CFuller

FULHAM PLAYER STATISTICS (2010/2011 - from 22 November 2010) Goalkeepers Apps Con Asts Yel Red MoM Av R ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14 Hudson, Wayne 24 34 0 0 1 0 7.17 1 Wilkinson, Jimmy 5 (1) 8 0 0 0 0 7.33 Outfield Players Apps Gls Asts Yel Red MoM Av R ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10 Agritis, Anestis 9 (5) 4 0 0 0 1 7.08 20 Bouchiba, Elbekay 21 (4) 1 6 2 0 2 6.99 2 Bowater, Graham 22 (1) 2 2 1 0 1 7.18 24 Brough, Scott 8 (6) 2 4 0 0 0 7.01 17 Butler, Michael 2 (5) 0 0 0 0 0 6.42 32 Cable, Wayne 4 (3) 1 0 0 0 0 6.57 8 Danns, Neil 19 (4) 1 1 0 0 0 6.70 18 Davies, Curtis 14 (3) 0 0 2 0 1 7.12 19 Dawson, Kevin 7 (2) 0 0 0 0 0 7.00 13 Gibson, Michael 12 (6) 2 5 0 0 1 6.67 33 Magnusson, Halldór 1 (3) 0 0 0 0 0 7.00 15 McCartney, George 25 (1) 1 4 1 1 1 7.22 26 McDonald, Gary 13 (2) 1 1 0 0 0 6.47 9 McVeigh, Paul 25 (2) 14 2 1 0 5 7.44 * Mitchell, Scott 10 0 1 2 0 0 6.70 28 Mølby, Tom 13 (11) 3 6 1 0 0 6.54 * Myntti, Henri 3 0 0 1 1 0 7.03 22 Núñez, Vicente 12 (2) 1 3 0 0 0 6.93 11 Ormerod, Brett 17 (1) 9 1 0 0 4 7.11 4 Piccolo, Walter 21 (2) 0 0 5 0 0 6.90 31 Proffitt, Nigel 3 (5) 0 0 0 0 0 6.25 * Richards, Dane 6 (1) 0 2 1 0 0 6.99 36 Richardson, Stephen 0 (2) 0 0 0 0 0 6.50 21 Svensson, Bo 14 (2) 1 0 3 0 0 6.75 29 Tal, Idan 5 (4) 0 0 0 1 0 6.77 3 Thatcher, Ben 8 (1) 0 1 3 1 0 7.00 * [Player not currently at club]

DIVISION 1 TABLE (End of 2010/2011 season) Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st C Crewe 46 18 3 2 51 19 9 4 10 27 33 88 2nd P Torquay 46 16 5 2 48 19 8 6 9 32 36 83 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Charlton 46 10 9 4 32 17 11 9 3 27 16 81 4th Swindon 46 15 4 4 34 16 7 8 8 31 30 78 5th P Grimsby 46 13 8 2 42 21 7 8 8 24 24 76 6th Birmingham 46 14 3 6 46 34 9 3 11 52 61 75 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th West Ham 46 12 8 3 31 14 7 8 8 21 20 73 8th Fulham 46 14 4 5 37 22 7 6 10 33 37 73 9th Notts Co 46 13 5 5 44 25 8 4 11 37 43 72 10th Sheff Utd 46 14 4 5 59 36 6 6 11 33 43 70 11th Preston 46 16 4 3 47 25 5 3 15 18 40 70 12th Huddersfield 46 10 5 8 29 24 8 10 5 24 20 69 13th Nottm Forest 46 16 2 5 51 34 5 4 14 27 46 69 14th Chesterfield 46 11 5 7 35 25 8 6 9 38 48 68 15th Norwich 46 14 4 5 52 31 5 4 14 30 52 65 16th Tottenham 46 14 3 6 45 28 4 6 13 30 44 63 17th W.B.A. 46 11 4 8 41 36 6 6 11 24 32 61 18th Sunderland 46 9 8 6 25 20 4 4 15 17 32 51 19th Kidderminster 46 10 7 6 29 20 4 2 17 21 42 51 20th Aston Villa 46 9 6 8 36 37 3 6 14 23 39 48 21st Carlisle 46 12 6 5 45 32 0 3 20 11 58 45 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22nd R Dag & Red 46 6 11 6 14 13 3 5 15 13 28 43 23rd R Millwall 46 9 6 8 31 28 0 6 17 15 46 39 24th R Bristol City 46 3 4 16 18 41 1 1 21 9 52 17 ELSEWHERE IN FOOTBALL... Dortmund overcome VfB Stuttgart in the Champions League Semi Finals - and then pip them to the Bundesliga title by two points - before ending their season in style at Wembley. The Final against Barcelona is locked at 1-1 until the 37th minute, when Barça goalkeeper Pepe Reina is sent off for a reckless professional foul on Tomas Rosicky. Dani Alves converts the penalty for BVB, who become the first German team in a decade to lift the European Cup! George Burley's Ipswich stun hot favourites Chelsea 2-0 at Wembley to win the FA Cup. A 27th-minute Christian Hanson own goal and an 80th-minute screamer from midfielder Gjermund Borger Hansen earns the Tractor Boys their first major trophy in 33 years. Though Yakubu Aiyegbeni missed a penalty for Ipswich early in the second half, he is all smiles at full-time. Chelsea meet Ipswich again four days later - and this time, it is Jean Tigana's Blues who prevail. Cristiano Ronaldo scores a brace as Chelsea win 3-1 to regain the Premiership title ahead of Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester United. Dethroned champs Arsenal limp home in 6th, while Manchester City are relegated, alongside Wolves and Blackburn. Despite losing the Ligue 1 title to Nantes, Marseille lift their second UEFA Cup in three years, seeing off Atalanta 2-0 in Amsterdam. Atalanta won't be in Europe at all next season after finishing 8th in Serie A, which is won by Roma for the first time since 2006. The Giallorossi reap the benefits of developing homegrown talent, as 22-year-olds Sergio Zani and Marco Capuano finish with the league's most goals and most assists respectively. Barcelona follow up their Champions League heartache with a shock defeat to Segunda División side Oviedo in the Copa del Rey Final. Former Mallorca forward Albert Luque scores an extra-time winner for Los Azules, who return to La Liga next season. There were no such problems for Nantes, who see off Grenoble 1-0 in the Coupe de France Final and complete a French treble. IN OTHER NEWS... US President Barack Obama announces to the world that Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has been killed in an American military operation in Abbotabad, Pakistan. The 54-year-old became the world's most wanted man after masterminding the September 11 attacks in 2001. As the British electorate decides against adopting an alternative voting system, an even more significant vote takes place north of the border. For the first time, the Scottish National Party win an overall majority of seats in Scotland's parliamentary elections, raising the prospect of an independence referendum by 2014. “The Oprah Winfrey Show” ends its 25-year run on US television, with Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and Beyoncé among its final guests. Oprah says she is retiring her chat show because she has run out of cars to give away.

MAY 2011 [Sigh] We only had ourselves to blame for this. If we had beaten Birmingham on 23 April, we would not have been in this situation. If we hadn’t broken down at Carlisle in the first half and at Nottingham Forest in the second half, we would not have been in this situation. But here we were. It was the final day of the Division 1 season, and our hopes of making the Division 1 play-offs were out of our hands. Firstly, we needed to beat Grimsby at Blundell Park - a venue where the 4th-placed Mariners had lost twice in the league all season. More importantly, we needed to pray that Birmingham did not win at home to Huddersfield, in which case we would leapfrog the Blues by a single point. Of course, there was the possibility that we could overtake Grimsby on goal difference without needing Huddersfield to do us a favour. But as Grimsby's goal difference was +21 and ours was +11, that would require us to beat the Mariners by FIVE goals. To put that into context, the most goals Town had conceded in a single match this season was three. And though events at Plainmoor had no bearing on Fulham's season, I would also be looking out for the final score from that match. This would be a promotion party for Chris Kamara's Torquay, who were celebrating bringing Premiership football to Devon for the very first time. Torquay's final visitors this season were Dagenham & Redbridge. My former club needed to win, otherwise they would be relegated from Division 1, half a decade after I took them up. In order to overtake Carlisle and stay up, the Daggers would also need the Cumbrians to lose at Millwall, who had already gone down. But back to Blundell Park, and our job at hand. The only teams to have beaten Grimsby at home this season were Swindon and Charlton, both of whom liked to play narrow formations that packed the midfield. Bearing that in mind, I started this match with a 4-4-2 diamond - a diamond that included three midfielders under the age of 21. It was time for our young guns to go for it. 8 MAY 2011: Grimsby Town vs Fulham In a match we quite literally had to win, we couldn't have got off to a worse start. Grimsby were just as desperate to rubber-stamp their play-off place, and they were off the mark after just three minutes. Midfield talisman Jonathan Greening lifted the ball into our box for Mariners captain Jonathan Rowan, whose knockdown was finished by Gary Fisken. Five minutes later, it was Fisken who headed the ball down for Rowan to have a pop at goal. Though Wayne Hudson did his best to try and keep it out, he was helpless once the Dutch attacking midfielder Dominique van Dijk pounced on the rebound. With eight minutes gone, we were already 2-0 behind. With the pressure well and truly on, Tom Mølby stepped up to try and produce some magic. Spearheading our first attack of the match after 14 minutes, the teenage playmaker delivered a magnificent centre to Anestis Agritis, whose header pulled us back to within one goal. For the next half-hour, though, the momentum swung back to Grimsby, who almost overwhelmed a shaky Fulham defence. We were quite fortunate that Rowan was wasteful in front of goal, while his strike partner Jason Jenkins cannoned a 29th-minute shot off the bar. The Mariners still led 2-1 at the break, but it could have been a whole lot worse for us. Though we were struggling to get the win we needed, Huddersfield were at least doing us a favour at St Andrew's. Gavin Holligan had given the Terriers a 1-0 lead over Birmingham, which meant that we would go into the play-offs IF we could overturn Grimsby in the second half. After Jenkins spurned a couple more opportunities for Grimsby, things got really interesting in the 68th minute. Michael Gibson lined up a free-kick close to the home goal and lofted the ball up to Mølby. Tom had a very muscular frame, and he proved too strong for Andy Paxton, heading Gibson's delivery past the Town keeper. At 2-2, we now knew that one more goal would change everything. A minute later, one goal did change everything. Greening immediately went back on the attack for Grimsby, dribbling past Fulham centre-back Walter Piccolo before playing in Jenkins, who had evaded a challenge from our other central defender Bo Svensson. As Bo crumpled to the turf, Jenkins thundered the ball home, restoring the Mariners' lead. Svensson had put his body on the line to try and stop Jenkins - and in doing so, the Danish international had suffered a shin injury that brought his game to an end. Icelandic youngster Halldór Magnusson had to take his place for the final 20 minutes, in which we needed to score TWO more goals to get into the play-offs. We also needed Huddersfield to hold firm and avoid defeat. When we heard in the 78th minute that Birmingham had broken through their defence and equalised, some Fulham fans were perhaps fearing the worst. We went all-out to try and grab the win, even throwing on a third striker in Michael Butler. The luckless teenager was denied an 87th-minute leveller by Paxton, who then produced similar heroics to thwart Mølby. But it was eventually third time lucky from that attack, as Paul McVeigh (who else?) fired the rebound in off the post. With three minutes to go, it was 3-3 - and we needed just one more goal! Though we gave it everything in the closing stages, Grimsby shut up shop for the closing stages, refusing to allow us even another sniff at goal. When the final whistle blew with the scores still level, the Fulham players slumped to their knees in agony. Despite only managing a 1-1 draw against Huddersfield, Birmingham had beaten our brave Cottagers to the last play-off place by just two points. Grimsby Town - 3 (Fisken 3, van Dijk 8, Jenkins 69) Fulham - 3 (Agritis 14, Mølby 68, McVeigh 87) Division 1, Attendance 8,769 - POSITIONS: Grimsby 5th, Fulham 8th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-2 Diamond): Hudson; Bowater, Svensson (Magnusson), Piccolo, McCartney; Núñez (Butler); Gibson, Danns (McDonald); Mølby; Agritis, McVeigh. So near, yet so far. Too many defensive mistakes had come back to bite us. This was the seventh match of our last ten in which we had conceded at least twice. During that run, the Fulham goalkeeper had to retrieve the ball from his net 19 times. You cannot hope to be promoted with such a leaky defence. It was hard to fault our regular goalie Wayne Hudson or his backup Jimmy Wilkinson, who had each shown great determination between the posts. Our main problem was that we were giving up so many chances to the opposition - and that our defence was, to misquote Paul Simon, too soft in the middle. Walter Piccolo was a great ball-playing defender with great tackling skills, but his inability to win headers was becoming a regular issue. The 23-year-old Italian had played over 100 games for Fulham and was undoubtedly a fine talent - but I was now starting to wonder if his abilities would be best used as a defensive midfielder, rather than as a stopper. There were question marks over our other centre-backs too. The experienced pair of Ben Thatcher and Bo Svensson were respectively too volatile and too inconsistent to be relied upon on a regular basis. There was now a case for Curtis Davies being the best central defender at the club - but Curtis' future was up in the air, because although I was now willing to discuss a new contract with him, his wage demands were too high. We might also have problems up front. Though Paul McVeigh scored an impressive 24 league goals this season, he was the only Fulham player to reach double figures - with Brett Ormerod and Anestis Agritis each falling one short. McVeigh is now 33 and will soon enter the final season of his £30,000-per-week contract. This makes it even more imperative that our younger attacking talents step up sooner rather than later. But I also think that we should take stock and put things into perspective. As poor as our finish to the season was, there was little doubt in my mind that this Fulham team was heading in the right direction again. In 28 league matches, we had taken 45 points - and we had won nine of our 14 home fixtures. We just need to become more reliable on the road and find a way to stop conceding soft goals, and then our next play-off push will hopefully be more successful. Unfortunately, the future does not look quite so rosy for my former clubs. Since my departure, Kidderminster have picked up just 24 goals and 21 goals from their last 28 league games. Only Bristol City had a worse record over that space of time. This slump saw the Harriers fall from 13th to 19th, and although relegation was never an issue this season, it appears that Tony Adams has a huge battle on his hands to keep them up next term. As for Dagenham & Redbridge... I'm afraid there was no great escape. The Daggers couldn't muster a single shot on target at Plainmoor, where a 0-0 draw against Torquay condemned them to Division 2. Sad times.

