CFuller

This is great advice already. Being someone who doesn't usually manage title favourites from the start, counter-attacking football has always come naturally to me. I will turn off Counter and Pass Into Space and see how it goes. Another good point. One of my biggest weaknesses as an FMer is that I play it too safe. Pietrzak and Favorov are both very good full-backs, and I would like to encourage them both to go forward, but I'm worried about us being left too exposed to counter-attacks. Like I said, we don't concede many chances, but when we do, we tend to concede goals quite often. I am tempted to try Pazdan as a BPD (12 Passing, 11 Vision, but his First Touch and Technique are quite low). I'm now in February and have just signed another centre-back who can play in that role too. The AM / striker combination is the one I've had the most headaches about. I really like Jankowski as a DLF (13 goals in 19 league games), but Trąbka is not playing well as a Shadow Striker. Could he be better off as an Attacking Midfielder, or would that not work too well with a DLF? Likewise, I'm open to changing Jankowski's role, but he's not a false 9. Trąbka is also very inconsistent and hates big games - and seeing as he's on such high wages for this level, selling him isn't really an option right now. I also don't know how best to fit Knasmüllner into the team. Slavchev is actually my main SV and has been one of our better performers so far.

Occasional visitor, first-time poster. I hope you can help me out. I have just started a save managing Wieczysta Kraków in the Polish 4th division. My team is the overwhelming favourites to win the division, as we have a number of quality players who are too good for this league (in real-life, they have a millionaire owner who has brought in several Polish internationals and top-flight players). I am covering this save on my FM blog, so I don't want to give away too many details... but the season hasn't started well. After 19 games heading into the winter break, we are 4th with 36 points - nine points off the lead. Only the league champions get promoted, so I'm very worried about losing my job if I can't turn it around in the second half of the season. Our attacking efficiency is not too bad (41 goals, 13% shot conversion). I feel it could be better, especially when it comes to breaking down defensive teams. We started the season quite well, dominating possession and destroying teams 4-0 away from home - but from October onwards, we were struggling to convert chances and were often relying on penalties and set-pieces to secure results. We have already lost five league games, including two at home to our title rivals - 1-2 vs Orlęta, and 0-2 vs Star Starachowice. While our defence doesn't give up many chances, we concede about 25-30% of our opponents' shots on target - which seems a bit high for a team that's supposedly the strongest in the league. One big thing I can think of is that Team Cohesion is still Poor (it was Abysmal when I started the save). I've tried to improve cohesion through pre-season friendlies and training, but there's only so much I can do on that front. I am making a few signings in the winter transfer window, but I'm mindful not to bring in too many new faces too soon, in case it undoes all that work. Morale is pretty good too. I don't have problems with keeping morale high. What I really need is tactical advice. I have never been confident in my tactic-making abilities, much less explaining how I want (or expect) them to work. I have mainly been using a 4-2-3-1 - occasionally switching to the 4-3-3 for tough away games. MY TACTICS: MY BEST PLAYERS: I remember Herne79 helped me out when I was struggling with tactics for my Arsenal save on FM22, so I'm happy to come here directly this time. Feel free to savage my tactics. I want you to be as brutally honest as possible. I can provide more player profiles if needed.

