall and went out wide left, Henry was the first to it and centred it back in, a nice ball for van Persie but his half volley attempt went wide, a big let off for us.
Arsenal’s pressure was telling with chance after chance, but our defence was magnificent limiting them to shots from just out side the box and always closing them down but with 27 minutes on the clock the inevitable score came, A corner came in from Hleb and their centre back Djourou jumped over Davies to power it in the back.
Arsenal didn’t let up and continued the tirade, Henry had two good chances to score as he started to impose himself on the game, thank fully Niemi saved both, one he had no right too and don’t think Henry or the Arsenal fans could believe Niemi got to the ball to turn it out for a corner.
The half time break couldn’t have come at a better time and the players looked run of their feet as they entered the change rooms, I congratulated the back 4 and Niemi for doing such an excellent job, but I wasn’t pleased with our efforts or use of ball in the midfield, I told them to lift the tempo in there start working a bit harder and lets hit our targets with our passes, we also needed better movement up front, particularly John.
The restart seen Aliadière come on for Adebayor, which was a testament to how well young Mariappa was marking him and Aliadière almost had an instant impact, he picked up on a bad pass from Queudrue and forced a brilliant save from Niemi.
Henry made it 2-0 on 52 minutes when a great run was rewarded with a great pass from Hleb, the viscious shot smashed into top right and not even Niemi could get to the one, it signalled a double change for Wenger’s men Hleb and Hitzlsperger off for Walcott and Baptista.
The change signalled a good 10 minute spell for us where we actually looked comfortable on the ball and we had two half decent chances, Bullard scooped the first over the top when it was easier to actually get the ball on target and then John broke the offside trap, and forced Lehman into a good save.
After that I brought on flamboyant American Dempsey and Runström for their first runs and they both showed a bit, but it was Henry who put his stamp on the game with some great individual and team play and we were lucky he didn’t score on two or three occasions.
I was pretty happy when Dermot blew the whistle to signal the end of the game and we were only 2-0 down, it could have been so much worse.
After I took it all in I wasn’t too disillusioned with our efforts, our defence was magnificent to stand up to that sort of pressure all day, and Helguson provided us a bit after the half aswell. I pointed out the positives to the team and told them we have to move on, we have Wigan in three days and we can take a lot from this game, Wigan are no where near the calibre of Arsenal and they will be playing on our turf, after addressing the team it was time to face the media once more.
“How did you see today’s game Jason?”
“We were outclassed today by a very determined team, their pressure around the ground today was enormous and they didn’t allow us to get any flow or system to our attack, full credit to Arsenal today and Mr Wenger, they were great.”
“On a positive note you must be pleased with Mariappa’s game today, your first official signing really showed he had the class to mix it with best of them”
“Yeah Adrian played a rock solid game, he didn’t miss a tackle all game and he had 16 or 17 of them but he was well supported by the whole defence, Queudrue and Bocanegra both made some crucial interceptions today and Niemi was fantastic in goal, I’d rather concentrate on the team positives than individuals and today our defence was fantastic”
“Where to for the next game against Wigan?”
“We wont be doing too much different, the midfield just needs to work a little harder and be a bit more creative, we’ll be in front of out fans next game so I think the team will want to show something to them.”
“You mention more creativity, does that mean young American Clint Dempsey will get a start next game?”
“You’ll have to wait and see for that I'm afraid, but he did enough in his time on today to suggest he will do well for the side when given the opportunity”
“Thanks Jason and best of luck for the season ahead”
With a 3 day break training was light, with a heavy emphasis on tactics. As usual we went through the tapes and scouting reports, and it’s a little more relieving when you don’t see £100 million of talent staring at you from the opposition report.
Myself and the coaching staff were confident of a good performance today and that’s the message we gave to the players, even though were underdogs at our own home, we have every chance of winning this game.
We made 2 changes to the side that played Arsenal, Volz returned to the line up despite being a little unfit and Clint Dempsey lined up in Davies place, and the changes seemed to pay off.
Despite being tentative and challenged early the defence held firm and when Queudrue smashed home a free kick in the 14th minute you could sense the shackles were broke, the lads seemed to grow in confidence and it only got better 3 minutes later when Dempsey smashed home his first ever for the club with a savage right foot shot.