DIVISION 1 TABLE (End of April 2011) Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st C Crewe 45 18 3 2 51 19 9 4 9 27 29 88 2nd P Torquay 45 16 4 2 48 19 8 6 9 32 36 82 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Pl Charlton 45 10 9 4 32 17 10 9 3 25 16 78 4th Pl Swindon 45 15 4 4 34 16 7 7 8 30 29 77 5th Grimsby 45 13 7 2 39 18 7 8 8 24 24 75 6th Birmingham 45 14 2 6 45 33 9 3 11 52 61 74 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th Fulham 45 14 4 5 37 22 7 5 10 30 34 72 8th West Ham 45 11 8 3 27 14 7 8 8 21 20 70 9th Preston 45 16 4 3 47 25 5 3 14 18 39 70 10th Notts Co 45 13 5 5 44 25 7 4 11 33 42 69 11th Huddersfield 45 10 5 8 29 24 8 9 5 23 19 68 12th Chesterfield 45 11 5 7 35 25 8 6 8 37 44 68 13th Nottm Forest 45 16 1 5 50 33 5 4 14 27 46 68 14th Sheff Utd 45 13 4 5 55 35 6 6 11 33 43 67 15th Norwich 45 14 3 5 50 29 5 4 14 30 52 64 16th Tottenham 45 14 3 5 44 24 4 6 13 30 44 63 17th W.B.A. 45 10 4 8 39 35 6 6 11 24 32 58 18th Kidderminster 45 10 7 5 29 18 4 2 17 21 42 51 19th Sunderland 45 9 8 6 25 20 4 3 15 15 30 50 20th Aston Villa 45 9 6 8 36 37 3 6 13 22 37 48 21st Carlisle 45 12 6 5 45 32 0 3 19 10 56 45 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22nd Dag & Red 45 6 11 6 14 13 3 4 15 13 28 42 23rd R Millwall 45 8 6 8 29 27 0 6 17 15 46 36 24th R Bristol City 45 2 4 16 17 41 1 1 21 9 52 14 ELSEWHERE IN FOOTBALL... After being voted PFA Player of the Year, Cristiano Ronaldo takes his game to another level. Five goals in five league games from the Portuguese superstar fire Chelsea to the top of the Premiership against an out-of-sorts Manchester United, whom they also defeat 3-1 in the FA Cup Semi Final. Ronaldo sets the tone for a thrilling Blues by swerving a long-range free-kick past United keeper Alan Leach after just two minutes. Newcastle's hopes of winning a first major trophy since 1969 are raised when Nigeria winger Uche Aikhomogbe gives them an early lead against Bolton in the League Cup Final. Bruce Grobbelaar's young Trotters soon fight back, as 19-year-old Jimmy Hill chins in an equaliser before 17-year-old attacking midfielder John Gray scores the winner. Despite losing Wales striker Robert Earnshaw to a red card, Bolton are the first team to successfully defend the League Cup since Nottingham Forest in 1990. As well as battling for the Bundesliga title, Dortmund and VfB Stuttgart are drawn against each other in the Champions League Semi Finals. Defending champs Barcelona fight back against Arsenal to reach the last four, where they face Celtic's conquerors Chelsea. Just two days after defeating Paris-SG 2-0 to win the Coupe de la Ligue, Nantes are crowned Ligue 1 champions with three games to spare after Marseille's surprise 2-1 loss at Nîmes. The Canaries will go for an unprecedented French domestic treble next month, when they face Ligue 2 side Grenoble in the Coupe de France Final. Despite some valiant displays in their first ever Serie A season, Fiorenzuola - managed by Argentina legend Mario Alberto Kempes - are relegated after a 4-0 loss to Lazio. Spain international Alberto Teixeira scores all four goals for the Biancocelesti, who are just two points behind leaders Roma as another eternal scudetto battle intensifies. IN OTHER NEWS... Over a billion people worldwide watch the United Kingdom's biggest royal wedding in nearly 30 years, as Prince William of Wales marries his university sweetheart Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey. Daily Mail readers are left flabbergasted when they discover that Kate's sister Pippa has a backside. India win the men's Cricket World Cup for the first time since 1983, doing so in front of their home fans in Mumbai. Captain MS Dhoni hits the winning runs in the Final against Sri Lanka as the cricket-mad nation goes batty. The UK's Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls tries to search for his name Ed Balls on Twitter, but accidentally sends a tweet that reads, "Ed Balls." Labour Party politician Ed Balls also forgets to delete his Ed Balls tweet before it is shared by thousands across the Internet. From this moment on, 28 April is celebrated as Ed Balls Day. Ed Balls.

APRIL 2011 After finishing 21st in Division 1 for each of the last three seasons, Fulham fans were surely relieved to be looking further up the table as we headed into the run-in. Instead of fretting about relegation, the Craven Cottage faithful were now believing that this team could be promoted to the Premiership - either automatically or via the play-offs. We headed into the final eight matches of the campaign with a three-point advantage on 7th-placed West Ham, and a five-point deficit on 2nd-placed Torquay. With so much to play for, these were the games that would decide our fate: 2 April: vs Carlisle (A, 20th) 6 April: vs Swindon (H, 6th) 9 April: vs Huddersfield (H, 10th) 16 April: vs Nottm Forest (A, 9th) 18 April: vs Millwall (H, 23rd) 23 April: vs Birmingham (A, 8th) 30 April: vs Bristol City (H, 24th) 8 May: vs Grimsby (A, 3rd) The good news was that our next seven matches were against teams who started the month below us in the table. The likes of Swindon, Nottingham Forest and Birmingham were not likely to roll over easily, mind, so we would need to play very well to secure a top-six finish before that daunting final-day trip to Blundell Park. Lincolnshire was a long way from west London, but the run-in began with an even longer journey - over 300 miles north to Carlisle. Having punched well above their weight in Division 1 for the past three seasons, the Cumbrians had spent almost the entire 2010/2011 campaign hovering just above the relegation zone. Captain George McCartney returned to the Fulham line-up after serving a three-match ban, but fellow defender Ben Thatcher was now starting a similar suspension. We were also without the injured Graham Bowater, Brett Ormerod and Scott Brough - the latter being ruled out for the rest of the season after breaking his leg. 2 APRIL 2011: Carlisle United vs Fulham I felt like breaking a couple more legs after a disastrous opening four minutes. Carlisle's Dutch midfielder Bjorn van der Doelen dribbled through our defence to open the scoring after just three minutes. Shortly after that, the Cumbrians launched another devastating attack, from which another midfielder - Jamie Ingledow - finished Danny Collins' left-back cross. Though Carlisle had storned into a 2-0 lead, it soon became clear why they were struggling in the bottom five. Their hapless goalkeeper Paul McDonald scuffed a goal kick in the 19th minute, presenting Paul McVeigh with a golden opportunity. McVeigh's strike wasn't his best of the season, but McDonald couldn't keep it out, and we were back in the game... ...or at least we were for the next six minutes. Our defence fell apart again in the 25th minute, as Fulham's anchor man Scott Mitchell lost track of striker Kevin O'Donnell, who thundered in van der Doelen's through-ball for a 3-1 home lead. The hosts didn’t stop there, and by 28 minutes, we had fallen to a 4-1 deficit. Hudson spilled an Ingledow shot straight to former Wimbledon winger Lionel Morgan, who tapped in his first goal of the season. This time, much of the blame fell on centre-back Curtis Davies, who had been so shaky in the opening half-hour that I hauled him off for Walter Piccolo. Miraculously, we did not concede any more goals in this match. After giving the team a half-time dressing-down, we started the second half strongly, as McVeigh skimmed in his second goal of the afternoon. Teenage star Michael Gibson continued the fightback with another goal in the 60th minute, pulling it back to 4-3! Game on! McDonald's erratic display was a concern for Carlisle's manager Nicky Law, who quickly brought Michael Clark on in his place. This would be an inspired change, as Clark made some vital saves in the last half-hour to stop our fightback. Mitchell and substitute Anestis Agritis were both denied in stoppage time, as our valiant second-half show proved to be for nothing. Carlisle United - 4 (van der Doelen 3, Ingledow 4, O'Donnell 25, Morgan 28) Fulham - 3 (McVeigh 19,46, Gibson 60) Division 1, Attendance 15,030 - POSITIONS: Carlisle 20th, Fulham 6th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-1-4-1): Hudson; Dawson, Svensson, Davies (Piccolo), McCartney; Mitchell; Gibson, Danns (Mølby), McDonald, Bouchiba (Agritis); McVeigh. Despite such a spirited attempt at a comeback, that half-hour horror show at the start might well have cost us a play-off place. We were still just inside the top six, but only on goal difference from Birmingham. Sheffield United's 5-2 win over Kidderminster also meant that they were just two points behind with a game in hand. The team who leapfrogged us into 5th place was Swindon. This added even more spice to our home meeting with Bobby Williamson's Robins a week later. As our star winger Elbekay Bouchiba was experiencing a crisis in confidence, I gave another opportunity to the prodigious 16-year-old Wayne Cable. 20-year-old defensive midfielder Vicente Núñez also made his first start since January. Before the match, it was announced that two of our players had made it into the PFA's Division 1 Select XI. McCartney was named in the starting line-up, and goalkeeper Wayne Hudson made it onto the bench, though 22 goals in 35 games were not enough for Paul McVeigh to even get a mention. 6 APRIL 2011: Fulham vs Swindon Town After 14 minutes, the Fulham kids showed that they were more than alright! 20-year-old Vicente Núñez played an excellent midfield ball ahead of the surging right-winger Michael Gibson, who escaped Swindon's defence and slid in the opening goal. The 18-year-old had scored in back-to-back matches! We continued to boss the first half, only for our attacks to be consistently frustrated by Nicky Weaver in the Swindon goal. To further add to our frustration, the Robins hit back just before half-time, scoring an equaliser from their very first shot. John Newton provided the assist for his midfield colleague Craig Pead, whose low shot slipped just beyond Wayne Hudson. The second half was a much tighter affair - and a much feistier affair. Paul McVeigh and Scott Mitchell both went into the book for Fulham, as did Swindon's Irish centre-back Barry O'Sullivan. Indeed, when O'Sullivan tripped Anestis Agritis in the 78th minute to pick up a second yellow card, the visitors found themselves having to protect a draw with just 10 men. Playing the final 12 minutes with an extra man, we sensed an opportunity to snatch a crucial victory. Young midfielder Tom Mølby created some good opportunities after coming off the bench, but our finishing lacked the killer touch. The best chance to clinch victory came three minutes from full-time, when Agritis headed Kevin Dawson's cross into Weaver's hands. That made it four games without a win; we had hit a slump at the wrong time. Fulham - 1 (Gibson 14) Swindon Town - 1 (Pead 45) Division 1, Attendance 11,535 - POSITIONS: Fulham 6th, Swindon 5th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-1-4-1): Hudson; Dawson, Davies, Piccolo, McCartney; Mitchell; Gibson, Danns, Núñez (Bouchiba), Cable (Mølby); McVeigh (Agritis). BOOKED: McVeigh, Mitchell. We really couldn't afford to drop any more points in our next home game against Huddersfield, who might have been down in 13th but were only five points behind us. I switched back to a basic 4-4-2, while Ormerod returned to partner McVeigh. 9 APRIL 2011: Fulham vs Huddersfield Town That was a big mistake. Playing a 4-4-2 against Huddersfield's 4-5-1, we gave up far too much of the centre to our visitors from Yorkshire. This allowed their striker Gavin Holligan to have three shots at goal before half-time, which were all gratefully saved by Wayne Hudson. I looked to turn things around in the second half by switching to a narrow diamond - but if anything, Glen Hoddle's Terriers became even more dominant. With Scott Mitchell, Neil Danns and Tom Mølby all having off-days in our midfield, Huddersfield were able to boss possession and consistently put us on the back foot. Once again, if it wasn't for Hudson's heroics in the Fulham goal, we could have suffered a heavy defeat. He certainly had a much busier game than Huddersfield’s young keeper Simon Ellis, who only needed to save one shot from Brett Ormerod. Fulham - 0 Huddersfield Town - 0 Division 1, Attendance 12,491 - POSITIONS: Fulham 7th, Huddersfield 12th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-2): Hudson; Dawson, Davies (Svensson), Piccolo, McCartney; Danns, Mølby, Mitchell, Bouchiba (Gibson); McVeigh, Ormerod. BOOKED: Davies, McCartney. Another dismal performance, and now we were out of the play-off places - behind Birmingham by a single point. I have a nasty habit of constantly switching tactics whenever things go wrong, and that continued at the City Ground against Nottingham Forest. I now turned back to the narrow 4-4-2 diamond, with Michael Gibson - our only fit and in-form winger - moving inside as part of that midfield quartet. Bouchiba's form was so poor that he wasn't even on the coach that travelled to Nottingham. Thatcher was on board, though, as he sought to make amends for his bad behaviour last month. 16 APRIL 2011: Nottingham Forest vs Fulham Inspired by the dynamism and creativity of their attacking midfield ace Tonton Zola Moukoko, Nottingham Forest began brightly. Moukoko created several promising scoring opportunties, and even managed a couple of shots of his own. Thanks to a combo of brave defending and wasteful finishing, though, we emerged unscathed at half-time. Indeed, we went into the dressing room in a winning position! Anestis Agritis was unlucky to hit the bar in the 39th minute, but Vicente Núñez went one better just moments later. The silky Spaniard collected the ball from Tom Mølby and then unleashed a daisy-cutter, which crept into the Forest net for his first ever senior goal! After his assist for Vicente, Mølby now wanted a goal for himself. The Danish starlet had an opportunity in the 51st minute, when he flicked George McCartney's cross over the bar. Forest then went back on the offensive in the 55th minute, with a blistering shot from Moukoko forcing Wayne Hudson to concede a corner. Ever the talisman, Tonton took the set-piece himself - and the Swede's sweet delivery found Beli Momouni Dagano, who got above Fulham's defensive midfielder Scott Mitchell to head in an equaliser. Dagano inflicted more pain on us in the 63rd minute. Fulham right-back Kevin Dawson lost track of Forest's young winger Chris Rimmer, whose cross was confidently converted by Dagano. The Burkina Faso's 20th goal of the season had turned this match on its head! Even worse was to come 12 minutes from full-time. We were still stewing over a horrific miss by Paul McVeigh when Dagano went on the offensive again. Helguson headed the ball out right to the in-form 30-year-old, who skipped past Curtis Davies' lame challenge and completed a superb hat-trick. At least it was superb if you were a home fan... Nottingham Forest - 3 (Dagano 56,63,78) Fulham - 1 (Núñez 40) Division 1, Attendance 7,778 - POSITIONS: Nottm Forest 10th, Fulham 8th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-2 Diamond): Hudson; Dawson, Davies, Thatcher, McCartney; Mitchell (Danns); Gibson, Núñez; Mølby; McVeigh, Agritis (Ormerod). What the hell is wrong with us?! That's SIX games without a win now, including four defeats! Having fallen four points adrift of the play-off places. After another dreadful showing in defensive midfield, I refused to let Scott Mitchell back onto the team bus and told him to make his own way back home - to Ipswich. The young Scotsman's loan was cancelled with immediate effect. Major changes were needed before a must-win Easter Monday home game against Millwall. Several senior players were dropped to the reserves - including Curtis Davies, who had the audacity to demand a new contract when our defence was leaking more goals than ever! I also decided to promote some more players from the academy. And, in the biggest shake-up of them all… I dropped Wayne Hudson. Wayne’s understudy Jimmy Wilkinson went in goal against Millwall, who knew that a defeat at Craven Cottage would almost certainly condemn them to Division 2 for next season. 18 APRIL 2011: Fulham vs Millwall Opportunity also knocked for left-winger Wayne Cable, whose fledgling career reached new heights after just 10 minutes. Brett Ormerod - a man more than twice Cable's age - threaded the ball across Millwall's penalty area to the new Welsh wizard, who blasted home his first goal in senior football! This was only his sixth game for the club! The Fulham full-backs then combined to double our lead in the 22nd minute. On the left flank, captain George McCartney got to the byline and then picked out Graham Bowater, who had been restored to the starting XI ahead of loanee Kevin Dawson. Bowater swung a hopeful leg at the cross and managed to turn it beyond Adam Sullivan in the Millwall goal for 2-0. Of course, we didn't make life easy for ourselves. Another clumsy Ben Thatcher foul allowed Millwall to pull one goal back in the 44th minute, when Matthew Simmonds scored from Welsh midfielder Richard Edwards' free-kick. Brett Ormerod responded quickly, with a powerful header from Vicente Núñez's cross restoring our two-goal cushion ahead of the second half. Brett was playing through the pain barrier to try and win us this game - but four minutes after the restart, it all got too much. Ormerod's knee gave way as he tried to lob a Cable cross over Sullivan, and he had to be stretchered off the pitch. When Nwankwo Kanu netted Millwall's second goal of the game in the 51st minute, there were serious concerns about another second-half Fulham collapse. Those fears only heightened when Cable and Paul McVeigh each wasted chances to put the game beyond doubt. Cable later picked up a knock, which led to him being replaced with the calmer, more experienced Elbekay Bouchiba. I called upon another wise old head in the 84th minute, bringing on Idan Tal for right-winger Michael Gibson as my last substitute. By the 87th minute, that wise old head had gone. Tal inexplicably tripped the Lions midfielder Danny Schofield from behind, earning the Israeli a straight red card! While Millwall could not create an equaliser against our 10 men, Idan knew that his stupidity had almost cost us a first victory in seven attempts. Fulham - 3 (Cable 10, Bowater 22, Ormerod 45) Millwall - 2 (Simmonds 44, Kanu 51) Division 1, Attendance 18,771 - POSITIONS: Fulham 7th, Millwall 23rd FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-2): Wilkinson; Bowater, Thatcher, Piccolo, McCartney; Gibson (Tal), Mølby, Núñez, Cable (Bouchiba); McVeigh, Ormerod (Butler). BOOKED: Thatcher. SENT OFF: Tal. Unfortunately, Ormerod had twisted his knee in that match. He was ruled out for three weeks, which meant he would not play for us again this season... unless we made the play-offs. One man who definitely wouldn't play for Fulham again was Idan Tal. Three minutes of madness copped the 36-year-old Israeli midfielder a three-match ban, and I informed him that his contract would not be renewed. By the end of the week, he had signed an agreement to return home and join Beitar Jerusalem for the 2011/2012 season. That last victory had moved us back to within a single point of 6th-placed Birmingham - a truly strange team who had scored the most goals and also conceded the joint-most. Their last five scorelines read 3-2 vs Dagenham, 2-3 at Sunderland, 4-2 at Aston Villa, 3-2 vs Chesterfield, and 1-6 at Crewe! So, what would happen on St George's Day, when we arrived at St Andrew's for the biggest match of our season so far? Could we storm back into the top six? Would Birmingham's goal machine Andy Johnson crush our dreams? Or would this be a drab nil-nil? 23 APRIL 2011: Birmingham City vs Fulham Funnily enough, it was 0-0 at half-time! Birmingham had barely offered any attacking threat in the first half, while their leaky defence restricted us to a couple of low-quality shots from 18-year-old Michael Butler. This was Butler's 23rd game for Fulham, and I'm afraid that his wait for a first senior goal would have to continue. Whatever Paul Lambert had said to his Birmingham players must surely have jolted them into life. Four minutes after the restart, attacking midfielder Tom Youngs unleashed a vicious shot that Jimmy Wilkinson could only tip behind for a corner. Youngs swung the corner to wide midfielder James Coppinger, whose well-taken strike broke the deadlock. It only took us about four minutes to muster a reply. Having replaced an overawed Wayne Cable at half-time, Elbekay Bouchiba displayed all his creative talent to send a delightful cross up to the near post. Paul McVeigh got to the delivery ahead of Birmingham defender Claude Davis and headed in his 25th goal this season! Things then got cagey for a while until the decisive moment came in the 79th minute. It didn't go our way, as captain George McCartney lost the ball deep in our half, and a first-time hit from Coppinger restored the Blues' advantage - for good. Though a late calf injury kept Andy Johnson off the scoresheet, his team had done enough to take the points. Birmingham City - 2 (Coppinger 50,79) Fulham - 1 (McVeigh 54) Division 1, Attendance 24,551 - POSITIONS: Birmingham 6th, Fulham 8th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-2): Wilkinson; Bowater, Thatcher (Mølby), Piccolo, McCartney; Gibson (Dawson), Danns, Núñez, Cable (Bouchiba); Butler, McVeigh. And we've bottled it. Four points adrift with two games to play. There's surely no coming back from this. There would be a major squad overhaul over the summer - but before then, we had two more matches to grind through. Our last home match was against Bristol City, who had picked up only three victories in a disastrous relegation season. Meanwhile, Curtis Davies had won his first international cap for Sierra Leone in midweek, playing in a 0-0 draw against Benin. The 26-year-old came back feeling somewhat relieved, telling me, “At least I didn’t have to wait until I was 38 to make my debut!” Good for you, Curtis. You’re still not getting back in the team until you back down on your wage demands. 30 APRIL 2011: Fulham vs Bristol City Anestis Agritis came into the starting XI ahead of Michael Butler - and the Greek striker justified his selection after just nine minutes. Agritis skilfully chested a right-wing cross from Michael Gibson, and then lashed in a brilliant volley to take his season goal tally up to 10! Our shot count in this match would also reach double figures, as Gibson and co dominated the midfield battles and created loads of opportunities. Unfortunately, neither the scoreboard nor David McEwan would budge - City's Scotland international becoming the latest opposition goalkeeper to play a blinder against us. Whatever we tried, none of our attackers could not add to Agritis' early opener - not even Anestis himself, who was denied by McEwan in the 71st minute. Luckily for us, City's own attacking players were completely out of it; perhaps they were just desperate for their miserable season to be over. That gave Wayne Hudson the easiest of clean sheets on his return to action, having being benched for the last two games. Fulham - 1 (Agritis 9) Bristol City - 0 Division 1, Attendance 10,985 - POSITIONS: Fulham 7th, Bristol City 24th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-2): Hudson; Bowater (Dawson), Svensson, Piccolo, McCartney; Gibson, Mølby (Danns), Núñez, Bouchiba; Agritis, McVeigh (Butler). BOOKED: Bowater. Another win, but it just goes to show how utterly dreadful we've been this month that we can barely beat Bristol City and Millwall - the two worst teams in the division - by a single goal at home. As disappointed as I was, though, results elsewhere gave me hope. Birmingham had only managed a 2-2 draw at Preston, which meant that we had closed the gap on 6th place to just two points going into the final day. If we were to sneak into the play-offs, we would need to defeat 4th-placed Grimsby at Blundell Park on the final day - and also hope that Birmingham could not win against mid-table Huddersfield. Although our destiny was out of our hands, the Fulham play-off dream was not dead. Yet.

