Just be thankful for the point

13 April 2012

Disappointing, John Collins and Claudio Ranieri called it. Another draw, they meant; the fourth for both Fulham and Chelsea. They have high standards in west London. On the present Tottenham-type scale of intergalactic disappointment, for example, a draw ranks as really quite impressive.

Over at the Theatre of Nightmares in N19 this weekend they would have regarded a draw as pretty respectable.

Nobody in the Craven Cottage stands seemed to feel terribly let down, applauding the teams from the pitch at full-time. The odd part was that the throng could not seem to get the hang of the noise element earlier on. Maybe the fact that 34 years had elapsed since Fulham last played Chelsea in the top flight caused everybody to leave their handbooks on How To Create A Real Derby Atmosphere gathering dust in the attic.

Suffice it to say that at times in the first half you wondered if the match might not have been better played in the reading room of the local library.

Not to worry. Some things can always be relied upon. Sven was there. So long as the sun keeps rising and England's coach is at a football match somewhere, the world will keep turning. Quite who he went to watch in this match, however, was a puzzle.

Not Graeme Le Saux, whose wife gave birth to a son in the small hours of yesterday morning. Not Frank Lampard, partly because he was suspended for this match in any case and partly because Mr Eriksson had already decided he could live without a chap of Lampard's non-sensitivities for the Greek game.

Perhaps Sven turned up as a matter of conscience, moved by Eidur Gudjohnsen's pre-match revelation that his part in the pub crawl with Chelsea team-mates Lampard, Jody Morris and John Terry comprised merely hours of boozing before becoming so unruly that they were all invited to quit the premises.

The wounded Icelander was not involved, he insisted, in any mocking of grieving Americans stranded in London after the atrocities at home. So perhaps Sven wished to reassure Gudjohnsen what a thoroughly decent fellow that makes him. Or not.

In any case, Sven got to see a generally entertaining game and presumably in the first half must have thought like everyone else that Chelsea had the match for the taking.

The club are expecting 20 goals or more from Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink this season, a feat not accomplished at Stamford Bridge for 12 years, and in the third minute he saw his dipping strike bounce off the bar.

Chelsea were running the game and Fulham's best chance fell unsurprisingly to their own star striker, Louis Saha, but he headed wide from Steve Finnan's cross. Just past the half-hour Gianfranco Zola headed the ball into Bolo Zenden's path. The Dutchman, coming in like a train, crossed the ball to Hasselbaink, who despatched it into the net. Number seven of the season from the Premiership's top scorer.

It was difficult to believe Chelsea's goal tally would end there. Minutes later, Zola pivoted on the edge of the box to deliver a strike which Edwin van der Sar was obliged to tip over. The best Fulham could devise was a Collins free-kick from 20 yards which went wide of the left post.

But after the break the impetus shifted, and not only because Luis Boa Morte was sent on to replace Bjarne Goldbaek.

The occupants of the Stevenage Road Stand finally got round to clearing their throats. For 12 minutes without drawing breath they called and answered one another on the theme of Tigana's black and white army, and with 57 minutes played they were rewarded.

Finnan's cross met Saha's head. He could only introduce ball to post but Barry Hayles slotted in the rebound. Once again Chelsea had surrendered the lead when they should have capitalised on it. But Fulham should not be denied all the laurels. They became the first club on Chelsea's league travels to deny them all three points.

Ranieri was gracious and philosophical afterwards. "It was disappointing after halftime not to have long concentration," the Chelsea manager said in his delightfully fractured English. "Both sides play good. I like Fulham. I hope they do well. But not as well as Chelsea."

He even refused to take issue with referee Graham Poll's dismissal of Slavic Jokanovic, stating brightly: "In my opinion the referee is always right."

Crikey. His fellow managers won't like that sort of talk. Not that it was possible to ask Jean Tigana, who sent a near-inaudible Collins to answer questions in his place. "We need victories, not another draw," Fulham's captain said bluntly. "We need to start winning our home games. Draws aren't much good. It's disappointing."

They don't know they are born, these west Londoners. If you wanted a really quality experience of crashing disappointment this weekend, there was only one London ground to visit, and it was not Craven Cottage.

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Just be thankful for the point

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