Memries of Fulham

[Woodwardfan]

We arrived a Craven Cottage in the 70's at 10 to 3 to find the game had been postponed. Never imagined the game was in danger and walked the length of an easily playable pitch.

That following year we postponed two home games v them and left it late both times.

Over to you Silent( BTW, lay off Louis will you).

 

[Beans]

That was the 21 November 2000 game. Jean Tigana was their manager, not Keegan. It was incredible to see the transformation he'd achieved. His first full season and he took them up to the Premier League. Wilderesque.

My memory may be slightly off here but I feel like we didn't touch the ball apart from saves/clearances until they'd actually scored - they kicked off and attacked us for a couple of minutes before Steve Finnan put them ahead (drew 1-1 with a D'Jaffo equaliser).

Not sure if this is still true, but Finnan went on to become football trivia royalty as the only player to have played in all four English league divisions, plus Conference, plus the Champions League, Europa League (née UEFA Cup) and the World Cup.

I'll throw one other in there that I don't think has been mentioned (unsurprisingly, to be fair) - our 3-0 league cup defeat at Craven Cottage a couple of seasons ago under Adkins. Notable for:

• We finished with 9 men after Baxter and Kieran Wallace were both sent off late on
  
  
• I came out of the game thinking "you know, that Woolford looks half-decent"
  
  
• Their forward, Mousa Dembele (not the Spurs one, the one who now plays for Celtic) had an absolute shocker and was getting dogs' abuse from the United fans for some incredible misses. Of course he managed to score right at the end of the game!
  
  
• At one point a Blade ran down the stairs of the away end as though he was going to make a break for it onto the pitch - the stewards jumped to their feet in anticipation of having to tackle him, only for the United fan to give the steward a big hug and then walk back to his seat to a standing ovation! I seem to remember there being a video of it.

I know it was only the league cup but god almighty, look at our team that day: Long, Alcock, McGahey, Wallace, McFadzean, De Girolamo, Reed, K Wallace, Woolford, McNulty and Higdon. A "where are they now" of that lot would make for very grim reading indeed. That was barely 2 years ago!

 

[Silent Blade]

We arrived a Craven Cottage in the 70's at 10 to 3 to find the game had been postponed. Never imagined the game was in danger and walked the length of an easily playable pitch.

That following year we postponed two home games v them and left it late both times.

Over to you Silent( BTW, lay off Louis will you).

13th January 1979?

Not many matches were played that day. It was one of the worst winters

http://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=1979-01-13

 

[Tray]

The FA Cup game at Craven Cottage when the game went into Miller Time was an experience. Soaked from head to toe, nothing of note on the pitch for 119 minutes (Adrian Chiles offered to give everyone a £5 if they were still watching, or something to that effect). It was about 118 mins in when half the stewards went home (due to a tube strike or something) and my Uncle snook in. He was previously refused for having one too many shandies.

Celebrated like we'd won the league when that went in, limbs everywhere!

My Uncle saw about 3 minutes of play out of 120 and still managed to see the goal!

I was cursing Doyle in that first leg, but actually gave me a pretty good memory for the second leg.

 

[Ancient blade]

Three special memories for me:

(1) In 1954 I was living in London and went to Craven Cottage to see my home-town team, Donny Rovers, play Fulham with Jimmy Hill
in the side. After about twenty minutes nothing much had happened and suddenly a lovely Yorkshire voice sounded across the pitch
saying, very loudly, "Wakey, Wakey".
For many years after the war Fulham were a joke team partly because they were unsuccessful and partly because Tommy Trinder, a well
known comedian of the day was on their board.

(2) January 1967, watching United rip Fulham apart at the Lane with Jones and Birchenall getting two apiece in the 4-0 thrashing. The gate
was only 15,000 which was the sort of gate United got in those days against the poorer Div 1 sides

(3) the encouraging 2-0 win at the Lane in 2007 . Chris Coleman was their manager at the time.

 

[Greenwich Blade]

My memory may be slightly off here but I feel like we didn't touch the ball apart from saves/clearances until they'd actually scored - they kicked off and attacked us for a couple of minutes before Steve Finnan put them ahead (drew 1-1 with a D'Jaffo equaliser).

Not sure if this is still true, but Finnan went on to become football trivia royalty as the only player to have played in all four English league divisions, plus Conference, plus the Champions League, Europa League (née UEFA Cup) and the World Cup.

I'll throw one other in there that I don't think has been mentioned (unsurprisingly, to be fair) - our 3-0 league cup defeat at Craven Cottage a couple of seasons ago under Adkins. Notable for:

• We finished with 9 men after Baxter and Kieran Wallace were both sent off late on
  
  
• I came out of the game thinking "you know, that Woolford looks half-decent"
  
  
• Their forward, Mousa Dembele (not the Spurs one, the one who now plays for Celtic) had an absolute shocker and was getting dogs' abuse from the United fans for some incredible misses. Of course he managed to score right at the end of the game!
  
  
• At one point a Blade ran down the stairs of the away end as though he was going to make a break for it onto the pitch - the stewards jumped to their feet in anticipation of having to tackle him, only for the United fan to give the steward a big hug and then walk back to his seat to a standing ovation! I seem to remember there being a video of it.

I know it was only the league cup but god almighty, look at our team that day: Long, Alcock, McGahey, Wallace, McFadzean, De Girolamo, Reed, K Wallace, Woolford, McNulty and Higdon. A "where are they now" of that lot would make for very grim reading indeed. That was barely 2 years ago!

Spot on regards us not touching the ball before they scored.

As for the League Cup game under Adkins and that Blade making a run for the stewards, take a bow Highbury_Blade !

 

[Highbury_Blade]

• 
  
• At one point a Blade ran down the stairs of the away end as though he was going to make a break for it onto the pitch - the stewards jumped to their feet in anticipation of having to tackle him, only for the United fan to give the steward a big hug and then walk back to his seat to a standing ovation! I seem to remember there being a video of it.

As for the League Cup game under Adkins and that Blade making a run for the stewards, take a bow Highbury_Blade !

Aye that was me, had to do something to liven up the evening

 

[Highbury_Blade]

• At one point a Blade ran down the stairs of the away end as though he was going to make a break for it onto the pitch - the stewards jumped to their feet in anticipation of having to tackle him, only for the United fan to give the steward a big hug and then walk back to his seat to a standing ovation! I seem to remember there being a video of it.

If you're in the London Blades facebook group, it's here

 

[United Aren't Back.]

Your.memory lives on grafikhaus.

 

[United Aren't Back.]

A win please thanks .

 

[Robby Blade]

For those that haven't seen it or want to see it again.

200 Blades on a boat

The former Mrs Robby made this. Time has been kinder to some Blades than others and I wonder what happened to the beautiful Asa?

 

[Wapping Blade]

The former Mrs Robby made this. Time has been kinder to some Blades than others and I wonder what happened to the beautiful Asa?

I think Dkc had the closest “relationship” with her, maybe he still has some pictures