DIVISION 1 TABLE (End of January 2014) Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Preston 29 10 2 2 31 19 9 4 2 22 15 63 2nd Wolves 29 12 2 1 44 20 6 2 6 23 24 58 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Aston Villa 29 12 1 2 27 9 6 2 6 19 19 57 4th Charlton 29 10 3 1 34 17 5 5 5 24 21 53 5th Nottm Forest 29 9 3 2 29 12 6 2 7 23 22 50 6th Fulham 29 8 3 4 22 14 6 5 3 25 16 50 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th Sunderland 29 10 1 4 26 17 5 3 6 24 29 49 8th Man City 29 8 3 3 34 21 6 3 6 34 34 48 9th Norwich 29 7 2 5 28 22 7 0 8 26 28 44 10th Huddersfield 29 8 3 4 28 22 4 5 5 22 26 44 11th West Ham 29 9 3 3 17 8 3 4 7 13 15 43 12th Birmingham 29 7 3 4 24 14 4 5 6 21 27 41 13th Grimsby 29 8 5 1 22 12 2 3 10 15 23 38 14th Macclesfield 29 7 3 4 29 24 3 4 8 15 26 37 15th Carlisle 29 8 1 6 25 21 4 0 10 21 36 37 16th Coventry 29 9 2 4 31 29 2 2 10 16 35 37 17th Gillingham 29 8 3 4 29 21 2 3 9 19 29 36 18th Bradford 29 6 5 4 21 15 2 3 9 8 20 32 19th Reading 29 7 0 7 26 22 2 3 10 20 33 30 20th Rochdale 29 5 2 7 25 28 4 1 10 19 33 30 21st Oldham 29 5 4 6 27 28 2 4 8 16 28 29 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22nd Tottenham 29 5 7 3 23 21 1 3 10 16 36 28 23rd W.B.A. 29 4 4 6 17 25 3 1 11 13 28 26 24th Chesterfield 29 4 3 7 23 27 0 1 14 14 39 16 ELSEWHERE IN FOOTBALL... Cristiano Ronaldo scores his 23rd Premiership goal of the season on New Year's Day, as leaders Chelsea make light work of a resurgent Everton. However, despite signing a new £90,000, four-and-a-half-year contract at Stamford Bridge before Christmas, the Portuguese megastar falls out with Blues boss Jean Tigana. Ronaldo might not even be the top scorer in a major European league this season. Marseille captain José Luis Fernández Pérez takes his tally to 22 goals in just 19 Ligue 1 matches, as the 26-year-old bags a hat-trick against Nîmes in a 5-0 thrashing. Nîmes boss Raúl considers applying for the vacancy at Dundee United... but decides that he's suffered enough. As Lazio return to the top of Serie A, their scudetto rivals spend big to try and keep up. Inter pay mid-table Atalanta £12.25million to recruit Colombia forward John Jairo Yepes, whose former club Juventus poach left-footed Israeli magician Guy Levi for £15.75million. Espanyol right-back Carlos Diogo heads to Milan for £14.75million, blissfully unaware of all the chaos about to unfold at the San Siro. First, the Rossoneri sack manager Bernd Krauss after a 2-0 defeat at Roma pushes them down to 7th. Then, Milan's star striker Hugo da Silvera tears his ACL in a 2-2 draw with Atalanta. And finally, former Celtic winger Joaquín announces he will leave the club this summer to sign for... er, Rangers. Gianluigi Buffon has an early mid-life crisis and quits HSV after just six weeks in charge, saying that German women aren't pretty enough for him. He hopes to find more success in Spain, taking charge of Málaga in the Segunda División. IN OTHER NEWS... Ariel Sharon - the former Prime Minister of Israel - passes away at the age of 85. Sharon was in office from 2001 until he was incapacitated by a stroke in 2006. He had been in a vegetative state for the last eight years of his life. Portugal mourns arguably its greatest ever footballer, as Eusébio dies from heart failure aged 71. The Mozambique-born striker - nicknamed the 'Black Pearl' - netted over 300 league goals for Benfica, won the Ballon d'Or in 1965, and was the top scorer at the 1966 World Cup. The new year starts with winds of change, as Cyclone Anne causes much disruption - and €75million worth of damage - across western Europe and the British Isles. A UKIP councillor in Oxfordshire blames the weather on the government angering God by legalising gay marriage… and is promptly suspended for being too liberal. Peter Wright (a Scotsman with multicoloured hair) takes on Michael van Gerwen (a Dutchman with no hair) in the Final of the PDC World Darts Championship. It's the bald one who prevails, as 24-year-old van Gerwen wins his first world championship by 7 sets to 3. Mighty Mike indeed...

