It seemed certain that Town’s unbeaten run would come to an end at Fulham but after Town put in their best defensive performance of the season they extended the run to 15 games without defeat. Talk of a playoff push sounded fanciful around the New Year but Town now look like genuine contenders for the top six and have proven in the last two games that they can get results against the best teams in the league.
The win against Fulham was a result of an all round team performance, where every player committed to the game plan and executed it with 100% energy. Every player deserves a good score after putting in such a massive shift so don’t be surprised to see high numbers on these ratings.
Lee Nicholls – 8 out 10
He made some decent saves but I most enjoyed his shenanigans when running down the clock. The Sky cameras picked up his cheeky wink to the physio when he received treatment, indicating that the damage he’d received wasn’t quite as life threatening as his theatrics suggested. He also managed to eke out every second of every dead ball possible and flaunted the six-second rule with relish whenever he’d caught the ball. I’d find him so annoying if he was another team’s keeper but I absolutely love it when he does his sloth act for Town.
Oliver Turton – 8 out of 10
There were quite a few dodgy performances in the early stages of the season but he’s really come good lately. This might have been his finest Town game yet. He blocked many challenges and tracked his man well. His steady, workmanlike performances won’t have kids putting his poster on their walls but he was a vital part of this excellent defensive display.
Matty Pearson – 8 out of 10
He looks stiff and cumbersome when moving around the pitch but still manages to get himself exactly where he needs to be. A bit like a department store mannequin on rollerskates. Won Sky Sports’ Man of the Match award and it’s hard to argue against it after he dealt with just about everything Fulham threw at him.
Tom Lees – 8 out of 10
Another great central defensive performance. Like Pearson, he was extremely solid and he coped very well with Mitrovic. The Fulham striker is such a beast that you can’t win every header but Lees made sure he was tight enough to make life difficult for the league’s top scorer whenever the ball came in. Against the league’s most potent attack, he and Pearson restricted them to few very clear cut chances.
Harry Toffolo – 8 out of 10
After Ruffles came into the team and did well it was important for Toffolo to put down a marker in this game and he did just that. He was instrumental in the first goal, making a great tackle and then having the bravery to get forward and put in the ball for Ward to finish. He also defended superbly and carried the ball up field to relieve pressure when Fulham were starting to dominate.
Sorba Thomas – 9 out of 10
I’ve been harsh on Thomas in recent weeks because he’s been inconsistent so this week I’m going to focus on the positives and neither goal would have been possible without Thomas so he deserves plenty of praise. His electric pace set up the opening goal and the penalty, not to mention his quick thinking to get the ball away from the keeper and give the ref a tricky decision. While all the players, including Thomas, chased down every blade of grass in pursuit of this result, Sorba also had that bit of magic that led to chances for Town. I mentioned that Turton isn’t the kind of player that has his poster up on bedroom walls, Thomas is exactly that player. He gets bums off seats and even if it isn’t always perfect it is usually interesting to see what he does next.
Jonathan Hogg – 8 out of 10
I appreciate it’s getting a bit boring to keep giving out 8s but this was a performance where many players all had great games. Hogg is an example of that. He bossed things in the middle of the park and organised those around him. He was lucky to avoid an early booking for a professional foul but otherwise barely put a foot wrong.
Jonathan Russell – 7 out of 10
Repaid the faith Calros has shown by keeping him in the team with another decent performance. Not quite as dominant as he was last weekend but he had nothing like the time on the ball Sheffield United allowed him so had to be satisfied with mostly neat link up play rather than anything too ambitious. His positioning was hesitant at times but he did defend well and I particularly enjoyed him going shoulder to shoulder with Mitrovic and not getting knocked off the ball.
Duane Holmes – 8 out of 10
The first Town player to score a penalty since dinosaurs roamed the Earth. If I’m being picky, it wasn’t a particularly well taken pen but it went in and that’s all that matters. Had the task of tracking Williams, the Liverpool loanee and Welsh international, and did a decent job. His workrate on the left flank was a complete contrast to Koroma’s struggles last weekend and the team benefitted from the weak link being replaced by a harder working alternative.
Lewis O’Brien – 8 out of 10
Played an unusual, pressing number ten role just behind Ward. It was a clever move by Corberán to deploy O’Brien so high up as he was able to push hard against Fulham’s back line and stop them settling on the ball. He set an example for the rest of the Town players to follow and covered an insane amount of ground. My only grumbles were the couple of occasions he didn’t notice Ward’s run and failed to play a simple pass to put Wardy clear through on goal. Otherwise excellent.
Danny Ward – 9 out of 10
He’s like a completely different player to the one we saw glimpses of between injuries last season. Sharp, aggressive and relentless, he just didn’t stop while he was on the pitch. His goal was thoroughly deserved and smartly taken but he was very good otherwise with his link up play and running of the channels. Last season we had a Danny Ward tribute act and now we’ve got the real thing.