DIVISION 1 TABLE (End of March 2011) Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Crewe 38 14 3 2 39 17 8 4 7 25 26 73 2nd Torquay 38 13 3 2 41 17 7 6 7 27 28 69 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Grimsby 38 12 6 1 37 16 6 6 7 20 20 66 4th Charlton 38 8 8 3 26 14 8 8 3 21 16 64 5th Fulham 38 12 2 5 32 19 7 5 7 25 25 64 6th Swindon 38 12 4 4 29 15 5 6 7 24 24 61 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th West Ham 38 9 7 3 24 13 7 6 6 20 17 61 8th Birmingham 38 11 2 6 37 28 8 2 9 43 48 61 9th Nottm Forest 38 14 0 5 42 29 5 4 10 26 39 61 10th Huddersfield 38 8 5 7 25 21 8 7 3 22 14 60 11th Sheff Utd 37 12 3 4 48 28 5 5 8 26 29 59 12th Preston 38 14 3 3 39 22 4 2 12 12 32 59 13th Chesterfield 38 8 5 6 24 21 8 4 7 31 37 57 14th Notts Co 38 10 5 4 34 23 6 3 10 29 39 56 15th W.B.A. 38 10 3 5 34 24 5 6 9 22 28 54 16th Tottenham 38 12 2 4 34 18 3 5 12 26 41 52 17th Kidderminster 38 9 6 3 28 15 4 2 14 18 32 47 18th Norwich 37 10 3 5 39 27 3 4 12 25 47 46 19th Aston Villa 38 8 5 6 29 28 3 5 11 21 32 43 20th Carlisle 38 10 5 5 38 28 0 3 15 9 44 38 21st Sunderland 38 6 7 6 17 15 3 2 14 12 28 36 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22nd Dag & Red 38 4 9 6 12 13 3 3 13 9 22 33 23rd Millwall 38 6 5 8 24 24 0 5 14 11 37 28 24th Bristol City 38 2 3 14 16 37 1 1 17 8 43 13 ELSEWHERE IN FOOTBALL... Despite battling to even stay in the Bundesliga, Nürnberg reach the Champions League Quarter Final on their debut. Robin Van Persie inspires the Bavarian side to a 2-1 group win over Manchester United, which sees them through ahead of both the Red Devils and Lazio. Roma also bow out, which means that no Serie A teams make the knockout stages for the first time since 2001. Club Brugge qualify for a fourth successive Champions League Quarter Final, confirming their status as a major European force. Rafa Benítez says his work is done and moves to São Paulo, because the weather is warmer there than it is in Belgium. "Fact." Four French teams make it to the Quarter Finals of the UEFA Cup... but only one remains come the Semi Finals. Didier Drogba scores the winner as Terry Yorath's Marseille battle past Ajax 2-0 on aggregate. Things don't go quite as well for Bordeaux, Lille or Monaco, who are respectively knocked out by Parma, Rubin Kazan and Atalanta. After taking a 3-0 lead over Lazio in the 44th minute, it seems that Roma are about to go 10 points clear in Serie A. But Hernán Jorge Crespo's strike just before half-time inspires Lazio to a late comeback, as Cosmin Contra and then Kaká both score late on to salvage a 3-3 draw! Bayern München are one point above the Bundesliga relegation zone with eight games to play, following a 1-1 home draw in which striker Maksym Tsyhalka is sent off for a kung-fu kick at VfB Stuttgart defender Tomas Ujfalusi. Bayern president Franz Beckenbauer finally decides to act, and gives head coach Vegard Skogheim... a more comfortable desk chair. IN OTHER NEWS... A 9.1-magnitude earthquake hits the east coast of Japan and triggers a huge tsunami. Over 15,000 people are killed, and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant sustains major damage and releases radioactivity into the atmosphere. The 'Arab Spring' continues, as mass demonstrations begin in Syria against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Government forces respond with brute force, killing hundreds of protestors and sieging various cities. Charlie Sheen is not “winning”. The actor loses his job on sitcom “Two and a Half Men” after an anti-Semitic rant against the show’s creator Chuck Lorre, and then makes a series of bizarre TV interviews where he talks about being a “warlock” with “tiger blood”. Gordon Strachan expresses interest in signing him for Hull. Dame Elizabeth Taylor - the English-American actress who became one of Hollywood’s biggest stars in the 1950s - passes away at the age of 79. Taylor was also well-known for her addiction to wedding cake, having been married eight times - including twice to her “Cleopatra” co-star Richard Burton.