JANUARY 2014 New year, new hope? Fulham went into 2014 sitting just inside the Division 1 play-off places, and Cottagers fans were starting to believe that this year would end with their team playing Premiership football once again. Our promotion challenge continued in Lincolnshire, against 16th-placed Grimsby. It seemed that we were playing a lot of managerless teams lately, and the Mariners were now looking for new leadership themselves. A miserable year at Blundell Park had ended with Roy Evans effectively being forced into early retirement. Grimsby were up against an unusual Fulham team... because for the first time this season, Peter Devlin did not start. Devlin had been dropped to the bench after a goalless December and was replaced up front by Alan Stewart, who played his last match before a three-game ban. Centre-back Clint Hill also returned to the XI, having just completed a lengthy suspension himself. 1 JANUARY 2014: Grimsby Town vs Fulham Grimsby midfielder Marcus Barrett hit the post in the 16th minute, while striker Jonathan Rowan had a better chance saved by John Forde in the 17th. By the 18th, though, the Mariners had caught a big one. It was captain Rowan who made the breakthrough, heading in an incisive pass from Italian ball-playing defender Francesco Mauro. We struggled to hit the target with our first few attempts on goal, though we did equalise just before half-time. Playing on the right wing, Daniel Cooke got his head to a long ball from right-winger Thomas Friberg. Grimsby goalie John Levin could only parry Cooke's effort into the path of Greg Scott, who levelled the scores from the rebound. The hosts struggled a fair bit throughout the second half; losing veteran midfielder Grant McCann to a knee injury early on was a blow they never really recovered from. Unfortunately, we couldn't take advantage, as a late half-volley from Alan Stewart was caught well by Levin. Come full-time, a 1-1 draw was perhaps the fairest result. Grimsby Town - 1 (Rowan 18) Fulham - 1 (Scott 45) Division 1, Attendance 6,501 - POSITIONS: Grimsby 15th, Fulham 1st FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Friberg, Mitchell, Hill, Guðmundsson; Numme (Weber), Schneider (Disler); Cooke, Scott, McIntyre (Devlin); Stewart. BOOKED: Schneider, Mitchell, Weber. Though we moved up one place after that draw, we also had our advantage on 7th place cut down to a single point. We would also be without Florian Schneider for our next away game, following his fifth booking of the season. These were anxious times - and given our tendency to make lower-league teams look like Barcelona, I was rather apprehensive when we kicked off our FA Cup adventure at home to Telford. My opposite number Chris Turner was about to celebrate a decade as manager of the Bucks, whom he had established as a solid Division 3 team. 4 JANUARY 2014: Fulham vs Telford United Having put Telford on the back foot from the first whistle, it took us only 12 minutes to open the scoring. Right-back Grant Gibson got his first assist since returning to Craven Cottage, as his header into the penalty area was finished by winger Daniel Cooke. Save for a wayward piledriver from Adrian Disler in the 35th minute, we couldn't create anything else before the break. After it, though, Cooke's game was sadly ended by a serious-looking ankle injury. With Daniel gone, we never looked like enhancing our lead. In truth, we didn't have to worry about scoring again, as the only shot on target Telford could muster was an ambitious long-range strike from winger Danny Maye that was easily caught by Wayne Hudson. Some of our brightest young talents - including 18-year-old debutant midfielder Phil Sturridge - came on during the second half to help us see out the win. Fulham - 1 (Cooke 12) Telford United - 0 FA Cup Round 3, Attendance 6,395 FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Hudson; Gibson, Mitchell, Hill, Simpson; Weber, Schneider (Ryan); Cooke (Márquez), Disler, McIntyre (Sturridge); Devlin. BOOKED: Schneider. Hardly a performance for the ages, but it was enough to get us a Round 4 tie at Rochdale. Unfortunately, our cup hero Daniel Cooke would miss the trip to Spotland with strained ankle ligaments. While we were deprived of another attacking midfielder, Wayne Cable made a timely return when we hosted in-form Aston Villa a week later. The Villans had won seven of their last eight games to leapfrog Midlands rivals Wolves into 2nd place. 