Our top 5 cursed grounds
Written by Jack Stroudley on 17th February 2021
In his debut piece, Jack Stroudley looks at our most barren away trips.
The thought of heading to Goodison Park always prompts a collective groan from Fulham fans. It’s a ground not within walking distance of a mainline train station, with a lack of away pubs, on top of the inevitable defeat that has plagued us for years.
But after our remarkable 2-0 victory, our long wait for a win at Everton is over. So, looking around at other clubs, where else do we struggle to pick up results? The places that aren’t spoke about as much but seem to be cursed for us? I’ve gone through the current 92 professional league clubs and worked out where Fulham have the most torrid time (league games only) – and they’re all in the Premier League.
Embed from Getty Images5) West Ham- 11 visits since out last league win
A short trip to East London and we find ourselves at the home of West Ham. Despite not being too far for fans to go, it’s not been the best place to visit as a Fulham fan. While we haven’t yet had our first win at the Olympic Stadium you’d have to go back 11 visits to November 2001 in order find our last league win away at the Hammers, then at Upton Park. A 2-0 victory with goals from Sylvain Legwinski and Steed Malbranque moved us up to 11th, a position I’m sure we’d all love to be in right now!
4) Chelsea- 17 visits since our last league win
It pains me to put them on this list, but sadly heading to Fulham Broadway FC has never been a particular enjoyable experience for the real team in Fulham. It’s been 17 games to be exact since the last time we picked up a win at Stamford Bridge, coming off 2-0 winners way back in 1979, with goals from John Beck and Gordon Davies. Sadly in the 42 years that have passed we’ve never managed to come up trumps down the road. But still, at least we don’t support them!
Embed from Getty Images3) Southampton- 20 visits since our last league win
This one came as a bit of shock to me when doing research but we’ve had a really rancid time heading down the south coast, first to the Dell, and more recently to St Mary’s Stadium. You’d have to head back a whopping 86 years to 1935 when we last picked up three points there. We won that day 2-1 in the old English Second Division. It’s also worth noting that this is Fulham’s only ever league victory at Southampton, and since then we’ve drawn six and lost 14. At least we have a chance to make it two wins come May.
2) Burnley- 27 visits since our last league win
Unlike Jordan North, Turf Moor has certainly not been a happy place for Fulham. A long journey up the Lancashire is usually met with defeat, most recently in a game where we scored all three goals but lost 2-1, which just shows the luck (or lack of) we have at this ground. In terms of our last win at Turf Moor, we’re heading back 70 years to 1951, where we won 2-0 in the old English First Division with Bob Thomas scoring both goals for the Whites. In that time we’ve picked up a measly five points on the long trip up north. We play them tonight of course, and with Ben Mee confirmed to be out for the game, can we finally end our horrid run here?
Embed from Getty Images1) Arsenal- 28 visits since our last league win
We haven’t got to travel too far to find our worst performing ground in the country. Whether it’s The Manor Ground, Highbury or The Emirates Stadium, we’ve never had a good time playing our London rivals. I’d love to give you a date to how long it’s been since our last win at Arsenal, but I can’t – we’ve never won there! We’ve played Arsenal 28 times in the league away from home and have never came away with three points. In fact, we’ve only picked up five points there in our entire club history. It’s truly been a miserable place to go to, but fortunately we don’t have to suffer it in the flesh this season when we face them in April – which means we’ll probably snatch a surprise win.
Lookman’s panenka means our miserable run at West Ham continues, but we still have the chance to knock four of these grounds off our list this season, starting tonight at Turf Moor. And if we pull off more than a few surprises, Premier League survival could well be the reward.