Substitutes
Danel Sinani – 6 out of 10
Had a couple of runs down the left flank but didn’t have many opportunities to get into the game.
Jordan Rhodes – N/A
Did nothing wrong in the few minutes he played.
Naby Sarr – 8 out of 10
It’s a bit unorthodox to give a player a rating when he came on in the 86th minute but Sarr had a huge influence on the game in those few minutes when Fulham were pushing hard for an equaliser. He made three tackles, which is more than any Town player made in the whole game, despite being restricted to a brief cameo.
He also helped deal with the aerial bombardment of Town’s box, heading away several balls.
TS I pretty much agree with everything you say, it was a great performance and edge of the seat stuff towards the end.
An astonishing result, primarily as a result of Town’s defensive organisation, I had doubts about a back four working for us, but the last few games have convinced me otherwise. Our rear guard configuration is such that the opposition is encouraged or have to resort to shooting efforts that regularly, but not always, balloon off into the far reaches of nowhere in particular. I still think our passing is very poor at times, not unlike Carney giving the ball away to Ward allowing him to open the scoring with a well taken goal. I would also like to see us consistently keep possession from our own throw-ins the opposition, regardless of who it is, are generally superior to us in this category.
Thomas did extremely well to give the referee a decision to make, gaining perhaps a fortunate penalty, although VAR may have deemed it not an obvious mistake; contrasting with the three that we were denied last weekend and the Russell handball in the penalty area that wasn’t given.
I thought Holmes might be a reliable penalty taker as he has stroked in at least two of his goals in a calm reassuring manner, but this was not a convincing effort, at least it went in.
Interesting to see O’Brien almost playing as one of a two up front although he can never be restricted to just the one role in this team I wish we had someone else to play in that position allowing him to play in his more natural environment, which is anywhere and everywhere; Rhodes would certainly not be a candidate for this, in fact it is slightly baffling that he should come on for Ward at a time when we have our backs to the wall, there being little prospect of him influencing the game, although he could have taken a second penalty, if needed.
We never do well against Fulham, so this trebled the enjoyment- if that’s possible – the last favourable outcome for me was in the early seventies with a 3-2 victory when Fulham sides often had a collection of football royalty: George Best; Alan Mullery; Bobby Moore and Rodney Marsh! I must do some research.
There is a lot of rubbish coming from a few sources, chiefly from Fulham about the penalty. The rules of the game state that “”A direct free kick is awarded if a player impedes an opponent with contact”. It doesn’t have to be an intended obstruction. If it happens in the penalty area then it is a penalty. It doesn’t matter whether the ball is going out of play or whether the attacker has lost control, it is still a penalty. We fell foul of this rule last week as Danny Ward impeded the goalkeeper by falling in front of him leading to the referee disallowing the goal. What the referee got wrong was that he should have given a penalty or played advantage when Danny Ward was hauled down by a defender, causing him to fall and thus obstruct the keeper.
For anyone who might be remotely interested”
Fulham v Town (FA Cup 3rd Round) on Saturday 3rd January 1976 – Score: Fulham 2, Town 3 – Attendance 10,299
Fulham had been the previous season’s FA Cup runners up and were hot favourites to progress against a Town side who were playing their first ever season in what was then Division 4. In the big shock of the round, Town’s scorers were Terry Gray (2) and Jimmy Lawson.
Moore and Mullery played, Best and Marsh arrived the following season.
I always thought Town would win this one as they do better when they are not playing against an 11 man packed defence as a lot of Championship clubs seem to play at the moment. Fulham were never going to play like this and their mental attitude was that they just had to turn up to win. Town on the other hand were really up for this one and beating the top of the league team away was a great achievement. Bookmakers were offering 8 to 1 against Town winning and I am now £80 better of than I was at this time yesterday so thank you to everyone involved.
Well done John! I started off with 2-1 to us changed it to 2-2 and finally to 1-1 – drat. I should have had the courage of your convictions!
Today is not a day for any criticism of anyone. I’ve been known to criticise almost every Town player at some time or another, and I was one of those calling for Carlos to be given his P45 a year ago.
But today my pride in supporting Town is well and truly restored. Having lived in London for 40yrs, I have a number of friends who are Fulham supporters; yes you can afford to be gracious when you’re top of the league, but to a man they’ve all said that they were impressed by Town’s performance.
It absolutely wasn’t a ‘park the bus and try and nick a late winner’ performance. Town retained an attacking threat throughout and on another day Town might have added more goals in the second half. But I did say no criticism today.
Who knows what lies ahead over the next couple of months, but after yesterday anything seems possible.