11 JANUARY 2014: Fulham vs Aston Villa Craven Cottage was silenced after just four minutes, as Aston Villa took the lead with an absolute fluke. Gary Doherty had tried to cross the ball to his strike partner Peter Crouch, but the delivery somehow evaded both Crouch and our goalkeeper John Forde before dipping into the net! Christian Weber almost levelled instantly, but his long-range drive was pushed away by Rune Almenning Jarstein in the Villa goal. Things didn't get any better for the Austrian midfielder later on, as he frequently lost possession and mistimed his tackle. Having produced his worst performance in a Fulham jersey so far, Weber was eventually subbed midway through the second half. Meanwhile, the rest of the Cottagers teams endured 90 minutes of utter frustration. We had seven shots at goal (including two apiece from Peter Devlin and Greg Scott) - and all seven were saved by Almenning Jarstein! The 29-year-old Norwegian had only recently been promoted to Villa's first-choice goalkeeper, displacing Mark Goodlad, but it wasn't hard to understand why our opponents were flying up the table. Not even a late injury to midfielder Stephen Richards could weaken Villa's resolve in the closing stages. Dean Blackwell's visitors held firm to secure an eighth win in nine league games - and inflict our FOURTH home league defeat of the season. We only lost three league games at the Cottage last season. Fulham - 0 Aston Villa - 1 (Doherty 4) Division 1, Attendance 17,259 - POSITIONS: Fulham 6th, Aston Villa 2nd FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Gibson (Friberg), Mitchell, Hill, Guðmundsson; Weber (Numme), Schneider; Iversen, Scott, Cable (Hall); Devlin. We've lost our nerve. Devlin's lost his scoring touch. And I'm losing my patience with this whole God-forsaken team. To remind our misfiring attackers that their jobs were at risk if they didn't shape up, I brought in 30-year-old Paul Hayes on loan from Everton for the rest of the season. Hayes is an energetic and versatile forward who won the League Cup with the Toffees two years ago. I also had one eye on the future with my next free signing. 16-year-old Keith McGuire is a pacey and agile right-winger who could be the latest Scottish youngster to make his name at Craven Cottage. There was also one player leaving the Cottage, as right-back Graham Edwards headed to Birmingham for £250,000. I'd been waiting some time for the 21-year-old local lad to blossom into a regular starter, but his development on the training field - and more importantly, on the pitch - had stalled. After winning just one of our last seven games, we now hoped to rebound at Boundary Park - and we would have to do it without the suspended Schneider. Our hosts were Oldham, who were hovering just above the relegation places. 18 JANUARY 2014: Oldham Athletic vs Fulham It didn't take long to put the Villa disappointment behind us. The 13th minute was a lucky one for winger Jordan Hall, who celebrated his first start since Christmas by heading home a free-kick from captain Arnar Guðmundsson. Oldham's defence was looking old hat when we doubled our lead in the 36th minute from a counter-attack. Goalkeeper John Forde made light work of a tame free-kick from Latics winger Orlando Hall, then pumped it long to Greg Scott. A deft header by the young playmaker sent Paul Hayes racing through on goal, and the debutant blasted it confidently into the net. Mind you, it wasn't all plain sailing before half-time. We gifted Oldham a goal in the 41st minute, when Zambian wing-back Gift Kampamba's through-ball was finished by young poacher Chris Gordon. Having pulled it back to 2-1, could Andy Ritchie's side now complete the comeback in the second half? Wayne Cable put that thought to bed just six minutes after the restart. The 19-year-old winger had come on at half-time to replace the booked