With confidence high and riding on the support of the jubilant fans we continued to press hard, the passing and ball movement was fantastic at times and the fans were rewarded once more before half time when Dempsey played John in with a nice ball down the right, John’s cross to the near post was met with Helguson’s head and his perfect placement seen us 3 up.
During the break we were trying to kid a lid on the situation, we didn’t want to get complacent out there and give Wigan a chance, and Helguson made sure there was no chance of that with his second of the game 30 seconds in to the second half, Bullard was awarded the assist with his centred ball in, but it was Helguson’s turn and dummy that made the goal possible, and his skill in execution that scored it.
The good thing about the rest of the game is we didn’t rest on our laurels and we created a few more chances in which Helguson should have had a hattrick, the team played well although we did concede a goal in the 73rd minute to bring the margin back to three.
It woke the team up a little and after that we defended well to close the game out 4-1, Helguson was the obvious man of the match, but it was a team effort in which we didn’t have a bad player.
Mr Fayed was in the rooms after the game full of praise for me and the players and hoped we could build on it for the future, so did I for that matter.
The post match interview was a pretty easy one to do, and a lot sweeter, as all wins I guess will be, but I didn’t get too excited by one win, it’s a long season and we needed to build on this result was my basic message, I thanked for the fans for their great support during the match and we hoped to give them many more reasons to cheer during the season.
With the end of the month and the transfer deadline fast approaching it is was a hectic time with sifting through scouting reports, monitoring the transfer market, training, various paperwork to do, meetings, add in preparing myself and the squad for the upcoming trip to Manchester to play City and there was never enough time to get everything done you wanted.
I was glad Steve pulled me away to go watch the reserves play in their first game, it broke up the day and gave me a rest for the pressures so far. I should have been relaxing but I found myself coaching the game in my head, and making comparisons. Billy McKinlay as far as I knew was a good reserves team manager and coach but what I saw on this day didn’t instil a lot of confidence in his abilities, Pekhart had a hattrick for Tottenham before half time and Billy had done nothing to try and stop the situation.
At the end of the game we had been sadly trounced, the score was 3-0 but we’d been horribly outplayed and I didn’t see one pro active move from McKinlay all game, asking Steve he agreed with my assessment, so I got him to keep me posted on the reserve games.
One of things I didn’t need was to go down and see the U18’s at the Academy, previously I’d only gone in to wish them the best of luck in the upcoming season and tell them with hard work and perseverance they could be moving up the ranks, this time it seemed there was some contractual issues. John Murtough wanted to sign some players on pre contract signup’s or something I wasn’t real sure what he exactly meant but in the end I gave him the authority to handle that side of it aslong as he followed a few guideline, which I would get Stu Benson to go over with him.
Wayne Routledge returned to full training after his ankle injury but he wouldn’t be ready until after the international break, so we didn’t risk him in the Manchester City game. We still had a few out for that game including McBride, Knight and Montella, those also according to Physio Jason Palmer should be fine for the Everton game after the break.
The City match at the stadium of light seen us go down 2-0 in a game where I thought we were pretty unlucky, we matched them with possession and shots on goal, it was just a few things didn’t fall our way, Helguson took a nasty hit to the shins which seen him brought off in the 11th minute and Brown took a nasty tumble and hurt his knee, he felt he was fine to play on though.
Barton scored their first, the shot took a wicked deflection which seen Niemi go the wrong way, Barton and deflection involved in the second also, his free kick took a deflection from the wall which really stretched Niemi, he could on parry it and Corradi was there to tap it in. We weren’t without our good chances and I feel if we had of scored from the restart when Weaver saved both Runström and Brown’s efforts we could have pushed them, but it wasn’t to be.
Speaking to Steve after the game on the way back on the team bus, we agreed we needed a little bit oomph up front, Runström was more a long term prospect and he was struggling to come to terms with the pressure, Collins John was also struggling to convert his good preseason from to matches aswell, so we though we’d look for a bit more cover. McBride and Montella were both due back soon so we were looking more for a rotational player. Two names came up, Yakuba from Boro had wanted a transfer but we couldn’t afford his £7 million price tag, so it was Manchester United reserve player Dong Fangzhuo we decided on taking a look at.
Knight returned to training on the 28th after his ankle injury and it was the same day we made an offer to loan United’s Chinese international Fanqzhuo. Sir Alex wasn’t happy with our initial offer, he felt United deserved a better initial fee, so under revision we offered £250 thou but extended the loan period to a year, it seemed enough.