MARCH 2011 When I took over as Fulham manager back in November, many people said to me that the club's standout player was Dane Richards - the pacey and flamboyant Jamaican right-winger who apparently had the ability to turn any match on his head. After three months in charge, I was not convinced. Richards had produced just two assists in nine matches - hardly game-changing form by any means. Scott Brough had been more creative on the right wing for me, and 18-year-old Michael Gibson was also emerging as a serious talent, so it was becoming increasingly hard to justify paying Dane £23,000 per week. Only Brett Ormerod and Paul McVeigh were on higher wages. I decided to put Richards up for sale, and by the start of March, he had already moved out of Craven Cottage. Premiership strugglers Middlesbrough had agreed to stump up £2million for Richards - a ten-fold increase on the £200,000 that my predecessor Garry Hill had paid Ulsan to sign him back in July. That's not bad business, is it? In terms of business on the pitch, our Division 1 campaign continued at Saltergate against mid-table Chesterfield. Fulham's first match of the month would also be captain George McCartney's only match of the month, as his red card in Dagenham had banned him from the next three. 5 MARCH 2011: Chesterfield vs Fulham Chesterfield bossed the opening stages, with Lars Iver Strand forcing a difficult save from Wayne Hudson after just two minutes. Korean right-back Chong-Goog Song missed the target with another effort three minutes later - but he fared rather better than his Fulham counterpart. After 32 minutes, Kevin Dawson gashed his leg and was forced off, which meant the left-footed substitute Ben Thatcher would have to take his place. With seemingly everything going wrong for us at Saltergate, you could probably guess what happened in the 45th minute. That's right... Fulham took the lead! After two unsuccessful attempts at goal, it was third time lucky for Paul McVeigh, who dribbled past 37-year-old Chesterfield defender Linvoy Primus to continue his scoring streak! Our lead was a very fragile thing, though, and it was even more vulnerable in the 60th minute, when Thatcher did a Thatcher thing. Andy Rushbury's reward for finding a way past the ex-Wales madman was to get hacked from behind with both feet. Thatcher was sent off, defensive midfielder Scott Mitchell moved to right-back, and we needed to hold on for the final half-hour with only 10 men. Of course, when you have a goalkeeper as imposing as Hudson, anything is possible. After Hudson confidently punched away a Vegard Heggem corner in the 74th minute, Bryan Robson's Spireites struggled to come up with any other ideas, and we returned home with all three points! Chesterfield - 0 Fulham - 1 (McVeigh 45) Division 1, Attendance 5,987 - POSITIONS: Chesterfield 14th, Fulham 4th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-1-4-1): Hudson; Dawson (Thatcher), Svensson, Davies, McCartney; Mitchell; Gibson (Brough), Danns, McDonald, Bouchiba; McVeigh (Richardson). SENT OFF: Thatcher. Kevin Dawson was now out for another fortnight, this time with a gashed leg. Meanwhile, Ben Thatcher copped a three-match ban and was fined a week's wages, which prompted the serene, well-mannered Welshman to flip over my office desk and smash everything to pieces. Even when we're keeping clean sheets, our defence is still an utter mess. Thatcher was supposed to deputise for McCartney at left-back for our next match - but his ill-discipline meant I had to play 18-year-old Nigel Proffitt against the league leaders instead. Meanwhile, Ormerod picked up a calf strain, so Greek goalgetter Anestis Agritis would fill in for him alongside the unstoppable McVeigh up front. 9 MARCH 2011: Fulham vs Crewe Alexandra Though Crewe had one of the most threatening attacks in the leagues, they could not find a way past Wayne Hudson in the first half. With top scorer Lee McCulloch being rested, their main man up front was Dave Kitson, whose vicious shot in the 6th minute was brilliantly turned behind by Hudson. That was the first of four saves Wayne would make before half-time - all from different Railwaymen. Unfortunately, we were struggling to come up with any good attacking play of our own until the second half, when substitute Tom Mølby added some creativity to our midfield. This led to a great chance in the 52nd minute for Paul McVeigh, who fired it against the woodwork. We tried our luck again on 64 minutes. Mølby sought out a left-wing run from our flying Dutchman Elbekay Bouchiba, who put a super cross into the six-yard box. Waiting there was McVeigh, who outjumped Crewe's 17-year-old libero Michael Peters and headed in his 100th goal for Fulham. It also extended the Northern Irishman's scoring run to five matches in a row! The league leaders were now on the ropes, but they had two great chances to fight back in the 80th minute. Once again, though, Hudson kept them at bay, stopping a fierce drive from right-back Stephen Carr before also catching the follow-up from midfielder Grant McCann. No wonder the Crewe manager Graeme Souness looked furious at full-time! Fulham - 1 (McVeigh 64) Crewe Alexandra - 0 Division 1, Attendance 12,964 - POSITIONS: Fulham 4th, Crewe 1st FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-2): Hudson; Bowater, Svensson, Davies, Proffitt (Magnusson); Brough, Danns, Mitchell, Bouchiba (Gibson); McVeigh, Agritis (Mølby). That's three 1-0 wins in a row - not that I am complaining! We were now rather more comfortable in the play-off places, and just four points off 2nd-placed Torquay. Next up, we went to White Hart Lane to take on fallen giants Tottenham. Spurs had not responded well at all to the shock of being relegated from the Premiership last year, and their hopes of an immediate return hinged on an unlikely late surge into the play-offs. 12 MARCH 2011: Tottenham Hotspur vs Fulham Spoiler alert: Paul McVeigh did not score in this match. He did, however, play a big part in our opening goal after just two minutes. McVeigh squared the ball to our young right-winger Michael Gibson, whose cross to the far post was met with a simple finish from Scott Brough. But then, in the 24th minute, Santa came bearing gifts for the long-suffering Tottenham fans. Finnish striker Matti Santahuhta found some space in between our defenders, and when he thundered in a cross from left-back Danny Wells, our run of three clean sheets was over. We had also lost our lead... ...only to find it again just two minutes later. McVeigh won us a free-kick close to goal after his shirt was pulled by Tottenham captain Leigh Bromby. Brough swung it deep into the cross, and Tom Mølby's header brought the 19-year-old Danish midfielder just his second senior goal! The thrills and spills continued, as the pendulum started to swing Tottenham's way once again. Our defenders just couldn't cope with the Sheringham-esque attacking intelligence of Santahuhta, who had three shots at goal in the five minutes leading up to half-time. He even found the net from the second of them, only to be flagged offside. Of course, we didn't only have to worry about Santahuhta. If his earlier assist hadn't warned us about the danger of Wells' crossing ability, we certainly knew by the 61st minute. Another clever centre from the left wing found Santahuhta, who climbed above Bo Svensson and headed in a second Spurs equaliser. Though Matti was later denied a hat-trick by Wayne Hudson, his impressive brace meant the spoils were shared at 2-2. Tottenham Hotspur - 2 (Santahuhta 24,61) Fulham - 2 (Brough 2, Mølby 26) Division 1, Attendance 35,291 - POSITIONS: Tottenham 16th, Fulham 3rd FULHAM LINE-UP (4-1-4-1): Hudson; Bowater, Svensson, Davies, Proffitt (Magnusson); Mitchell; Gibson, Mølby, McDonald (Danns), Brough; McVeigh (Butler). That was a thrilling match, but it was nothing compared to what the 8,952 spectators at Meadow Lane had witnessed. That match finished Notts County 5, Birmingham 6! Neither of those teams were our next opponents, by the way. I just thought I would mention it... We now had to beware the Ides of March when we visited Preston on 15 March. After a couple of substitute appearances, Icelandic youngster Halldór Magnusson made his first start at left-back. 15 MARCH 2011: Preston North End vs Fulham David Moyes' 3-4-1-2 - fronted once again by David Healy and Richard Cresswell - caused us all sorts of problems early on. Preston missed a couple of early scoring opportunities before eventually succeeding in the 16th minute, when a first-time hit from Cresswell left Wayne Hudson helpless in the Fulham goal. Preston's dominance continued throughout the first half. Our 19-year-old left-back Halldór Magnusson struggled to deal with the hosts' right-winger John Murray, who was a year younger but had far more experience at this level. Shortly before half-time, Murray managed to get a cross to Healy, whose header was stopped by Hudson's fingertips. Sadly, Wayne could not stop left-winger Dave Marsh from tapping in the rebound. That left us 2-0 down at half-time, and we were unable to repair the damage in the following 45 minutes. Substitute striker Anestis Agritis' 66th-minute header which hit the bar was the closest we got. We even had to finish the game with 10 men, as right-back Graham Bowater suffered a hamstring injury in the closing stages. Preston North End - 2 (Cresswell 16, Marsh 45) Fulham - 0 Division 1, Attendance 20,127 - POSITIONS: Preston 11th, Fulham 5th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-1-4-1): Hudson; Bowater, Svensson, Davies (Piccolo), Magnusson; Mitchell; Brough, Tal (Mølby), McDonald (Agritis), Bouchiba; McVeigh. BOOKED: Davies. That was actually our final match of the month. A first defeat in five games was a disappointing note to go out on. With eight games to go, we are five points off the automatic promotion places in 5th place. We are also only three points clear of 7th, with about 10 teams below us who still harbour realistic hopes of making the play-offs. There will be huge pressure on our shoulders as we head into the run-in. We'll also have to do it without Brough. Yep... he only went and broke his leg in training. After 5 goals and 6 assists in 28 games, one of our most productive players is done for the season. On the plus side, McCartney will be back from suspension… just as Thatcher begins his three-match ban.

DIVISION 1 TABLE (End of February 2011) Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Crewe 33 13 3 1 32 12 8 4 4 24 22 70 2nd Torquay 34 12 2 2 40 17 7 4 7 23 24 63 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Grimsby 33 11 4 1 31 11 6 6 5 19 16 61 4th Charlton 34 8 6 3 25 13 7 8 2 19 14 59 5th Fulham 34 11 2 5 31 19 6 4 6 22 21 57 6th Sheff Utd 33 12 1 3 41 19 5 4 8 24 27 56 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th Preston 34 13 3 2 35 19 4 2 10 11 26 56 8th West Ham 33 8 6 2 22 11 7 4 6 18 15 55 9th Birmingham 34 10 2 5 36 27 7 1 9 34 40 54 10th Huddersfield 33 7 4 6 22 18 7 6 3 19 14 52 11th Nottm Forest 34 12 0 5 37 27 4 4 9 20 34 52 12th Swindon 34 10 4 4 27 15 4 5 7 23 24 51 13th Chesterfield 33 8 5 4 24 17 6 3 7 21 29 50 14th Notts Co 34 9 5 3 26 15 4 3 10 23 36 47 15th W.B.A. 33 9 2 5 30 21 4 5 8 19 26 46 16th Tottenham 33 11 1 4 30 15 2 5 10 19 32 45 17th Kidderminster 34 7 6 3 25 14 4 2 12 17 29 41 18th Aston Villa 33 7 5 5 25 23 2 4 10 18 29 36 19th Norwich 33 8 3 5 32 24 1 4 12 19 45 34 20th Carlisle 34 9 4 5 33 24 0 3 13 8 41 34 21st Dag & Red 34 4 8 5 12 12 3 3 11 7 17 32 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22nd Sunderland 34 4 7 6 14 15 2 2 13 11 27 27 23rd Millwall 33 5 5 6 21 20 0 4 13 9 34 24 24th Bristol City 33 2 3 11 12 27 1 1 15 8 41 13 ELSEWHERE IN FOOTBALL... Manchester United's Champions League hopes suffer a huge blow as Celtic outclass them 3-1 in Glasgow, and then win 2-1 at Old Trafford. Three goals from 21-year-old captain Gordon Weir and two from Steven Nicholas put the Bhoys at the top of a group that also includes Lazio and Nürnberg. At least United are still on course to win another Premiership title. Joe O'Shea scores a hat-trick and misses a penalty in a potentially defining 3-0 win over Arsenal, whose left-back Patrice Evra is sent off for swearing in front of young children (who also happen to be his team-mates). Barcelona's winning streak continues, as they secure a Champions League Quarter Final spot, while Lionel Messi's 31st-minute winner at Real Madrid moves them even closer to another La Liga title. After the match, Real boss Vicente del Bosque looks at his squad full of 30-something codgers and sighs, "We need more experience." Former Celtic manager Jim Jefferies continues his comedy world tour by leaving mid-table German side Borussia Mönchengladbach to take over at mid-table Spanish side Deportivo. With Deportivo struggling to score goals, Jefferies knows exactly who his first signing will be - Port Vale legend Paul Musselwhite, as goalkeeping coach. Dortmund storm to a 5-1 win over Bundesliga minnows Ahlen - with David Trezeguet, Samuel Eto'o and Tomas Rosicky all on target for the defending champions. Nobody is more shocked than Ahlen's coach Peter Neururer, who thought he had signed René Adler to play in goal... but had in fact hired an 18-year-old named Ronny Adler! IN OTHER NEWS... As anti-government protests spread across the Arab world, another North African strongman is deposed from office - with Hosni Mubarak stepping down as Egypt's President after nearly 30 years. Meanwhile, civil war breaks out in Libya, as forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi clash with rebel groups. A record 111 million Americans tune in to watch Super Bowl XLV on television, despite having to endure the Black Eyed Peas at half-time. The Green Bay Packers defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25 in Arlington, Texas, thanks to an MVP performance from quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Lady Gaga returns to the top of the US charts with her new club anthem “Born This Way”. The track - and its typically understated music video - is especially popular among the LGBT+ community, not to mention the black-white-beige-chola-Lebanese community. Product placement is allowed on British TV for the first time. It’s only a matter of time before we see Ken Barlow eating Kellogg’s Corn Flakes for breakfast, or Dot Cotton puffing on Benson & Hedges cigarettes.

FEBRUARY 2011 January had not gone entirely to plan, but victory at Kidderminster in our last fixture had taken us back into the Division 1 play-off places. If we could get through our next five matches - which included another trip to one of my former clubs - Fulham fans could begin to dream about Premiership football returning to Craven Cottage. Kicking off our February schedule was against West Brom, who were looking to dampen spirits at the Cottage by inflicting a third consecutive home defeat on us. Fulham's first-choice goalkeeper Wayne Hudson was completing his three-match ban, so our de jure number 1 Jimmy Wilkinson was once again between the sticks. 5 FEBRUARY 2011: Fulham vs West Bromwich Albion Jimmy Wilkinson was determined to keep his place in the team, as he showed by making a stunning fingertip save to keep West Brom midfielder Gary Jones off the scoreboard in the 19th minute. Sadly, Wilko could do little about Neil Clement's header from the subsequent Mike Holland corner. Clement's goal sent us into the break trailing 1-0, though we did have several chances to draw level before half-time. Brett Ormerod fired a promising effort well wide in the 30th minute after being crowded out by Baggies defenders. Right-back Graham Bowater had our best chance in the 42nd minute, firing George McCartney's left-wing cross against the bar. Wilkinson made a few more saves to stop West Brom pulling further ahead early in the second half. Then, in the 60th minute, the match took a significant turn. Ormerod's header was turned away by Albion goalkeeper Michael Oakes... but only to our other veteran striker Paul McVeigh, whose low drive restored parity! Four minutes later, Fulham playmaker Neil Danns collected a pass from substitute Idan Tal. Danns looked up and threaded the ball into space for McVeigh, who converted again to complete a quick turnaround! McVeigh almost sealed a hat-trick in the 72nd minute, heading Bowater's cross over the bar, though we remained on track for a first home win of the year! Fulham - 2 (McVeigh 60,64) West Bromwich Albion - 1 (Clement 19) Division 1, Attendance 14,371 - POSITIONS: Fulham 5th, West Brom 17th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-2): Wilkinson; Bowater, Piccolo, Thatcher, McCartney; Brough (Richards), Danns, McDonald (Tal), Bouchiba; McVeigh, Ormerod (Davies). Fair play to the lads for showing great fighting spirit - especially Paul McVeigh, whose brace put him on 15 league goals for the season. The 33-year-old Northern Irishman was now behind only three players in the Division 1 scoring charts: Birmingham's Andy Johnson, West Brom's Neil Mellor, and Chesterfield's Lars Iver Strand. But as well as Wilkinson had played during his last three games, I still decided to recall Hudson to the starting line-up for a tricky away match against 3rd-placed Charlton at The Valley. I also brought young midfielders Vicente Núñez and Tom Mølby back into the squad. 12 FEBRUARY 2011: Charlton Athletic vs Fulham Vicente Núñez's direct passing played a role in us taking the lead after just 11 minutes. The Spaniard sought out George McCartney on the left wing, and a deadly cross from our captain was met by an even deadlier Brett Ormerod header. 1-0 to the Cottagers! After that early opener, however, our distribution got much sloppier and Charlton began to dominate proceedings. Though the back four did its best to try and stop the Addicks' attackers, we still needed Wayne Hudson to make several first-half saves - from the likes of veteran midfielder Steve Housham and Irish international Damien Delaney. The Charlton onslaught continued until the 64th minute. 19-year-old Welsh left-back Gareth Jeffries had created several great chances, and his hard work eventually paid off when an incisive cross was finished by Addicks hotshot Darren Huckerby. Though substitute Anestis Agritis almost scored an injury-time winner for us, we had to settle for a point. Charlton Athletic - 1 (Huckerby 64) Fulham - 1 (Ormerod 11) Division 1, Attendance 20,510 - POSITIONS: Charlton 3rd, Fulham 5th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-2 Diamond): Hudson; Bowater, Piccolo, Thatcher, McCartney; Núñez; Danns, Bouchiba (Gibson); Tal (Mølby); McVeigh (Agritis), Ormerod. Guess you know why I brought Hudson back in straight away? I might complain a lot about how all the opposition goalkeepers play brilliantly against us - but I genuinely believe we have the best shotstopper in Division 1. What a guy. We were hot favourites to win our next home match, especially as our opponents Sunderland were enduring one of their worst seasons on record. Having dropped out of the Premiership, the Mackems were now at serious risk of plunging into Division 2, as they were six points adrift of safety. Incredibly, relegation specialist Roy Keane still had the backing of the board... but for how long? 19 FEBRUARY 2011: Fulham vs Sunderland With Fulham flying high and Sunderland in a slump, this should have been a doddle, right? Not when James Jowsey was the Black Cat in goal. I knew all about Jowsey's abilities, and my former Kidderminster loanee showed great reactions to prevent an almost certain own goal in the 42nd minute, when Vicente Núñez's shot took a huge deflection off Steven Caldwell. Jowsey also saved a couple of chances from Brett Ormerod before the deadlock was finally broken in the 52nd minute... by Sunderland. The visitors overwhelmed us with a quickfire, which ended in Sunderland midfielder Luke Chadwick beating our goalkeeper Wayne Hudson to a cross from Michael Dunwell. We tried to get back on terms quickly, but midfield talents Núñez and Tom Mølby lacked the know-how and technical skill to break down a well-drilled Sunderland back-five. It was left to other players to set up even a few half-chances for Ormerod and Paul McVeigh, all of which Jowsey was equal to. Our frustrations eventually resulted in a couple of bookings, and then - with eight minutes to go - a decisive second Sunderland goal. A rocket from Scottish striker Steven Hampshire put the match beyond our reach, even if McVeigh did finally get a Cottagers consolation not long afterwards. Fulham - 1 (McVeigh 84) Sunderland - 2 (Chadwick 52, Hampshire 82) Division 1, Attendance 16,835 - POSITIONS: Fulham 5th, Sunderland 22nd FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-2): Hudson; Bowater, Piccolo (Svensson), Thatcher, McCartney; Núñez; Danns (Brough), McDonald (Bouchiba); Mølby; McVeigh, Ormerod. BOOKED: Bouchiba, Thatcher. If you're serious about getting promoted, you have to be strong at home - especially against struggling teams like Sunderland. That was our third defeat in our last four games at Craven Cottage. Just three days later, we were under pressure to beat the team who sat directly above Sunderland in the relegation zone. Willy Wordsworth's staunch commitment to defensive football had finally come back to haunt Dagenham & Redbridge, whose inability to score had seen them gradually fall down the table and right into a relegation battle. We arrived at Victoria Road with two new faces in the team. The first of them was right-back Kevin Dawson, who was finally fit to play after a calf injury had wiped out the first month of his four-month loan from Aston Villa. Also making his debut was another loanee - Scotland Under-21s midfielder Scott Mitchell, who arrived from Ipswich until the end of the season. A resilient and selfless defensive midfielder, the 19-year-old 'Scotty Dog' would help to protect our backline, especially as Núñez wasn't mentally tough enough to be a regular starter just yet. 22 FEBRUARY 2011: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Fulham Dagenham & Redbridge were making an art form of old-school tactics - but for the first half-hour, we tried our best to emulate them. Daggers striker Steve Allen cried, "Ay caramba!", when he was wiped out by a robust sliding challenge from Fulham centre-back Walter Piccolo after just three minutes. Piccolo somehow escaped with just a ticking-off... but another Cottager was not so lucky. In the 30th minute, just moments after Scott Mitchell had blasted over a chance to score on his Fulham debut, things went horribly wrong for our longest-serving player. As Michael Rogers dribbled into our penalty area, captain George McCartney made a mindless two-footed lunge on the Dagenham winger. McCartney was shown a straight red card and the Daggers were awarded a penalty, which Allen scored with ease. Before this match, Allen had scored two goals this season. By the 42nd minute, the Wales Under-21s forward had doubled his tally, outpacing left-back Graham Bowater to finish a cross from on-loan Crewe winger Ian Jones. Ay caramba, indeed. Another poor defensive display left us 2-0 down at half-time - but my strongest criticism was for 19-year-old playmaker Tom Mølby. The Dane had gone off the boil since his breakthrough in December, so I replaced him with fellow teenager Michael Gibson. The team responded with a strong start to the second half, two minutes into which Paul McVeigh halved our deficit from Elbekay Bouchiba's cross. Unfortunately, that was just a false dawn. McVeigh's strike was our only shot on target in the entire game. If Dagenham's second-half shooting had not been so wayward, the final scoreline could have been much more than 2-1, but this was still a three-goal thriller as far as Willy Wordsworth's side were concerned. Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Allen pen30,42) Fulham - 1 (McVeigh 47) Division 1, Attendance 7,958 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 20th, Fulham 6th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-1-1): Hudson; Dawson, Piccolo, Thatcher, McCartney; Richards (Brough), Mølby (Gibson), Mitchell, Bouchiba; Ormerod (Bowater); McVeigh. BOOKED: Richards, Thatcher. SENT OFF: McCartney. Another pathetic performance. As long as we continue to make basic defensive errors and lose our discipline, we can forget about staying in the top six, let alone going for automatic promotion! I certainly hadn't expected George McCartney to show such recklessness. This was his 357th league game for Fulham - and only the second time he'd been sent off. He would soon have to serve a three-match ban - and he would also have to cough up a two-week fine, for the poor performance as well as the red card. I decided not to drop McCartney from the starting line-up that Aston Villa, though Ben Thatcher and Walter Piccolo were replaced at centre-half by Curtis Davies and Bo Svensson. If we failed to beat the Villans here, we would finish the month outside the play-off places. 27 FEBRUARY 2011: Fulham vs Aston Villa Although the first half wasn't a thriller by any means, we did look much better going forward than we had done in our last couple of matches. Elbekay Bouchiba was unlucky to flick an excellent header against the woodwork after just 29 minutes, but Paul McVeigh went one better two minutes later. A clever cross by teenager Michael Gibson allowed the in-form Northern Irishman to head in his fifth goal of the month - his 20th of the season. Things heated up in the 54th minute, when Aston Villa had three chances to equalise. After luckless forward Fortuné Ndzi and captain Joe Dolan each had shots saved by Wayne Hudson, a gaping goal appeared in front of Spanish right-back Alejandro Domínguez, who somehow scuffed the ball horribly wide! The Villans were more like villains in the final nine minutes, when their players picked up three cards - including a red card for attacking midfielder Scott Douglas, who was sent off for pushing Gary McDonald. That reduced Villa to 10 men and meant we could defend our 1-0 lead more comfortably, even with 19-year-old reserve defender Stephen Richardson getting a late run-out. Fulham - 1 (McVeigh 31) Aston Villa - 0 Division 1, Attendance 13,824 - POSITIONS: Fulham 5th, Aston Villa 18th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-1-4-1): Hudson; Dawson, Svensson (Richardson), Davies, McCartney; Mitchell; Gibson, Danns (Mølby), McDonald, Bouchiba; McVeigh. BOOKED: Svensson, Mitchell. While our form since January has been pretty rocky, we're just about clinging onto a play-off spot as we head into the final 12 matches of the season. Do we have what it takes to stay in that top six?