Atle Iversen, and he made a quick impact by heading Christian Weber's cross in off the underside of the bar. That was only Wayne's second goal of what had been a frustrating season for the Welsh teenager. Oldham battled hard to try and get back in the game, but another substitute killed them off by setting up a last-minute goal to make it 4-1. Peter Devlin's goal drought continued for another week, but he did at least tee up a second debut goal for Hayes. Oldham Athletic - 1 (Gordon 42) Fulham - 4 (Hall 13, Hayes 36,90, Cable 51) Division 1, Attendance 11,767 - POSITIONS: Oldham 21st, Fulham 6th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Gibson (Friberg), Mitchell, Hill, Guðmundsson; Weber, Numme; Iversen (Cable), Scott, Hall (Devlin); Hayes. BOOKED: Iversen. Welcome to Fulham, Paul Hayes... and farewell, Adrian Disler. After just 18 months at Craven Cottage, the young Swiss midfielder was on his way to Sheffield Wednesday in a £1million deal. I'm sure Adrian will develop into a fine player, but I'm afraid he was never really a great fit for this Cottagers team. We were soon back in the north-west, hoping to continue our FA Cup run by knocking out Rochdale. Our previous three clashes with the Dale had all ended in 2-1 scorelines, but this was our first meeting since Garry Hill returned to Spotland for a second spell as manager. 25 JANUARY 2014: Rochdale vs Fulham Having scored from the bench in our last game, Wayne Cable returned to the starting line-up - and almost returned to the scoresheet after only 12 minutes. Unfortunately, Cable could only head Alan Stewart's floated cross against the post, and Paul Hayes' follow-up was saved by Rochdale keeper Andoni Cantero. Cantero kept out another Hayes effort in the 14th minute, but their next confrontation in the 34th minute had a different outcome. Stewart celebrated his return from suspension with an excellent assist for our new loanee, who lost his man and unleashed a savage strike that gave us the lead... ...for three minutes. Dale didn't hesitate to get back on level terms, as Michael Yates raced past 35-year-old Fulham defender Clint Hill before firing past John Forde. To be fair to Clint, he was considerably older than Yates... by, er, one year. The second half began with a barrage of Fulham shots, most of which were repelled by Cantero. Then, in the 65th minute, another Rochdale veteran struck against the run of play. Northern Irish centre-half Darren Kelly (no relation to the Norwich striker) headed in a cross from his compatriot left-back John Hill, who had also assisted Yates' equaliser. Rochdale led 2-1, and if our previous meetings suggested anything, they would surely enjoy a safe passage to Round 5. Then things took a surprising turn in the 73rd minute. Dale substitute Adam Sheppard knocked Hayes to the ground with a cynical tackle, and the referee showed the midfielder a straight red card! A minutes later, a couple of Fulham subs made the most of our man advantage. Henning Numme picked out Derek McIntyre with a lovely ball into the danger zone, and the Scottish starlet powered a shot in off the bar. 2-2! We dominated the final quarter-hour, in which we had several chances to finish Rochdale off. Unfortunately, Cable hit the bar again in the 84th minute, and a lower effort three minutes later was easily caught by Cantero. Despite outshooting our opponents 14-3, our wastefulness meant we would have to settle this cup tie on another day. Rochdale - 2 (Yates 37, Kelly 65) Fulham - 2 (Hayes 34, McIntyre 74) FA Cup Round 4, Attendance 7,510 FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Gibson, Mitchell, Hill, Guðmundsson; Weber (Numme), Schneider; Stewart, Cable, Hall (McIntyre); Hayes (Devlin). BOOKED: Weber. I long for the day when we can consistently turn good chances into good goals. At least we were still in the FA Cup - and if we can win the replay at Craven Cottage, we'll go to Middlesbrough in Round 5. We're also still in the play-off places... but only by a single point. After two iffy months (and no Devlin goals), February could be make or break.

Oh, sorry, forgot to provide the save file. It's CFuller_Meeting.fm.