The first premier league team of the week was released and I'm pretty proud to say we had two players in, Helguson and Dempsey had both been named.
The 31st of August had mixed results for us, Dong Fangzhou’s move was completed with his work permit application approved, so he would be joining the team in the near future, but that was offset with Alexei Smertin breaking down at training, it seemed a hip injury had been causing him some problem. Palms recommended we send him to a specialist to get a better appraisal of his injury.
As expected Chelsea splashed out in the transfer market and ended up spending a truckload to try and buy another Premiership, last count it was in excess of £50 million this year alone, West Ham also signed a few, the most notable being Maxi Rodriguez, Manchester United were strangely quiet during the window and might regret it taking a few injuries, Michael Carrick the big one.
Player of the month awards seen Helguson get third and young Mariappa receive second in the young player award, a fabulous achievement by both men, Helguson also returned to training after his shin injury and he was joined by fellow strikers Montella and McBride.
International games played seen England smash Andorra 5-0 and then FYR Macedonia 3-0 a few days later, a few of our players played in games as well Davies did well in Wales loss to the Czech Republic, while Runström and Jenson both did well for their respective countries Sweden and Denmark, Sweden won 2-1, while Denmark crushed Iceland 4-1.
Davies hurt his back in a weight session at training so he would miss 2-3 weeks, which thinned down the midfield ranks even more, it meant that Elliot, Smertin, Brown and Davies weren’t available for the Everton game add to that Papa Diop who was still away on international duty with Senegal.
We were favourites for our home clash against Everton and it was pleasing that we lived up to the expectations, we had a solid game all round the pitch, but our defence was particularly good, Zak Knight earned man of the match honours in his first game back while his partner at centre back, young Mariappa scored the winner from a corner in the 22nd minute.
The 1-0 win moved us to 2 and 2 in our 4 games and we were inside the top 10, another promising sign was we had 3 in the team of the week Zak Knight, Clint Dempsey and Claus Jenson all represented.
Knight injuring his calf and Niemi hurting his back had me questioning our training methods, I admit I don’t know too much about it, but I knew something was wrong with the amount of injuries we were taking on the training field. I ordered them to tone it down a notch or two, ease up on the running and aerobic work and lesson the weight sessions a bit.
Brown returned to training before our trip to Sheffield to take on United, with Niemi out it meant Lastuvka had a chance in goals, while new recruit Dong Fangzhou made his way to the bench at the expense of Collins John.
Our first was pretty good we challenged them and worked hard, Helguson did miss a sitter in the 12th minute which was a bit disappointing, we had a few nervous moments a couple minutes later when Clint Dempsey gave a way a penalty and received a yellow but Lastuvka parried away Garcia’s spot kick attempt.
I couldn’t believe how much we dropped off in the second half, we were sloppy and lazy and United ran all over us, it was no surprise when they scored with 20 minutes to go to take a 1-0 lead, what was a surprise is they didn’t score more, the reason they didn’t was the excellent game Lastuvka had which earned him man of the match.
Our next game should of instilled a bit of confidence in the team, we were at home playing Coventry in the League Cup, Coventry were 24th in the Championship and were on a run of three straight loses, but they were keen to get an upset and at the break it looked like they might, we were 1-0 down and even our own crowd were giving it to us after the dismal effort.
I gave a fair spray to the team in the break, using many terms like weak, soft and lazy and it seemed to stir a bit of emotion in the team, and McBride levelled the match before the hour with a good header, it was close after this but I’m happy to say we progressed to the next round when Routledge scored in the 83rd minute. Dong Fangzhou had a real good game, but Lastuvka once again received the man of the match.
A few days after our game I watched the Manchester United Chelsea game on TV, United weren’t travelling to good at the moment but the picked up their efforts in this game and managed to win 2-1, the thing that I found funny was Sir Alex’s comments after the game he basically went on to say he didn’t see anything in that game that would suggest Chelsea were good enough to take the title, he then emphasized that maybe with a few Key signings then they might be able to, pretty funny considering they had spent 50+ million this year.
Well the board meeting didn’t go at all well, Mr Fahed was livid with our last two performances, Charlton walloped us at home 2-0, Brown re-injured his knee and Fangzhou was sent off for a two footed tackle which didn’t help, The away trip was worse though 2nd placed Portsmouth smashed us 4-0 and I'm at a loss to explain at how we lost so badly, we had 52% of the ball and both teams had 13 shots, the difference was Portsmouth had 10 on target and we had 2, still 4-0 was harsh.