DIVISION 1 TABLE (End of January 2011) Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Crewe 29 12 2 1 30 11 7 3 4 20 20 62 2nd Torquay 29 11 1 2 36 15 5 4 6 17 21 53 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Charlton 29 8 4 3 23 11 5 8 1 15 10 51 4th Grimsby 29 9 4 1 24 9 5 5 5 16 15 51 5th Sheff Utd 29 10 1 3 36 17 5 4 6 21 21 50 6th Fulham 29 9 2 4 27 16 6 3 5 20 18 50 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th Birmingham 29 9 1 4 30 21 7 1 7 32 36 50 8th Nottm Forest 29 11 0 3 33 18 4 4 7 16 27 49 9th Swindon 29 9 4 2 25 11 4 3 7 22 23 46 10th Preston 29 10 3 2 28 17 4 1 9 10 24 46 11th West Ham 29 7 5 2 20 10 5 4 6 16 15 45 12th Huddersfield 29 5 4 6 16 14 7 4 3 18 13 44 13th Tottenham 29 11 1 2 28 11 2 4 9 15 26 44 14th Chesterfield 29 7 5 3 21 14 5 3 6 19 25 44 15th Kidderminster 29 7 4 3 25 14 4 1 10 14 24 38 16th Notts Co 29 7 5 3 23 14 3 3 8 19 31 38 17th W.B.A. 29 7 2 5 24 17 3 5 7 15 23 37 18th Aston Villa 29 7 4 4 23 19 2 3 9 17 27 34 19th Norwich 29 6 3 5 27 22 1 4 10 16 39 28 20th Carlisle 29 7 4 4 27 20 0 3 11 6 37 28 21st Dag & Red 29 2 7 5 6 10 3 3 9 5 13 25 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22nd Sunderland 29 4 6 5 13 13 0 2 12 6 23 20 23rd Millwall 29 3 5 6 14 19 0 4 11 7 28 18 24th Bristol City 29 2 3 10 12 26 1 1 12 7 32 13 ELSEWHERE IN FOOTBALL... Tensions run high at Old Trafford when Maicon reacts angrily to being substituted during a 3-1 Premiership win over Coventry. The Brazil right-back trades insults with his manager Hélio dos Anjos, who is already reported to have fallen out with French stars Djibril Cissé and William Gallas. Captain Gary Neville shakes his head and sighs, "This is Manchester United..." After just five months as player-manager, Emile Heskey is sacked by Blackburn, having won just two out of 21 Premiership matches in charge. Danny Wilson takes over the reins and tries to bring some sunshine back to Ewood Park by re-signing former Rovers midfielder Danny Murphy from Stoke. With Liverpool struggling to sustain a Premiership title challenge, the Moores family finally decide to sell the club. American billionaire Daniel W Dixon immediately adds $28million to the Liverpool Reds budget and vows to draft an elite quarterback who can bring the World Series to Ann Field. Barcelona return to the top of La Liga after extending their winning streak to eight matches. Relegation-battling Real Sociedad suffer particularly badly, losing back-to-back matches to Barça by an aggregate score of 7-0. Lionel Messi scores four goals to bring his La Liga goal tally for this season up to 21 - more than double anybody else's. Scottish Premier League champions Celtic bolster their defensive options by signing Birmingham's brilliant 23-year-old left-back Danny Bruce for £2.6million. Meanwhile, leaders Rangers complete the club-record £12.75million signing of Besiktas striker Nihat - and kick off a new Glaswegian fashion trend when 'Teddy Bears' start putting headwear over their legs. IN OTHER NEWS... A Tunisian street vendor sets himself on fire and dies in hospital, sparking mass protests against the country's President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The dictator - and part-time Crazy Frog ringtone - eventually flees to Saudi Arabia, ending his 23-year grip on power. Rumour has it that “21” by Adele is already the best album of the year. The London pop-soul songstress might be rolling in the deep, but she is raking in the cash when it becomes a huge success on both sides of the Atlantic. Sky Sports presenter Richard Keys and pundit Andy Gray are taken off air after making a series of sexist comments, most notably about the female assistant referee Sian Massey. Keys insists, "It was just banter." England complete a 3-1 Test series win in Australia - their first triumph Down Under since 1987 - and retain the Ashes. Alastair Cook hits 766 runs and is named ‘Man of the Series’, confirming that if you want to find a talented English batter, the only way is Essex.

JANUARY 2011 At what point do you know you have a very good team in your hands? For me, it's when the reigning Premiership champions make an offer to sign one of my players. As I was collecting my Division 1 Manager of the Month award from the LMA, I received a phone call from none other than Arsène Wenger - the long-time Arsenal manager. At first, I thought Arsène was enquiring about Wayne Hudson, perhaps because his first-choice goalkeeper was busy revising for his A-levels. In fact, the player he was interested in was George McCartney - the 29-year-old left-back and captain who was enjoying arguably the best season of his career. So when Arsène offered to sign him for £2.4million, I couldn't help but laugh. I had turned down a £5million bid from Manchester City last month, so I certainly wasn't going to sell him for Arsenal for less than half that, even if I'm a lifelong Gooner! There was only one place McCartney was going - and that was Torquay, for our opening match of the new year. Could we continue our unbelievable six-match winning streak against Chris Kamara's Gulls, who were themselves in fine form and sitting just ahead of us in 4th place? 1 JANUARY 2011: Torquay United vs Fulham Torquay quickly put us under the cosh, with Wayne Hudson having to save successive efforts from Jimmy Moran and Kevin Allan in the eighth minute. The Fulham keeper also did well to catch a deflected free-kick from the hosts' Ghanaian left-back Dan Quaye in the 21st minute, but there would be even tougher tests to come. After 25 minutes, Quaye left us quaking with a mazing run up the left wing. He then delivered the perfect cross to Swedish midfielder Anders Svensson, who escaped our right-back Graham Bowater and blasted home a fantastic opening goal. By the 44th minute, the Gulls were in full flight again. Quaye tormented us once more with another assist - this time playing in Moran, who ran through unmarked and doubled Torquay's lead. Though the deficit was only 2-0 at half-time, the game already felt like it was beyond our reach. Our attacks had been almost non-existent in the first half, and our struggles continued after the break. Indeed, our only shot on target came in the 62nd minute, when Brett Ormerod drew a tricky fingertip save out of Torquay keeper Brad Jones. We were eventually put out of our misery half an hour later, when Quaye rounded off a virtuoso display with a magnificent 20-yard free-kick, securing the hosts an emphatic 3-0 victory. Torquay United - 3 (Svensson 25, Moran 44, Quaye 90) Fulham - 0 Division 1, Attendance 6,487 - POSITIONS: Torquay 4th, Fulham 5th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-1-1): Hudson; Bowater, Davies, Piccolo (Proffitt), McCartney; Richards (McVeigh), Danns, Núñez, Bouchiba (Gibson); Mølby; Ormerod. BOOKED: Piccolo. That was awful. I don't think a lot more needs to be said. Walter Piccolo's yellow card was his fifth of the season, which meant that the Italian defender would be suspended from our next league match at home to Notts County on 15 January. Don't forget that Hudson would start a three-match ban at the same time. Before that, though, we had to negotiate an FA Cup Round 3 tie at home to Division 2 Macclesfield, whose 14-game unbeaten run made them a force to be reckoned with. That said, I still decided to rest a couple of our biggest stars - and give a full debut to 16-year-old left-winger Wayne Cable. 8 JANUARY 2011: Fulham vs Macclesfield Town Wayne Cable's full debut lasted all of 10 minutes - and then his left knee gave way. As the youngster was carried off the field in tears, I faced a major headache, as our usual left-winger Elbekay Bouchiba had been left out of the squad immediately. That meant left-back and captain George McCartney had to come on and play a more advanced role than usual. Macclesfield playmaker Wayne Graves made our situation even more grave in the 16th minute. A killer cross to the head of German midfielder Martin Geyer silenced Craven Cottage and gave the visitors a shock lead. Thankfully, we bounced back just over a minute later. Michael Gibson's trickery from the right wing won us a close-range free-kick, which the 18-year-old lifted into the box for the ageless Brett Ormerod to head home! Surely this would mark the start of a comeback? No, it wouldn't. Russell Howarth might have been a weak link in an otherwise strong Macclesfield team, but the goalkeeper - like many other opposition goalkeepers - seemed to save his best performance of the season for us. Ormerod and Anestis Agritis each had a couple more shots on target, but they were all saved by Howarth, who also kept Gibson off the scoresheet. By contrast, the Silkmen had just three shots on target - and scored from two of them. In the 70th minute, Lee Kelly's free-kick from the left wing was finished with aplomb by Jon Jordan - a 20-year-old defensive midfielder who had never scored a senior goal before. We were so stunned that we couldn't deliver a response in the final 20 minutes, and fell out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle. Fulham - 1 (Ormerod 17) Macclesfield Town - 2 (Geyer 16, J Jordan 70) FA Cup Round 3, Attendance 5,359 FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-2): Hudson; Bowater, Svensson, Piccolo, Proffitt; Gibson, Mølby (Núñez), McDonald, Cable (McCartney); Agritis, Ormerod. BOOKED: Piccolo, Mølby. Incredible. Beaten at home by a lower-league team, thanks to two goals from a couple of midfielders who had scored a total of ONE goal between them prior to this match. Central defence was a clear weak link in this team, so I looked at signing a new stopper. Finnish anchor man Henri Myntti was sold to Southampton for a mint (or £1million, to be more precise) to help finance this new signing, who unfortunately would not arrive in time for our next match. Our play-off place was on the line when we hosted mid-table Notts County - with neither Hudson nor Piccolo in our defence. Backup goalkeeper Jimmy Wilkinson really would have to pull out all the stops to get us back to winning ways? 15 JANUARY 2011: Fulham vs Notts County Notts County's marauding wing-backs caused us plenty of problems in the 10th minute. Right-back and captain Kevin McNaughton skipped past a limp challenge from Paul McVeigh and then put a low cross into the far post, where left-back Nicky Shorey slotted in a very rare goal - just his 7th in over 400 senior games, in fact. After the woodwork denied David Livermore what would have been a quickfire second goal for County, we recovered our composure and eventually levelled the scores eight minutes from half-time. The Magpies got a taste of their own medicine when our left-back George McCartney's header was driven in low by Graham Bowater at right-back. Funnily enough, that was also Bowater's 7th senior goal of a decade-long career - and his first ever goal for Fulham! Two minutes later, McVeigh came frustrating close to turning the game on its head, having THREE shots saved by Mark Heath in quick succession. Heath had been Tottenham's starting keeper in the Premiership last season, but the youngster had hardly covered himself in glory, so it was a shock to see him actually defend his goal so resiliently! Heath continued to frustrate our attackers in the second half, eventually saving six of our seven shots on target. By contrast, our stand-in goalie Jimmy Wilkinson only had a 50% save success rate. Wilko's biggest failure came in the 77th minute, when County's teenage substitute Jean Leroy headed in the winning goal from Jan Prochazka's free-kick. Fulham - 1 (Bowater 37) Notts County - 2 (Shorey 10, Leroy 77) Division 1, Attendance 13,177 - POSITIONS: Fulham 7th, Notts County 16th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-1-1): Wilkinson; Bowater, Svensson, Davies, McCartney; Richards (Brough), Danns, McDonald (Núñez), Bouchiba; Ormerod (Agritis), McVeigh. BOOKED: Bouchiba, Svensson. At the end of 2010, we had WON six games in a row. At the start of 2011, we had LOST three straight! And it seemed like every single goalkeeper in the Football League was playing like Sebastien Frey whenever they played against Fulham! This team badly needed an aggressive stopper - and they don't get much more aggressive than Ben Thatcher. The 35-year-old former Wales international joined us from Norwich for £20,000 and would provide some old-school, no-nonsense, tough-tackling defending. We had also recruited another centre-back, but one with the long-term very much in mind. 18-year-old Halldór Magnusson is a similarly boisterous central defensive stopper who can also play at left-back if required. The Icelandic youth international had been a free agent since leaving ÍA at the end of last year. I also signed a new right-back on loan to give Graham Bowater some more competition. 29-year-old Yorkshireman Kevin Dawson arrived from Aston Villa on a four-month deal - and then immediately suffered a calf strain, which meant he would miss the first of those. Fantastic. My final match of a miserable month came in familiar surroundings. I needed to remember to go into the away dugout at Aggborough when I faced my former Kidderminster charges, who had struggled for consistency under their new manager Tony Adams. Tony was a very direct manager who liked a 5-3-2 formation. Hoping to exploit any weaknesses in midfield, I adopted a narrow 4-4-2 diamond, which had occasionally been a source of success during my time with the Harriers. 22 JANUARY 2011: Kidderminster Harriers vs Fulham After a very slow start, things gradually warmed up when Paul McVeigh had a couple of shots either side of the half-hour mark. His first strike on 28 minutes went inches wide, but five minutes later, the Ulsterman rose high above Jim Brennan to head in a right-wing cross from Graham Bowater. First blood to the Cottagers! Switching to the diamond had worked wonders, as Kidderminster's sole midfielder David Norris was overwhelmed in the middle and we dominated possession. Come the 58th minute, we had asserted full control over this match with another McVeigh shot, who dribbled effortlessly through the defence before slotting the ball past Kent Ivarsson. Incredibly, my Harriers successor Tony Adams had not only decided to put Ivarsson in goal; he had also made him captain! To be fair, Kent did make some good saves to keep the scoreline down to 2-0, but the shaky Swede hardly inspired confidence in his team-mates. Kidderminster had just two shots at goal, both of which were easily saved by Jimmy Wilkinson for a comfortable clean sheet - and a return to winning ways! Kidderminster Harriers - 0 Fulham - 2 (McVeigh 33,58) Division 1, Attendance 7,218 - POSITIONS: Kidderminster 15th, Fulham 5th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-2 Diamond): Wilkinson; Bowater, Piccolo, Thatcher, McCartney; Núñez (McDonald); Danns, Bouchiba; Mølby (Brough); Ormerod (Agritis), McVeigh. After the match, I waved once again to the Kidderminster fans - partly in apology this time. It did sting a little that I was dealing another blow to the promotion chances of my former team, even if it did help lift Fulham back into the top six. But once I entered the dressing room to congratulate my players, any sense of sentiment or sympathy evaporated. Fulham was very much my team now, and I was now more determined to lead this grand old club back to the league where it belongs: the Premiership.