DIVISION 1 TABLE (End of December 2013) Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Preston 26 10 1 1 29 15 9 3 2 22 15 61 2nd Wolves 26 11 2 1 41 20 5 2 5 21 21 52 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Aston Villa 26 11 0 2 24 8 5 2 6 18 19 50 4th Charlton 26 8 3 1 29 15 5 4 5 24 21 46 5th Man City 26 8 2 2 30 15 6 2 6 31 31 46 6th Fulham 26 8 3 3 22 13 5 4 3 20 14 46 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th Sunderland 26 10 1 3 26 16 3 3 6 20 28 43 8th Nottm Forest 26 7 3 2 22 11 5 2 7 22 22 41 9th West Ham 26 9 3 2 16 6 3 2 7 12 14 41 10th Norwich 26 6 2 4 22 17 7 0 7 26 25 41 11th Huddersfield 26 8 2 4 26 20 3 5 4 19 24 40 12th Birmingham 26 7 2 4 24 14 4 3 6 17 23 38 13th Macclesfield 26 7 3 4 29 24 3 3 6 14 20 36 14th Carlisle 26 8 0 6 25 21 4 0 8 18 30 36 15th Coventry 26 8 2 4 28 27 2 2 8 15 28 34 16th Grimsby 26 7 4 1 18 10 2 2 10 13 21 33 17th Gillingham 26 8 2 4 28 20 2 1 9 15 25 33 18th Reading 26 6 0 6 25 21 2 3 9 19 31 27 19th Bradford 26 5 3 4 14 11 2 3 9 8 20 27 20th Oldham 26 4 4 5 24 24 2 4 7 15 26 26 21st Rochdale 26 4 2 7 23 27 3 1 9 15 28 24 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22nd W.B.A. 26 4 2 6 13 21 3 1 10 12 25 24 23rd Tottenham 26 4 7 3 21 20 1 1 10 13 33 23 24th Chesterfield 26 4 1 7 21 25 0 1 13 12 36 14 ELSEWHERE IN FOOTBALL... Manchester United slip off the top of the Premiership after going four games without a win. Amid reports of board asset-stripping and squad in-fighting, Hélio dos Anjos resigns and takes over Alavés in the bottom half of La Liga. The Red Devils bring in Greek disciplinarian Giannis Kirastas from PSV to try and restore some order to Old Trafford. Barcelona stay on track for another La Liga title after Lionel Messi's 62nd-minute winner against arch-rivals Real Madrid at the Nou Camp. Real's octogenarians are booed off by the Madridistas, who chant for "no more old men". Florentino Perez only hears part of their chants, and signs 32-year-old Paraguay defender Celso Esquivel from Roma. AC Milan exit the UEFA Cup at Round 3 after a shock 3-0 home defeat to Sparta. Local rivals Inter are also eliminated, losing to Porto on the away goals rule, but the Nerazzurri do at least finish the year top of Serie A. Meanwhile, Lazio defeat Copa Libertadores holders Internacional 2-0 to win the first edition of FIFA's Club World Cup... which, er, is just the Intercontinental Cup with a new name and a new paint job. Kaiserslautern propel themselves into the Bundesliga title hunt as Van Linh Tô scores FOUR goals in a 5-0 thrashing of struggling HSV. It's a chastening experience for Hamburg's new player/manager Gianluigi Buffon, who witnesses René Nikolic's horror show and wishes that he had a better goalkeeper on the bench. 1.FC Köln's title hopes take a significant hit when top scorer Alexandr Kerzhakov is sold to manager Trond Sollied's former club Rangers for £16million. Another Russian striker moves to the Bundesliga when mid-table Nürnberg bring in Igor Morev from Napoli for £12million. It's seen as a last throw of the dice from under-pressure Nürnberg boss Ralf Rangnick. IN OTHER NEWS... Nelson Mandela passes away at the grand old age of 95. Mandela was jailed in 1962 for conspiring to overthrow South Africa’s white-only apartheid government. He was released in 1990 and began the long walk to freedom, which ended in his election as the first President of a democratic South Africa four years later. Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher suffers a serious head injury in a skiing accident in the French Alps. The 44-year-old German - who had been skiing with his teenage son Mick - is airlifted to Grenoble Hospital and undergoes emergency surgery before being placed into an induced coma. Martin Scorsese's new film "The Wolf of Wall Street" - which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a New York stockbroker and Margot Robbie as his wife - makes its premiere. It sets a new world record for most profanities in a motion picture, averaging a ***** 2.8 ****s per ****ing minute. But who the **** gives a ****ing ****? *******.