Before the games though we did take another hit on the injury front Dempsey and McBride both joined the injured list, Dempsey tore a groin which meant 1-2 months and McBride hurt his knee 2-4 weeks, Fangzhou copped another 2 games as well to his suspension.
When I tried to explain this to Mr Fayed he didn’t want to hear it, no excuses he said, if your staff isn’t doing the job then fire them and get in someone else, thats what I’ll be doing if our performances don’t improve.
It was no suprise that Arsenal dominated the end of month awards, Mr Wenger earned manager of the month while Henry got player of the month and Fabregas earned the young player award.
Thank god we had 14 days break to work things out.
Injuries once again a hot topic, both Knights and Davies returned to training only to see Radzinski go out with knee injury, its enough for me and I’ve started to look for another fitness coach. A couple days later we had interviews for the position and I was pretty impressed with Craig Gill from Swansea, so I offered him a contract, I was going to just sack John Singh outright but Steve had persuaded me to let him stay and see if the two fitness coaches could stem the tide, I'm sceptical but ill give it a month.
Craig Gill agrees to the contact and joins the squad, his first day isn’t a good one, but it isn’t his fault, Rosenior breaks his ankle and will be out for 2-3 months and then Papa Diop strains a hami, I just cannot believe the injuries were getting at the moment.
Our home game against Aston Villa started well, we were good and competitive up until half time and should have been ahead, but after that we dropped off badly, Christanval giving away a moronic penalty in the 47th minute that really hurt us, he grabbed the shirt of Angel right on the very edge of the right side of the box, the ball was probably going to go out and there was no need to do it, Shaun Moloney put the spot kick away and it went down hill from there. We became spectators and statues after that Angel sealed of his man of the match performance with a goal, 2-0 the final score and our fans are from happy, and I can’t blame them.
Steve Bruce was sacked by Birmingham and Steve’s name was mentioned as a possible replacement, we talked about it and I wished him the best, but I don’t think they’ll be ringing me for a reference so I won’t have to worry about doing that. Simon Elliot returned to training after his torn calf and he was joined by McBride who also returned from his knee injury, none of the players would be fit enough for the Newcastle game and seeing Elliot had missed the entire pre-season he would have to get some fitness back in the reserves before coming back to the first team.
We had our chances against Newcastle at St. James Park, especially seeing they had as many injuries as us, but once again we were lax in defence which was really becoming a problem, we lost 3-2 but the ease of which they scored two of their goals was embarrassing, Martins goal and their second for the game was a good goal, he waltzed around three of our defenders and smashed it past Niemi with consummate ease.
Australia’s Ahmad Elrich scored his first goal for the club which was a positive and Jimmy Bullard’s goal in the 76th gave us a glimmer of hope at 3-2 but we couldn’t get the equaliser still there were some positives, but we need to get some results soon, this loss make its 5 in a row and there’s no prizes to guess what position in the league we currently occupy.
Rads was back in training but not available for our trip to eastern seaside as we took on struggling Southend United in the League Cup. Our away form has been abysmal and even though Southend are on an 8 match run without winning in the championship they would fancy themselves against us.
We had a few positive’s in the last game and I tried to emphasise those before we took the field, we were also buoyed by our captain Michael Brown returning to the line up as a starter.
We started well and looked confident and it was big relief when McBride who also returned to the starting line up headed in Queudrue’s free kick in the 12th minute, the relief didn’t last to long though as Richie Foran scored the equaliser just before the half hour.
Some great passing and movement resulted in our second goal, all though it was a bizarre one in itself, after some good early passes Routledge crossed the ball low and hard, Montella should have drove the ball into the net with his left, but he slipped over, the ball hit him in the back of the head and went in, still it was a goal and we took the lead into the break.
We had been very bad in the second halves of late so that was my main point in the break, don’t get complacent, go out and try and bury the game early, and finally it looked like message had reached the players, we came out full of energy after the break and a great through ball by Elrich found Brown in the centre, he made no mistake with his shot, a powerful effort just inside the left post, it gave us a 3-1 lead. Depsite some great chances we couldn’t build on the lead but we ran out the game 3-1 winners, it’s a great effort and confidence boost, we will need it as we take on London rivals and the super rich Chelsea at the Cottage in our next league game.