Thanks. I feel like I took Kidderminster as far as I could, so I'm enjoying this new challenge at Fulham. As an Arsenal fan, Henry wearing a United shirt doesn't look right at all. At least I can believe us signing Källström.

DIVISION 1 TABLE (End of December 2010) Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Crewe 26 12 1 1 29 10 6 2 4 17 18 57 2nd Grimsby 25 8 4 0 22 7 5 5 3 15 12 48 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Sheff Utd 26 9 1 2 33 15 5 4 5 19 17 47 4th Torquay 25 9 1 1 30 12 5 4 5 17 18 47 5th Fulham 26 9 2 3 26 14 5 3 4 18 15 47 6th Charlton 25 6 4 2 18 10 5 7 1 14 9 44 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th Preston 26 9 3 2 26 16 4 1 7 9 19 43 8th Chesterfield 25 7 3 3 20 13 5 3 4 19 21 42 9th Nottm Forest 26 10 0 3 29 16 3 3 7 11 23 42 10th Birmingham 25 7 1 4 24 19 6 1 6 30 33 41 11th Swindon 26 8 4 2 23 10 3 3 6 21 21 40 12th West Ham 26 6 4 2 15 9 5 3 6 16 15 40 13th Huddersfield 25 5 3 6 16 14 5 4 2 14 10 37 14th Tottenham 26 9 1 2 23 9 1 4 9 14 26 35 15th W.B.A. 26 6 2 4 19 14 3 4 7 15 23 33 16th Kidderminster 25 5 4 2 23 12 4 1 9 13 22 32 17th Notts Co 26 6 4 3 21 13 2 3 8 17 30 31 18th Aston Villa 25 6 4 4 21 18 2 2 7 12 20 30 19th Carlisle 25 6 4 4 24 20 0 2 9 6 29 24 20th Norwich 26 4 3 5 21 21 1 4 9 15 37 22 21st Dag & Red 26 2 7 5 6 10 2 2 8 4 11 21 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22nd Sunderland 26 4 5 5 13 13 0 2 10 4 19 19 23rd Millwall 25 2 4 6 12 18 0 4 9 5 22 14 24th Bristol City 26 2 3 7 8 19 1 1 12 7 32 13 ELSEWHERE IN FOOTBALL... Despite being knocked out of the UEFA Cup by Ajax, Leeds start dreaming of Premiership glory after an evergreen David Beckham draws the Whites level on points with leaders Chelsea. Meanwhile, 3rd-placed Manchester United decide that they can never have enough strikers in their team - and sign a 33-year-old Thierry Henry from Porto. "Va-va-voom." After losing 2-1 to La Liga leaders Valencia at the Mestalla, Barcelona go on a huge mid-season spending spree to try and keep hold of their crown. Juventus centre-half Gabriel Milito, Arsenal right-back Anthony Reveillère and Sporting anchor Javier Mascherano all arrive at the Nou Camp for a combined £33.75million. Arsenal also splash out the cash after a late collapse at Manchester City further damages their hopes of retaining the Premiership title. Rather than sign a goalkeeper who is legally old enough to drink, Arsène Wenger decides to spend £4.3million on Betis' Swedish playmaker Kim Källström. Perhaps you should look at his injury record first, Arsène... Dortmund go into the winter break three points clear at the top of the Bundesliga, with goalkeeper Gábor Király keeping four straight clean sheets. The sweatpants-wearing Hungarian also decides to don a ponytail in honour of David Seaman - the former England manager who has resurfaced as BVB's new goalkeeping coach. 37-year-old Inter legend Javier Zanetti enjoys an Indian summer in western France. The Argentine right-back stars for Nantes as they win six matches in a row and go six points clear at the top of Ligue 1. That's despite their star striker El-Hadji Diouf being banned since August for spitting at anything that moves within a 2-metre radius of him! IN OTHER NEWS... The United States Senate votes to repeal Department of Defense Directive 1304.26 - otherwise known as "Don't ask, don't tell". Since its implementation by Bill Clinton's administration in 1993, discrimination against closeted homosexuals had been prohibited in the US military, while openly gay, lesbian and bisexual people had been banned from military service outright. Northern Irish jockey Tony McCoy - who won the Grand National at his 15th attempt earlier this year - is voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year. 15-time world darts champion Phil Taylor takes 2nd place, but Wales' World Cup hero Robert Earnshaw is pipped to 3rd place by Paul the Octopus. ITV’s long-running soap “Coronation Street” celebrates its 50th birthday with a special live episode, which follows the aftermath of a gas explosion and a tram crash in Weatherfield. So, nothing out of the ordinary, then. In the new horror film "Black Swan", Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis are rival ballerinas who compete for a lead role in a production of "Swan Lake". Wait... and they do what? [Rushes to cinema]

