Cardiff City and Fulham are basically the same team. Relegated together, promoted together, vying for a return to the Premier League against one another. It's not a geographical rivalry, it's circumstantial year after year and we never like to disappoint. Andre Schurrle fizzed home a banger last term and so did Ryan Babel - blasting the target with peachy wonder strikes is simply following tradition.
Following weeks of will we, won't we podcasts, articles and pub talk, which has only just returned to its rightful habitat, our fate is finally signed and stamped. The Play-Offs will not be the same without a potential day out at Wembley lurking in the shadows but it's a nano-competition that's just so, enthralling.
Boredom, never was there such a thing on Saturday afternoon as Sheffield Wednesday fought back at Craven Cottage. Garry Monk's touchline f'ing and blinding wasn't enough for his men to withstand Scott Parker's sharp offensive regiment, though, and now the Whites have it all to do in their final fixture of the season.
5pm kick-offs can get laid, that's the real message behind this article, although I'm obliged to prattle on for another couple thousand characters, so I hope you're sitting very comfortably indeed.
Prior to kick-off, Sabri Lamouchi's Nottingham Forest hadn't lost after returning to Championship action and Scott Parker's Fulham were slowly picking up the pace, having claimed victories in their previous two meetings. 4th vs 5th, a contest between two differing strategic minds, we were gearing up for a cagey, heedful confrontation on Tuesday afternoon and it delivered precisely that.
We were milliseconds away from registering our first 0-0 at Craven Cottage since 2011 but it just wouldn't be Fulham if there wasn't a morsel of late drama to digest. Birmingham City advertised a stubborn fight, although there were no Saturday blues to endure for those backing the Whites.
Though my eyes are still stinging from our mono-dimensional performance from box to box, I'll revel in Tuesday evening's West London derby triumph, because I'm frankly exhausted of moaning. Having said that, I never mentioned I'd cease my recurrent whinging, so I'll continue for the sake of reason and debate.
Fulham hadn't lost a Championship meeting against Leeds United since March 2015, drawing 5 and winning 2. With good omens on our side in that respect, we were anticipating a spirited reaction after falling short of the mark against Brentford, but we were eventually force fed the usual tripe as Marcelo Bielsa's table-toppers proved our spinelessness on Sky Sports.
Five Thoughts from Fulham's iconic 2-1 victory over Hamburg in the Europa League back in 2010.
Upon revision and a good night's rest, I've concluded that a point at Ashton Gate is perfectly fine and necessary. Lee Johnson's Bristol City are within touching distance of the play-off places and, as he's a proud Fulham fan, he had his men fired up from the start to frustrate Scott Parker's camp.
A 1-1 draw against Derby County at Pride Park is no reason to be downbeat or crestfallen as our unbeaten record on Friday evenings is still very much intact. A small triumph, you could say, and amongst the Wayne Rooney rectum sniffing fest, the Whites managed to restore face, kind of, after last Saturday's gale force flogging.
Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, then the humiliation is all ours. Bottom of the table Barnsley, commanded by a bloke that dresses like a TK Maxx mannequin, did the double over promotion-chasing Fulham with an extraordinary 3-0 thumping down by the river.
Tuesday night's fortuitous results meant that Fulham could seize 2nd in the standings if they managed to beat Millwall at The Den on Wednesday evening. They didn't. A 1-1 draw, away, on one of the shoddiest surfaces I've seen outside of Sunday League football is nowhere near a terrible outcome, but it is very "Fulhamish" indeed that the Whites didn't take the initiative when it was virtually dangled on a string before them.
It seemed impossible in Mid-December, but somehow just under two months later Fulham have overturned an 11 point deficit to draw level on points with Leeds United. We did it thanks to a narrow win at Blackburn Rovers, and Sammy James looks at the five major talking points.
Drew Heatley slips into Cam Ramsey's shoes to give five thoughts on our win over the Terriers.
There's a good meme I'm thinking of with Bart Simpson holding a cake with 'at least you tried' piped on top. Basically, the cake eventually gets tipped into a bin, and that's more or less where our hopes of progressing in the FA Cup went, as Manchester City smashed four past Fulham without reply.
I wasn't at The Valley but I must admit, I'm actually glad I wasn't able to make the trip in the end. 7pm finishes are a soul destroyer, but Fulham's torpid 0-0 draw against Charlton Athletic was also a dispiriting ordeal to digest. I hear there were in excess of 2,700 in the Jimmy Seed stand and I'm deeply sorry for all of you.
Not really the return to SW6 that Djed Spence and Patrick Roberts were dreaming of, and that makes the victory all the sweeter. That's five wins in five from the weekend's early kick-offs and it's a damn long way for Middlesbrough's fan base to come for a 1-0 loss. Mock our home support when you barely get 10,000 at the Riverside? Guess you got what you deserved in the end. We never asked for clappers anyway.
Can't really disregard the victory but that was dire. Winning ugly doesn't always make for great articles or overviews, so please bear with me through this. Fulham's travelling faithful began Saturday with a cautionary optimism, knowing that Hull City are a perilously unpredictable outfit, being both devastating and vulnerable, all at the same time. Sounds an awful lot like us, right?