The biggest shock in the news was Sheffield Wednesday beating Man United in a shootout to progress to the 4th round.
With only three days break between the game we made a few changes Bocanegra came on at left back in Queudrue’s spot and Simon Davies and Fangzhou both returned to the starters at the expence of Elrich and Helguson.
I didn’t need to give a rousing pre match speech, the lads were pretty keen to get one over Chelsea, Michael Brown the most animated The players took the pre match talk out with and we had Chelsea on the ropes early we just couldn’t deliver a big blow the first 20 minutes seen us miss 3 great chances in a dominant performance by us. The remaining half was more even but we still had the better of the chances, 0-0 at the break.
The team was given the same talk at Southend, don’t let our good work go to waste, lets show em what we can do, show the fans were a better team then 20th. We started well once again and Fangzhou missed a sitter one on one with the keeper, he didn’t even make Cudicini work, the shot sailed over the top from 10 yards out. I’m hoping all these good chances were missing wont bite us in the butt. 68 minutes produced a red card, Zak Knight was sent off with a professional foul and now we were down to 10 with 22+ minutes to play.
We defended doggedly and not even the all mighty Chelsea could penetrate our defence, as we grabbed a hard fought 0-0 draw, we suffered another blow though 5 minutes before the finish, Browny came down heavily after a heading challenge and was take to hospital clutching his forearm, we had used all our subs so we played with 9 from the 88 minute mark..
The crowd was ecstatic with our draw and I'm glad they can appreciate the monumental effort of the players in the game, to keep a clean sheet with 9 on at the finish against the most valuable team in England is a great effort and you can see spirit coming back into the squad.
I couldn’t believe Mourinho’s post match comments, judging on what he had seen he didn’t think we would survive, after that effort I was sure we would, but I didn’t go into bagging his comments, I'm still a nobody and have no right to do that sort of thing, I just said I was very proud of our players effort’s in the game and I'm sure our fans are aswell.
The end of October rolled around and the league cup draw seen us drawn against Chelsea, this time at Stamford Bridge, I’d love to knock them off their.
Martin Jol’s won the manager of the month after his teams performance, which was a worrying sign seeing we were heading to the Northern London teams ground in our next game, Newcastle’s Martins received the goal of the month for that goal against us where he rounded three, while Montello received as much airplay for his humorous effort against Southend.
With no one thinking we had a chance at White Hart lane, we had nothing really to lose, the key was being able to hold Berbatov so young Mariappa got that job, he was to man mark him all day.
The first half was pretty good we had plenty of the ball and had a few good chances, Berbatov did score a good goal though for them, but I couldn’t fault Mariappa for it, he was wearing him like glove and had nullified a lot of his influence. I was pretty happy at half time despite being 1 down, we looked lively and I think we can get something from the game and I think the players can too, they were all pretty pumped when they ran back out.
Bullard equalised the scores in the 54th minute, he followed up on McBride’s shot which was only parried by Robinson, it was great reward for effort and came about with some great passing before hand.
We had a purple patch here and were unlucky not to score a few times, McBride coming the closest when he had a shot just tipped wide in the 80th minute. A Bullard free kick from wide left was perfect for Helguson who made good contact, Robinson did well to get to the ball but couldn’t do enough to keep it out, and the celebrations told the story, we were 2-1 up away with a few minutes to go.
Tottenham changed their lineup and Mariappa found himself marking Defoe, which annoyed me to know end, I was shouting from the sidelines but he couldn’t hear, I used our last sub to waste some time and run the message out to Mariappa, stay on Berbatov at all costs.
91 minutes and you could see it turning to crap, Defoe moved into good position on the near post and Mariappa went to guard him, it meant we had two on him, when the cross came in Berbatov entered the fray coming in to the far post, totally unmarked, the cross found him and he had the easiest of header to level the scores.
“Fark” I screamed and notebook into the ground in disgust.
We were all pretty disappointed in the rooms afterwards, it was a great effort really but we had let a game slip away, Mariappa the culprit, he was young and still learning his craft but he had just cost us the game, who knows what the win would of given us, now we will never no.
It’s an annoying bug the special man marking one in FM2007, I changed Mariappa back to man marking Berbatov as he switched to Defoe when they changed formations, but at the end he went back to marking Defoe again there for leaving Berbatov unmarked, cost us the win, which doesn’t help when your struggling
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