DECEMBER 2010 After taking just one point from my first two matches as Fulham manager, I decided to start rebuilding the team in my own image. I began by selling off a couple of reserve left-backs, with Dan Rownham joining Shrewsbury for £150,000, and Nicky Watts heading to West Brom for £100,000. Meanwhile, I promoted three young prospects to the first-team, having been impressed by their performances in the reserves. Tom Mølby was an 18-year-old Danish attacking midfielder who would add some flair to the team. Welsh left-winger Wayne Cable had been dubbed 'the next Ryan Giggs' and was just 16 years old. Jamie Davey - the oldest of the trio at 19 - was an energetic striker who made one league appearance last season. When we kicked off December with a home game against 8th-placed Birmingham, all three newcomers were on the bench, along with Nigel Proffitt - an 18-year-old defender who had already featured in 21 senior games. Scott Brough and Paul McVeigh both returned to the starting XI, while Curtis Davies replaced the injured Bo Svensson in central defence. 4 DECEMBER 2010: Fulham vs Birmingham City Holding midfielder Gary McDonald had not enjoyed the best of seasons - even starting the campaign on loan at Division 3 Wycombe before returning to Craven Cottage. However, the Scotsman emphatically silenced his critics after just four minutes, when a magnificent solo run ended with him driving in just his second ever goal for Fulham! Birmingham twice threatened to equalise over the next 10 minutes. Unsurprisingly, former England Under-21s left-back Danny Bruce was at the heart of their attacks. After seeing captain Clint Hill flick his free-kick inches wide, Bruce himself aimed a header at goal, only to be thwarted by the brilliant Wayne Hudson. The Blues' attacks then fizzled out as we grew stronger towards the end of the first period. 34-year-old star striker Brett Ormerod had scored just once this season - but in the final six minutes before half-time, he tripled his tally. A 39th-minute header from Scott Brough's cross doubled our advantage, and then Ormerod nodded in an injury-time delivery from captain George McCartney to bring up his 100th Fulham goal! Everybody congratulated Brett on reaching his century in the dressing room at half-time - and with a 3-0 lead in tow, it was perhaps not a surprise that we lost a little focus. Moroccan midfielder Nabil Abidallah pulled one goal back for Birmingham after 53 minutes, though that was as far as their comeback got. The final half-hour was pretty comfortable, and I was able to give youngsters Wayne Cable and Tom Mølby their senior debuts without risking too much. Fulham - 3 (McDonald 4, Ormerod 39,45) Birmingham City - 1 (Abidallah 55) Division 1, Attendance 11,630 - POSITIONS: Fulham 10th, Birmingham 11th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-2): Hudson; Bowater, Davies, Piccolo, McCartney; Brough, Tal (Mølby), McDonald, Bouchiba (Cable); McVeigh (Proffitt), Ormerod. After his two assists, it was hard to believe Brough wasn't the best right-winger in our team. That man was Dane Richards - the explosive Jamaican who had become a Cottage favourite since arriving from the South Korean club Ulsan in July. Richards had missed the first few weeks of my tenure with a hamstring injury. He resumed full training on the Monday before our next match... but on Wednesday, he was on his way back to Jamaica, having been called up for an international friendly against the mighty Botswana. I love FIFA's international calendar, don't you? While my wait to see Richards in action would have to continue for a little longer, our focus now turned towards an away match against rock-bottom Bristol City, who had won two matches all season. 11 DECEMBER 2010: Bristol City vs Fulham Bristol City had conceded 44 goals in 21 league games prior to this - but judging by Geoffery Nijs' performance, you wouldn't know it. The Robins' Belgian goalkeeper twice thwarted our goalscoring centurion Brett Ormerod with unbelievable saves, leaving him somewhat bewildered. Wayne Hudson had not exactly had a quiet first half in our goal either, so when we went into half-time with the scores still 0-0, it was anyone's guess where this match would go. At half-time, I decided to switch tactics, from a 4-4-2 to a... 4-4-2. Yes, I sacrificed our wingers to build a narrow midfield diamond. Danish starlet Tom Mølby came on for the surprisingly ineffective Elbekay Bouchiba, while Ormerod was replaced up front with Greek international Anestis Agritis, who had just recovered from a shoulder injury. Nijs continued to defy our attackers early in the second half - but after 67 minutes, we finally made the breakthrough. It was a big moment for Mølby, who delivered his first senior assist by delicately flicking George McCartney's cross on for Agritis to escape his marker and score! Seven minutes later, it was clear that a new star had been born. On the day after his 19th birthday, Mølby outsmarted more experienced defenders with a stunning through-ball to McCartney, who was initially denied by Nijs but managed to convert the rebound! It was only George's fourth goal in nine seasons at Fulham, but it had secured us three precious points against a brave Bristol City team. Bristol City - 0 Fulham - 2 (Agritis 67, McCartney 74) Division 1, Attendance 13,940 - POSITIONS: Bristol City 24th, Fulham 8th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-2): Hudson; Bowater, Myntti, Piccolo (Proffitt), McCartney; Brough, Danns, McDonald, Bouchiba (Mølby); McVeigh, Ormerod (Agritis). BOOKED: Piccolo, Myntti. While this win moved us to within three points of the play-offs, I was still annoyed that we hadn't won by more goals. It seems that wherever I go, the worst goalkeepers in the league always seem to reserve their best performances for my teams. I dunno, maybe I'm just paranoid... The following afternoon, the draw took place for Round 3 of the FA Cup. It seemed inevitable that I would be drawn against my old club Kidderminster... but they were sent to Coventry. Instead, we would have the honour of hosting Division 2 high-flyers Macclesfield, in a tie that had 'giant-killer potential' written all over it. [Gulp] I then made my first Fulham signing - and this was very much one for the future. Spaniard Vicente Núñez was a strong and brave defensive midfielder with a bright future, arriving on a free transfer just over a week before his 20th birthday. Vicente would start his Cottagers career in the reserves, with the plan being to slowly integrate him into the first-team. Meanwhile, Conference side Farnborough loaned in our teenage winger Kenny Hay until the end of the season. He was actually the second Fulham youngster to move to the Aimita Stadium on loan, as Wales Under-21s forward Mark Smith had already been sent there at the start of this month. I also freed up some more spare wages by selling winger Robert Wolleaston to Division 2 Huddersfield for £250,000. With the enigmatic Elbekay Bouchiba and the prodigious Cable both ahead of him in the left-wing pecking order, Wolleaston's first-team opportunities were likely to be very limited, so it made sense to move him on. Next up was a home game against 2nd-placed Grimsby, whose watertight defence had lost just one league match all season long. Richards was back from his national service and ready to play under my management for the first time, but a knee injury to Gary McDonald meant that defender Henri Myntti had to move into midfield. 18 DECEMBER 2010: Fulham vs Grimsby Town Grimsby had the first pop at goal after just two minutes, when Jonathan Rowan's free-kick was pushed away by Fulham keeper Wayne Hudson. We then launched a rapid counter-attack, as Henri Myntti hoofed the ball upfield for Paul McVeigh to take all the way into the Mariners' penalty area. Once his strike partner had arrived, McVeigh curled the ball to the far post, where Brett Ormerod's point-blank header gave us the lead! Grimsby hit back almost immediately, as Rowan equalised with a 5th-minute rebound after Hudson had denied Davy Byrne. Just five minutes later, however, we found ourselves back in front, as McVeigh converted a left-wing Elbekay Bouchiba cross to make it 2-1 Cottagers! After the visitors' attacking threat was weakened by an injury to midfielder Dominique van Dijk, we had several chances to double our advantage. But despite making a poor start to the match, Grimsby's goalie Andy Paxton was almost unstoppable thereafter, making three impressive saves in the 15 minutes leading up to half-time - and another three in the 15 minutes after the restart. Our best chance to go 3-1 up early in the second half had come after 53 minutes, when Dane Richards' volley clipped the bar and went behind. Then, after we had created countless chances, the Mariners dealt a huge counterpunch on 69 minutes. Rowan's flick-on was volleyed home by his strike partner Jason Jenkins, and at 2-2, it really was anybody's match. Five minutes after Jenkins' leveller, Grimsby sensed a great chance to pull in front. Jenkins played the ball into the penalty area for the young Irish substitute David Ryan, who delivered a brilliant cross for his captain Rowan to head home. The visitors went wild, and it seemed like the match had slipped away from us... until the referee's assistant raised his flag. Prior to that scare, I had brought on winger Scott Brough and striker Anestis Agritis as substitutes. They would swing the match back in our favour, as with seven minutes to go, Agritis nodded in Brough's cross to retake the lead once and for all! Fulham - 3 (Ormerod 3, McVeigh 10, Agritis 83) Grimsby Town - 2 (Rowan 5, Jenkins 69) Division 1, Attendance 17,035 - POSITIONS: Fulham 8th, Grimsby 2nd FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-2): Hudson; Bowater, Davies, Piccolo, McCartney; Richards (Brough), Danns, Myntti, Bouchiba; McVeigh (Agritis), Ormerod (Mølby). BOOKED: Piccolo. Fulham had 20 shots, 13 on target, and only barely won the game. There is enormous attacking potential in this team, but we need to be more ruthless - and we must not neglect our defensive responsibilities either. Over the next few days, several of our best youth prospects - including Cable and Gibson - signed new long-term contracts with the club. We also signed a 17-year-old left-back from Scotland called Gary Hogg, who had plenty of pace and stamina and was highly rated by our youth scouts. Mind you, I didn't see much of a future in 21-year-old goalkeeper Joe Mason. With his contract six months from expiry, I decided to sell him for £50,000 to Dunfermline - the Scottish Premier League side now managed by Lawrie Sanchez. Our next match was also at home - against a Norwich side who had scored 34 goals and conceded 54 in the first half of the campaign. The Canaries liked to dominate the midfield, so I decided to switch up the 4-4-2 for a slightly more conservative 4-4-1-1 - with Mølby in the attacking midfield hole just behind lone striker McVeigh. 22 DECEMBER 2010: Fulham vs Norwich City We had Norwich on the ropes throughout the first half, with right-back Graham Bowater and striker Paul McVeigh each coming very close to breaking the deadlock inside the first 20 minutes. It would take us another seven to break through, thanks to another assist from our rookie attacking midfielder Tom Mølby. This potentially great Dane flicked Scott Brough's free-kick out wide to his compatriot Bo Svensson, who blasted it home! By the 38th minute, though, Norwich had delivered the perfect riposte. Canaries striker Isaiah Rankin exchanged passes with right-back Tim Cornelisse and then played the perfect through-ball to veteran midfielder Stephen Clemence. After getting past his marker, Clemence powered in his first goal of the season to spark a huge momentum shift. Barely a minute later, Rankin caused us even more problems, winning a penalty after drawing a clumsy challenge from our captain George McCartney. Norwich's captain Darren Kelly stepped up to try and fire his team into the lead... but Wayne Hudson was having none of it, and a magnificent save by our goalkeeper kept the scores level! For two minutes. Then the pendulum swung in our direction, as Elbekay Bouchiba's cross was expertly finished by midfielder Neil Danns! We therefore led 2-1 as we went into the dressing room for a breather - and boy did we need one! The action continued into the second half, as our two Nordic midfielders gave out a couple of batterings. Firstly, Mølby was denied his first senior goal when he hit the post on 59 minutes. Five minutes later, Finnish anchor man Henri Myntti swung an elbow into Clemence's face, copping a straight red card - and leaving us having to defend a slender lead with 10 men! Despite their man advantage, Norwich were not ruthless enough to make it count, and a wayward header from Kelly in the 69th minute proved to be their last chance to draw back level. While looking to see the match out for the closing stages, I brought 18-year-old Nigel Proffitt into our defence... just as Brough went down with a knee injury. That meant we actually finished the game with only NINE players on the pitch, yet still we held on! Fulham - 2 (Svensson 27, Danns 41) Norwich City - 1 (Clemence 38) Division 1, Attendance 12,561 - POSITIONS: Fulham 6th, Norwich 20th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-1-1): Hudson; Bowater, Svensson, Piccolo, McCartney (Proffitt); Brough, Danns, Myntti, Bouchiba (Cable); Mølby (Tal); McVeigh. SENT OFF: Myntti. A truly epic match had ended with Fulham back in the play-off places, but it wasn't all great news. Scott Brough had twisted his knee, ruling the in-form right-winger out of our final two matches of the year. In addition, Myntti was handed a one-match ban for violent conduct, which meant he would sit out our FA Cup Round 3 tie. I also decided to leave him out of the squad for our Boxing Day trip to Sheffield United - with debutant Núñez taking his place in midfield. 26 DECEMBER 2010: Sheffield United vs Fulham After just 10 minutes, Vicente Mølby emphatically answered any doubts over whether he was ready for first-team football. A handball from Sheffield United's young Spanish midfielder Joaquín Riesgo gave our Basque starlet the chance to shine - and when Núñez's free-kick was headed home by Brett Ormerod, it was clear that we had a new star on our hands! Another midfield wonderkid caught the eye seven minutes later, as Tom Mølby produced his fourth assist in just five games! Another pinpoint pass from the Danish sensation played through Ormerod, who brushed aside United's right-back Danny Butterfield before firing home. Brett then rounded off his hat-trick in the 32nd minute, courtesy of a stunning right-wing cross from Dane Richards. Sheffield United pulled a goal back in the 39th minute. Midfielder Scott Hughes drove in a fantastic effort after Hamed Kavianpour's free-kick rebounded off the Cottagers wall. That could have completely turned the tide, but we responded positively and got our three-goal cushion back in stoppage time. Richards delivered his second assist of the afternoon, this time setting up Elbekay Bouchiba. Both wingers were rested for the second half, with teenagers Wayne Cable and Michael Gibson taking their places. Unsurprisingly, Sheffield United showed more attacking intent in the second half, which brought out the best and the worst in our goalkeeper Wayne Hudson. He excelled in the 52nd minute by pushing away a point-blank header from Hughes... but then undid his good work three minutes later by upending striker Billy Paynter in the penalty area and getting himself sent off. Replacement goalkeeper Jimmy Wilkinson's first act after coming on was to retrieve Paynter's spot-kick from his net. Despite failing to save that penalty, Wilkinson showed great courage to stop us losing any more of our lead. Meanwhile, Ormerod made a late push to give himself a FOURTH goal, only to be thwarted by Blades keeper Derek Bruce. That was one of the last meaningful acts of another thrilling contest - and one that was much closer than the 4-2 scoreline suggested. Sheffield United - 2 (Hughes 39, Paynter pen56) Fulham - 4 (Ormerod 10,17,32, Bouchiba 45) Division 1, Attendance 20,485 - POSITIONS: Sheff Utd 3rd, Fulham 5th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-1-1): Hudson; Bowater, Svensson, Piccolo, McCartney; Richards (Gibson), Danns, Núñez, Bouchiba (Cable); Mølby (Wilkinson); Ormerod. SENT OFF: Hudson. Our brilliant young midfielders and the late-career renaissance of Brett Ormerod had given me plenty of reason for excitement. However, Wayne Hudson's sending-off meant he would soon have to serve a three-match ban, starting on 9 January. As tempted as I was to drop Hudson immediately and put 22-year-old Jimmy Wilkinson in goal, I also recognised that Wayne was integral to this team. Hudson therefore got a chance to make amends just 48 hours later, when we made the short trip to Upton Park - and faced a hungry West Ham side who had recently slipped out of the top six. 28 DECEMBER 2010: Fulham vs West Ham United When you had two goalkeepers with as much quality as Fulham's Wayne Hudson and West Ham's Shay Given, it really wasn't surprising that this match was scoreless at half-time. Given was called into action first, tipping away a fierce strike from Cottagers defender Walter Piccolo in the 7th minute. Another big save from the Irishman came just before half-time, when he clawed a Brett Ormerod header off his line. Given actually had a much busier day than Hudson, who turned behind Pablo Niño's 11th-minute volley but was otherwise untroubled by a blunt Hammers attack. In fairness to Wayne, he was helped massively by a rock-solid back four - spearheaded by our indispensable captain George McCartney, who was voted 'man of the match' after a string of vital saving tackles. Despite that, it seemed our run of five successive wins was about to end in a 0-0 draw. As a last throw of the dice, I brought on assist machine Tom Mølby, hoping he could produce something special late on… …and Tom did exactly that in the 88th minute - arrowing a 30-yarder beyond Given's reach to settle the game in our favour. He really couldn't have scored a better first goal in senior football! Fulham - 1 (Mølby 88) West Ham United - 0 Division 1, Attendance 23,750 - POSITIONS: Fulham 5th, West Ham 12th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-2): Hudson; Bowater, Davies, Piccolo, McCartney; Richards, Danns (Mølby), Núñez, Bouchiba (Tal); McVeigh (Agritis), Ormerod. BOOKED: Piccolo. My first full month as Fulham manager really could not have gone any better! Six straight victories had propelled the underachieving Cottagers from 13th to 5th - and put us within touching distance of the automatic promotion places! Meanwhile, Kidderminster have won just one of their last six matches and fallen to 16th since Tony Adams replaced me as manager. Considering that Tony has decided to bring Kent Ivarsson up from the reserves and play him in goal, I can't say I'm very surprised at their decline...

DIVISION 1 TABLE (End of November 2010) Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Crewe 20 9 1 0 23 7 5 2 3 15 15 45 2nd Grimsby 19 7 3 0 19 6 4 4 1 8 5 40 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Sheff Utd 20 8 1 1 29 10 3 3 4 12 14 37 4th Torquay 20 8 1 1 26 10 3 3 4 13 15 37 5th Chesterfield 19 6 1 2 15 7 5 3 2 16 15 37 6th Charlton 19 5 2 2 14 7 3 7 0 10 7 33 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th West Ham 20 5 4 1 13 7 4 2 4 13 11 33 8th Birmingham 19 5 1 4 21 18 5 1 3 24 23 32 9th Tottenham 20 8 1 1 21 7 1 3 6 12 20 31 10th Preston 20 6 3 1 19 11 3 1 6 7 17 31 11th Nottm Forest 20 8 0 2 23 10 1 3 6 6 18 30 12th Swindon 20 5 3 2 16 7 3 2 5 18 17 29 13th Fulham 20 5 2 3 17 10 3 3 4 12 13 29 14th Huddersfield 20 3 2 5 10 10 5 3 2 13 9 29 15th Kidderminster 19 5 3 1 21 8 3 0 7 9 16 27 16th W.B.A. 20 5 2 3 17 11 2 2 6 10 19 25 17th Aston Villa 20 4 3 3 14 13 2 2 6 12 17 23 18th Notts Co 20 4 3 3 15 11 1 2 7 12 25 20 19th Carlisle 19 5 2 3 17 12 0 2 7 5 23 19 20th Dag & Red 20 2 5 3 5 7 1 2 7 2 10 16 21st Sunderland 20 3 5 2 11 9 0 2 8 2 15 16 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22nd Norwich 20 3 3 4 19 19 0 2 8 12 34 14 23rd Millwall 20 1 4 5 10 17 0 3 7 4 18 10 24th Bristol City 20 1 3 6 4 17 1 1 8 4 23 10 ELSEWHERE IN FOOTBALL... A 3-1 home defeat to Valencia proves fateful for Liverpool, who exit the Champions League early once again. Nigel Winterburn's Reds drop into the UEFA Cup, and go 2-0 down to Dutch side Sparta at half-time in the first leg at Anfield. They eventually pull off a 3-2 comeback victory, thanks to two goals from Xabi Alonso and a 78th-minute winner from Fowler... that's midfielder Lee Fowler, who played in the 2010 World Cup Final for Wales. (Robbie Fowler is now at Mansfield.) Bayern München's fall from grace continues, as they crash out of the UEFA Cup at Round 2 after losing to Spartak Moscow in extra-time. Having already splurged £22million on new talent this season, general manager Uli Hoeneß considers a new strategy for raising transfer funds. David O'Leary barely survives a year as Celta manager before he is finally sacked by the La Liga strugglers, following a 2-1 home defeat to Sevilla. The Irishman doesn't take long to find a new job - as manager of Primeira Liga champions Sporting. Go figure. Despite winning the last four Ligue 1 titles, Marseille move onto their SIXTH manager in less than five years, as Ho-Kon Kim is poached by HSV. In response, Les Phocéens poach Terry Yorath from Celtic, which prompts the Scottish Premier League champions to bring club legend John Collins back to the club as their new manager. Having picked up just SIX points in the 2008/2009 Bundesliga season, Mainz now face the prospect of relegation to Germany's third division. After falling to 15th place in the 2. Bundesliga, 'Die Nullfünfer' become so desperate that they kidnap Alan Shearer from the BBC studio and give him his third managerial job in nine months! IN OTHER NEWS... Myanmar holds its first general election in 20 years. The military-backed USDP wins by a landslide, but agrees to release pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent the majority of the past two decades under house arrest. Red Bull gives you wings! 23-year-old German driver Sebastian Vettel becomes the youngest world champion in Formula 1 history, winning the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to prevail in a four-way title battle. Rap superstar Kanye West releases his fifth album "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy", featuring hit singles "Power" and "All of the Lights". It receives almost universal critical acclaim, though one unimpressed reviewer says he's "feeling a light to decent 6". Wait… Leslie Nielsen has died?! The Canadian actor who became a 1980s comedy icon with films such as “Airplane!” and “The Naked Gun”? Surely you can’t be serious? [I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley.]

