Five forgettable Fulham games

“Not one for the history books” is a common phrase, often used after a fairly turgid 90 minutes of football. And while it’s easy to remember the most recent thriller, those devastating defeats, and that last minute winner that you’ve only just got your breath back from, with the fast-paced nature of football nowadays it’s also forgivable to let individual games slip your mind.

So, let’s dig through the archives and look back at five Fulham games that were so forgettable, you’d forgotten they even took place. 

Fulham 1-3 Wolves. Saturday 18 March. 2016/17.

Paul Lambert’s Wolves travelled down to Craven Cottage just two points above the Championship relegation zone, while Fulham were pushing for a spot in the play-offs. The man in black here was public enemy number one, Chris Kavanagh. 

Fulham lined up in their familiar 4-3-3 formation under Slavisa Jokanovic, with Ryan Sessegnon occupying the left-back position. Aluko got the nod over Chris Martin, and at that time David Button was the number one choice over Marcus Bettinelli.

Wolves took the lead when Helder Costa got the better of Ryan Fredericks in the box and laid it square to Ivan Cavaleiro who tapped home. The first of *not so many* the Portuguese bagged in front of the Hammersmith End. Wolves started the likes of Conor Coady and Matt Doherty in a side that was starting to show some of the ingredients to their title-winning recipe, that would come the following season.

Andreas Weimann made it 2-0 to Wolves in the second half. At the point of writing, I have zero recollection of him playing for Wolves, exemplifying the whole point of this piece. However, I do remember losing my head at this point and walking away from my seat in H4 to the back of H5 to watch the rest of the game. 

Denis Odoi pulled one back via a deflection, but Dave Edwards ended the game as a contest with a near identical goal to the first, to make it 3-1.

This left Fulham in seventh place, one point off to the play-offs. The Whites had 70% of the ball across the 90 minutes. This one was filed under the category of “one of those days” for Fulham, you’d think.

Sheffield Wednesday 1-1 Fulham. Saturday 14 March. 2014/15.

Sheffield Wednesday at the time were managed by Stuart Gray. Kit Symons’s Fulham were struggling in the Championship, languishing in 20th.

The main takeaway from this game was the state of the Hillsborough pitch. Patchy, muddy and more suited to a game of rugby, rather than some Sky Bet Championship football. 

Fulham had won the reverse fixture 4-0 at Craven Cottage but were coming off a 5-1 home thrashing from soon-to-be champions Bournemouth in their previous fixture.

Stevie May gave Wednesday the lead on 54 minutes with a glancing header from inside the six-yard box.

With 15 minutes left, Fulham scored the most bizarre of equalisers, when Ryan Tunnicliffe broke into the box and was seemingly fouled. He went down as Fulham claimed from a penalty, but with quick thinking from the midfielder, he dragged the ball across the box while on the floor and found Matt Smith, who bundled the ball into the net, in off the crossbar.

Ross McCormack’s dipping free kick almost won it for Fulham, his effort was just a tad too high.

A classic 1-1. An incredibly forgettable afternoon, in a season that wasn’t anything to write home about.

Bolton Wanderers 2-2 Fulham – Saturday 19 December. 2015/16.

This was during that period where we had no full-time manager, following the sacking of Kit Symons, after a 5-2 home defeat to Birmingham. A Desmond, and a game with four goals can be usually quite memorable, however this season too overall was nothing short of another disaster, with very little high points.

Kudos to the Fulham fans who travelled, a week before Christmas to Bolton to watch this one.

Tim Ream made a start against the side he’d left in the summer. Whatever happened to him?! Experience was covered at all bases in this XI. Andy Lonergan, Richard Stearman, Scott Parker and Ross McCormack all making up this spine of this Fulham team.

One noticeable starter for Bolton on this day was Rob Holding – and Bolton’s manager was Neil Lennon at the time.

Fulham took the lead just before the half hour mark. A mistake at the back from the Bolton defence let Ross McCormack in, and he teed it up for Everton loanee Luke Garbutt who hit it first time and found the bottom corner. A nice finish to put us in front.

Zach Clough, once a real prospect in English football, scored a clever snapshot to equalise on the hour. The number 10 then poked hoor home from a couple of yards out to turn the game on its head. A sloppy goal to concede, as Clough received a cross, got ahead of Jazz Richards and couldn’t miss.

Fulham grabbed a point with a well-hit free-kick from Ross McCormack, who scored his fair share of them that season. It was a 25-yard scorcher which brought us level. Both sides battled hard for the winner, but we came the closest. Another strike from McCormack, crashed against the bar. God knows where we might have been if we didn’t have his goals.

That point left Fulham 18th the Championship. Tough days. You have to experience the bad to appreciate the good.

Wolves 3-2 Fulham – Tuesday 12 January. 2015/16.

A five goal “thriller”, but I don’t remember anything about this game. Did it actually take place? Wolves went two goals up in 13 minutes, a brace from Michal Zyro. No disrespect but who are you? The assist for the opener came from Jordan Graham!

“Oh, that’s so poor!” This was me just now watching back the highlights, just reminding myself of the game. Honestly the defending is shocking for Zyro’s brace.

Our line-up on paper looks pretty decent, or am I being kind? LVC pegged a goal back after 24 minutes to make it game on. A nicely taken header, which again I just don’t ever remember happening.

Matt Doherty made it 3-1 just after half time, with a hit and hope – the ball just flies into the bottom corner. I understand why Spurs signed him.

A trademark TC and McCormack link-up made it 3-2. Dan Burn gets down the left, manifesting his current role at Newcastle and whips it into Cairney, who jinks one way and lays it off for McCormack who hits it beautifully first time, from outside the box. It curls into the back of the net. Good goal.

This was a quote from Slavisa Jokanovic after the game – “I am trying to find the way for the team. We are not playing the same way that Fulham did before. We are a very good team with the ball but right now very soft without the ball.” He was cooking.

Bristol City 0-1 Fulham (AET) – FA Cup. Saturday 8 January. 2021/22.

This was a little more than a year ago, and yet so forgettable. For context, we hadn’t played for a while after postponements because of Covid.

This is a win, which is controversial to include, however I was there, and it was so forgettable. I spent a lot of the game planning a curry night for that evening with my friends, something to lift the spirits.

Even looking at this line-up now, is quite bizarre. Albeit it’s a cup game and it’s a second-string side. I believe this was Quina’s last appearance in a Fulham shirt.

The game was drab; an all-Championship affair in a ground we had already attended earlier in the season. It had all the ingredients of a forgettable afternoon.

There’s not much more to say, a Harry Wilson floating cross on 105 minutes which met the back of the net was enough to send Fulham through and draw… Manchester City. Bed.

There has been a lot of unforgettable Fulham games down the years, but also quite a few that you won’t be relaying to the grandchildren. Let’s hope for more of the former in the coming years!