After the cruel loss at Huddersfield on Wednesday, we now face the league leaders at home tomorrow – based on their loss to Huddersfield and their narrow 2-1 win at home to Peterborough, I say bring ’em on! Seriously, I’m expecting a defeat, but, with that fifteen point gap to the bottom three, I’d say this is a shot to nothing encounter in which, very rarely, the performance is more important than the result. Here’s seven questions on Fulham.
60s. One was born in Halfield, the other in Armadale and the first of them was playing for his country in 1971 and the other one a year earlier. The first one won nine international caps and the other one, a hundred and eighty eight. The first counted Fulham among his five clubs (in two spells) and the other was a one club man. The first was a controversial media presence after retiring, the other went into coaching at club and country level, picking up an MBE in the process. The first never played for Fulham in Cardiff as far as I can see, while the second’s appearances in south Wales were exclusively at Swansea if I remember rightly. The second has been in the news this week for reasons you wish he wasn’t – what is the connection between the two of them?
70s. Affirmative centre for a striker?
80s. Another connections question, what links Captain Pugwash with a Fulham player from this era who scored winning goals in internationals against Northern Ireland and Saudi Arabia?
90s. Sounds like a bird in a northern valley to me, but, actually, he was a Grimsby born footballer who crammed quite a bit of top flight football into his seven hundred plus game career – who is he?
00s. Roll out apple in the middle. (4,8)
10s. He faced us on the opening day of the season during this decade while playing for Fulham and was recently the subject of a transfer between clubs that were three hundred and forty nine miles apart, yet he stayed in England, who?
20s. This unofficial league table may be wrong, but the compiler has, seemingly, put an awful lot of research into it and he is fairly convinced that the winner is correct, so, what does this table relate to – as a clue, we’re talking about a single player currently contracted to the clubs mentioned.
In reverse order, it’s Everton in seventh with nine, just below Lens also on nine, Horsens are fifth with ten, then it’s a jump up to Vicenza in fourth with thirteen, that’s the same as Wycombe and West Bromwich Albion. Top of the table though with fifteen are Fulham.
Answers:
60s. Rodney Marsh began and ended his career in this country (he played later at Tampa Bay Rowdies) with Fulham, but was at his best while at QPR and Man City. Rodney Marsh was also an Australian wicketkeeper from the same era who is currently critically ill following a recent heart attack.
70s. Roger Cross.
80s. Captain Pugwash was created by Oliver Postage who was also responsible for the Wales based series Ivor the Engine. Ivor (the engine) was also the nickname of Fulham “legend” Gordon Davies who scored twice, against Northern Ireland in 1983 and Saudi Arabia in 1986 in his twenty two appearances for Wales.
90s. Glenn Cockerill.
00s. Paul Trollope.
10s. Dan Burn was in the Fulham side that drew 1-1 at Cardiff City Stadium in 15/16 and moved from Brighton to Newcastle in the recent January transfer window,
20s. The table relates to the most loaned footballer –
In reverse order, it’s Andros Townsend of Everton and Gael Kakuta (formerly of Chelsea, now back with his first club Lens) with nine loans, one time Chelsea keeper Matej Dulac (now at Horsens) is fifth with ten and then it’s three way tie on thirteen with Samuele Longo of Vicenza, David Stockdale of Wycombe and David Button of West Brom, two behind the winner, Michael Hector of Fulham – we were linked with a loan move for Hector on transfer deadline day!
Here’s the video I caught this table from;-