NOVEMBER 2010 (continued) After honing my craft at Dagenham & Redbridge and Kidderminster Harriers, I knew that Fulham would be my first big managerial job. Fulham was a club with a rich history, despite having never won a major trophy; their biggest achievement was reaching the 1975 FA Cup Final. This was the club of Johnny Haynes, of Alan Mullery, of Gordon Davies - and of George Cohen, who helped to bring football home in 1966. Fulham is a Premiership team in all but name - its Craven Cottage stadium boasting a capacity of 52,000 seats after a major expansion in 2004. However, they have not graced the top level since 2005, when they scored just 29 goals and were relegated in 18th place under Maurice Malpas - now the manager of Scotland. Captain George McCartney - along with strikers Brett Ormerod and Paul McVeigh - were the last survivors of that relegation team. All three would be instrumental to the club's push back towards promotion. I realised that taking Fulham back to the promised land would not be a simple one-season job. It would take time to rebuild this team into a major force. I'd signed a two-and-a-half-year deal at Craven Cottage, and I was determined that we would be celebrating promotion by the end of my contract in May 2013. My first half-season at Fulham, though, would be all about stabilising this team in the top half after three years of relegation struggles. This was how the Cottagers' 2010/2011 season had panned out so far: Date Opposition Competition Result -------------------------------------------------------------- 14/08/10 West Ham A Division 1 0-1 L 21/08/10 Torquay H Division 1 1-0 W 24/08/10 Bury H League Cup R1 3-0 W 28/08/10 Norwich A Division 1 2-1 W 30/08/10 Sheff Utd H Division 1 4-0 W 10/09/10 Charlton H Division 1 1-2 L 15/09/10 Notts County A Division 1 1-1 D 18/09/10 Kidderminster H Division 1 1-0 W 22/09/10 Luton H League Cup R2 2-0 W 25/09/10 Aston Villa A Division 1 3-0 W 29/09/10 West Brom A Division 1 3-3 D 02/10/10 Chesterfield H Division 1 1-2 L 16/10/10 Dag & Red H Division 1 3-0 W 19/10/10 Crewe A Division 1 0-1 L 23/10/10 Huddersfield A Division 1 1-0 W 27/10/10 Nottm Forest A League Cup R3 0-2 L 30/10/10 Tottenham H Division 1 2-3 L 03/11/10 Sunderland A Division 1 0-1 L 06/11/10 Carlisle H Division 1 2-1 W 13/11/10 Millwall A Division 1 2-2 D Having lost four of their last seven games, this was clearly not a Fulham team in hot form. However, their excellent results and heavy scoring earlier in the season suggested that the Cottagers could take on anyone. And with just four points separating this team from the top six, a play-off place was a realistic (if unlikely) target. I was simply looking to finish in the top half. To achieve that goal, I would need a strong coaching team by my side. Sadly, none of my Kidderminster coaches - not even my assistant Neil Kennedy or my former captain Lee Matthews - were willing to follow me to west London. Luckily, I could still call upon a wealth of experience. Former Celtic and Scotland midfielder Peter Grant had served as assistant to the previous four Fulham managers, and he was one of the hardest-working coaches in the game. He was accompanied by Dave Bentley, Jon Goodman (no, not Fred Flintstone), Colin Greenall, Simeon Hodson... and ex-Chelsea striker/born-again Christian Gavin Peacock. I would look to bring in some of my own staff when the time was right - but for the short-term, I decided to keep things as they were. The only additions I made to the backroom were a couple of new scouts, who would assist with the recruitment drive I had in mind. I didn't have to wait long for my first serious test as Fulham manager. Just two days into my reign, I made my Craven Cottage home debut against one of our big play-off rivals. Preston were just a couple of points ahead of us in 8th and had one of the division's most stable teams - David Moyes had been at the helm since 1998, while David Healy's strike partnership with Richard Cresswell had also endured for over a decade. Through most of my Kidderminster reign, I had used a 3-5-2 tactic, or occasionally a narrow diamond. Wingers were not really a thing as far as I was concerned, but I noted that some of Fulham's best assets were... indeed, wingers. Also, my predecessor Garry Hill predominantly fielded a flat 4-4-2, so I saw no reason to shake things up just yet. 24 NOVEMBER 2010: Fulham vs Preston North End Our wingers took just 19 minutes to show what they were capable of. Flying Dutchman Elbekay Bouchiba moved up the left wing and then put a low cross to the far post for his right-sided colleague Scott Brough. The 27-year-old had thumped that post just seven minutes prior, but he made no mistake here - and got my Craven Cottage reign off to the best possible start! Ten minutes later, however, Preston fought back. A rushed clearance from Fulham defender Walter Piccolo was met by a strong counter-attack, and when the Lilywhites' attacking midfielder Ilias Androutsos headed home from Dean Stevens' left-wing cross, the scores were back level. Both sides had chances to take the lead before half-time. Paul McVeigh headed another promising Bouchiba delivery over the crossbar in the 31st minute, while Stevens' free-kick seven minutes later hit our woodwork. The first half ended with a couple of saves from Fulham keeper Wayne Hudson, who would play an even more prominent role after the break. Bouchiba might have been named 'man of the match' at full-time, but Hudson's performance was arguably even better. The journeyman goalie - who arrived from Tottenham in June - produced three vital saves in the final eight minutes to keep Preston substitute Gareth Evans off the scoresheet. While his backline had been shaky at times, Wayne had almost single-handedly saved me from losing my first match as Fulham manager. Fulham - 1 (Brough 19) Preston North End - 1 (Androutsos 29) Division 1, Attendance 12,164 - POSITIONS: Fulham 11th, Preston 8th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-2): Hudson; Bowater, Svensson (Davies), Piccolo, McCartney; Brough, Tal (Danns), McDonald, Bouchiba; McVeigh (Butler), Ormerod. BOOKED: Svensson. Not a terrible start - we played some good stuff at times, and Elbekay Bouchiba in particular showed just how effective our wing play can be. More alarming was the number of chances we had given to Preston. If it hadn't been for Wayne Hudson's goalkeeping heroics, we could easily have lost. Another player who was crucial to this team was our left-back and captain McCartney. Big-spending Manchester City were certainly fans of the Northern Irishman, as they offered us £5million to sign him. The club's financial situation was pretty healthy, so I saw no reason to cash in. A few days later came my first away match as Fulham manager, as we headed west to fellow mid-tablers Swindon. Striker Paul McVeigh and goalscoring winger Scott Brough were both tired after their midweek exploits, so I decided to bench them and start a couple of the club's most exciting youth prospects - 17-year-olds Michael Butler and Michael Gibson. 27 NOVEMBER 2010: Swindon Town vs Fulham Long-time Swindon manager Roy Evans liked to play attacking football, and that was very much evident at the County Ground. After just four minutes, Robins captain James Hogg found the run of midfielder Craig Pead, who netted his first goal of the season. He wouldn't have to wait too long for his second. Though Wayne Hudson tried his best to stop the floodgates from bursting open, he was undermined by our centre-backs' inability to keep up with the pacey Swindon attackers. Bo Svensson looked particularly fragile in the 19th minute, when he was beaten to a header by Spanish speedster Carlos Ballestas. Hudson kept that out, but not Marco Scholz' follow-up, which made it 2-0. We hit our nadir in the 35th minute, when Pead ran through unmarked before scoring his second goal of the afternoon. I had now run out of patience with Svensson, whom I replaced with Curtis Davies at half-time. I also subbed off Michael Butler, who looked overawed up front and barely threatened Swindon's goal at all. At least Michael Gibson was having a decent game at right-wing... Though Davies stopped us leaking any more goals in the second half, we couldn't get any counter-attacks going at any point. By full-time, we had mustered just one shot on target - a 71st-minute drive from Paul McVeigh that was turned behind by Nicky Weaver. Otherwise, it was a comfortable clean sheet for the veteran shotstopper, suggesting we still had lots of work to do. Swindon Town - 3 (Pead 4,35, Scholz 19) Fulham - 0 Division 1, Attendance 11,328 - POSITIONS: Swindon 11th, Fulham 13th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-4-2): Hudson; Bowater, Svensson (Davies), Piccolo, McCartney (Proffitt); Gibson, Tal, McDonald, Bouchiba; Butler (McVeigh), Ormerod. It wasn't even close. We were far too sloppy in possession, didn't create enough chances, and never at any point did we look like serious play-off contenders. Despite all that, our right-back Graham Bowater was named 'man of the match', so at least we weren't totally useless. Meanwhile, Kidderminster played their first match without me. They also lost, 2-1 at Norwich. And who's the new manager at Kidderminster, I hear you ask? It's Tony Adams. You couldn't make it up.

Fulham squad - As of 22 November 2010 GOALKEEPERS 1. Jimmy Wilkinson - GK, age 22, English Wilkinson is a brave and consistent keeper, born and raised in Fulham. Though officially our number 1, he has been restricted to bench-warming duties this season. 14. Wayne Hudson - GK, age 26, English Hudson is a mentally strong custodian who has been in excellent form this season. He also has plenty of top-flight experience with Southampton, Wolves and Tottenham. DEFENDERS 2. Graham Bowater - D R, age 27, English Bowater moved to Craven Cottage this summer after nine years at Peterborough. He is a reliable right-back with a firm tackle, though his attacking play is not great. 3. Nicky Watts - D/DM L, age 22, English Watts came through Chelsea's academy before moving across west London in 2009. Unfortunately, he lacks the defensive awareness that I want in a left-back. 4. Walter Piccolo - SW/D C, age 23, Italian Piccolo isn't particularly strong in the air - but despite the name, he's hardly a small centre-back either. He is very much a sweeper with great ball-playing abilities. 5. Henri Myntti - D/DM C, age 27, Finnish Myntti is Fulham's answer to Markus Heikkinen - a strong Finn who can play as a centre-back or a midfield anchor. He's mentally strong but lacks technical skill. 15. George McCartney - D L, age 29, Northern Irish [37 caps] Captain McCartney is a fast and accomplished left-back enjoying the form of his life. He is a firm favourite at the Cottage, having made over 371 appearances since 2002. 18. Curtis Davies - D C, age 25, English A determined and intelligent centre-back, Davies was underappreciated by the last manager. He's played just four games since arriving from Luton in the summer. 21. Bo Svensson - D C, age 31, Danish Svensson is a useful stopper, renowned for his consistency and physical strength. Despite struggling in his first season at Fulham, his second is going rather better. 31. Nigel Proffitt - D LC, age 18, English Proffitt is profiting from Fulham's commitment to youth development. This athletic and hard-working left-back (and occasional centre-half) has already played 20 senior games. MIDFIELDERS 6. Mark Smith - AM/F RC, age 20, Welsh Despite breaking into the first-team at just 18, Smith's progress has recently stalled. This quick and energetic forward may need a loan spell to kick-start his career. 7. Dane Richards - AM R, age 26, Jamaican [48 caps, 4 goals] Richards' dynamism and pace on the right wing can easily rip defences apart. The long-time Jamaica international moved here from South Korea in July. 8. Neil Danns - AM RC, age 27, Guyanese [18 caps, 2 goals] Danns joined Fulham on loan from West Brom last season before deciding to stay for good. Though a competent box-to-box midfielder, I'm not sure he's a game-changer. 13. Michael Gibson - M RC, age 17, English A prodigy at set-pieces, Gibson is a very exciting presence either on the wing or in midfield. This is his breakthrough season, having played six games and scored one goal. 20. Elbekay Bouchiba - M L, age 32, Dutch Left-wing maestro Bouchiba was one of Dagenham & Redbridge's first signings made after my departure. He has 7 goal contributions in 20 games since moving across London this summer. 22. Robert Wolleaston - AM L, age 30, English Pacey and selfless winger Wolleaston has been a Fulham regular for three years. But after a recent dip in form, and with stiff competition, his days might be numbered. 24. Scott Brough - AM RLC, age 27, English Brough's dribbling skills and flair make him such an exciting player to watch. He signed for the Cottagers in 2009 after five incredibly productive seasons at Bristol City. 26. Gary McDonald - M C, age 28, Scottish McDonald is an intelligent backup midfielder who had a brief loan spell at Wycombe in the summer. He's in the final season of a four-year contract. 29. Idan Tal - AM LC, age 35, Israeli [75 caps, 4 goals] Tal is a flamboyant attacking midfielder with vast experience to his name. He recently celebrated a decade in English football and previously played for Everton, Wolves and Stoke. 35. Kevin Christie - SW/D/DM RC, age 34, Scottish [1 cap] A versatile defensive player, Christie has not impressed since arriving from Dagenham & Redbridge in March. I'm afraid he's just not good enough for this level. FORWARDS 9. Paul McVeigh - S C, age 32, Northern Irish [9 caps, 1 goal] One half of a long-standing strike partnership, McVeigh has netted 90 Fulham goals - including 12 this season. Even in his advancing years, his pace and power is still devastating. 10. Anestis Agritis - S C, age 29, Greek [1 cap] Former NAC striker Agritis is fast, clinical, and knows how to make an impact. His first half-season at the Cottage has seen a promising return of 7 goals in 18 games. 11. Brett Ormerod - F RC, age 34, English Ormerod has been a top finisher for Fulham since 2002, netting 98 goals. But having found the net just once so far this season, are the veteran's best years behind him? 17. Michael Butler - S C, age 17, English With his agility and ball-playing skills, Butler has the potential to be an excellent support striker. He's already played in 17 league matches for Fulham but is yet to score. RESERVES GOALKEEPERS: Mike Edwards (27, on loan at Hartlepool), Joe Mason (21), Craig Price (16) DEFENDERS: Graham Edwards (18), Stephen Richardson (19), Dan Rownham (24), Dave Taylor (21) MIDFIELDERS: Karl Brookes (24), Wayne Cable (16), Michael Christie (24), Kenny Hay (19), James Hughes (22), Tom Mølby (18) FORWARD: Jamie Davey (19), Diego Guerra (18)

KIDDERMINSTER HARRIERS 14 May 2008 - 22 November 2010 (922 days) Played: 124. Won: 53. Drawn: 28. Lost: 43. Goals Scored: 184. Goals Conceded: 157. Goal Difference: +27. MOST APPEARANCES Apps --------------------------------------------------- Heikkinen, Markus 2008-2010 110 Collins, David 2008-2010 95 Simpson, Terry 2008-2010 84 Simpson, Scott 2008-2010 80 Forde, John 2008-2010 74 MOST GOALS Gls --------------------------------------------------- Collins, David 2008-2010 47 Berry, Jamie 2008-2010 16 Garside, Robert 2008-2010 16 Simpson, Scott 2008-2010 16 Samba, Cherno 2010 10 Scott, Alan 2008-2010 10 MOST ASSISTS Asts --------------------------------------------------- Garside, Robert 2008-2010 13 Simpson, Scott 2008-2010 12 Derry, Shaun 2009-2010 11 Collins, David 2008-2010 10 Gallego, César 2008-2010 10 MOST MAN OF THE MATCH AWARDS MoM --------------------------------------------------- Collins, David 2008-2010 12 Bell, Simon 2008-2010 6 Heikkinen, Markus 2008-2010 6 Forde, John 2008-2010 5 Garside, Robert 2008-2010 5