DECEMBER 2013 I'd now been manager at Fulham for three years... and at long last, it seemed our promotion plan was coming together. Having won our last three matches and gone unbeaten in our last six, we were comfortably inside the Division 1 play-off spots. However, we now had a very tricky run of fixtures to round off 2013. Three of our next four matches were against Charlton, Preston and Nottingham Forest - all of whom were also in the top six. Ahead of that, we travelled to Valley Parade to take on a defensively resilient Bradford side, who were without a manager after Gary Butterworth was poached by Everton. Our task in Yorkshire was complicated further by the absence of our suspended captain Florian Schneider. Florian's place in defensive midfield would be filled by highly-coveted teenager Henning Numme, for whom we had just rejected an £825,000 bid from Charlton. 7 DECEMBER 2013: Bradford City vs Fulham Bradford came out attacking and found the net after just nine minutes. On-loan Crystal Palace right-back Mauro Melis thought he had scored his first senior goal until the offside flag went up. Patrick Agyemang then went very close for the Bantams four minutes later, when his shot was cleared off the line by Fulham captain Arnar Guðmundsson. Then, in the 33rd minute, Bradford got an even bigger boost. Their Scottish midfielder John Rankin tried to take a photograph of Clint Hill, who lost his temper, smashed his camera, and kicked him in the shins! Unsurprisingly, Hill was sent off, and the centre-back was still heading down the tunnel when Peter Devlin fired wide our only shot of the first half just moments later. Unfortunately, we would lose our other starting centre-half early in the second period. Jerel Ifil pulled up clutching his thigh, which meant substitutes Thomas Friberg and Markus Heikkinen would have to come together and help protect John Forde's goal. Despite being a man up against a makeshift defence, Bradford couldn't deliver a knockout blow. Their best effort of the second half came on 53 minutes, when commentator's nightmare Danny Shittu saw his header pushed away by the consistently excellent Forde. Though we created few scoring opportunities of our own, we did at least hold firm to take one point home. Bradford City - 0 Fulham - 0 Division 1, Attendance 13,300 - POSITIONS: Bradford 18th, Fulham 3rd FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Gibson, Ifil (Heikkinen), Hill, Guðmundsson; Weber, Numme; Stewart, Cooke (Friberg), Cable (Hall); Devlin. SENT OFF: Hill. A thigh strain was the latest addition to Jerel Ifil's growing injury list, and he was ruled out for a fortnight. Clint Hill also faced a spell on the sidelines after being suspended for three matches - though it was effectively a four-game ban, as I dropped the Scouse psychopath for our next fixture. The next time Fulham fans would see Hill at Craven Cottage would probably be in FA Cup Round 3 in the new year. We had been drawn at home to Telford, who currently sat 15th in Division 3. Slightly further down the league pyramid were Maidenhead, who took our young defensive midfielder Chris McDonald on loan until the end of the season. The Berkshire side wanted to loan in Adrian Disler as well, but I didn't think that dropping down to the Conference would do the Swiss playmaker's career any good. Though Disler had not enjoyed a great season yet, I gave him another chance in attacking midfield when we hosted 5th-placed Charlton. Peter Mitchell and Thomas Friberg came into the centre of our defence, replacing Hill and Ifil. 14 DECEMBER 2013: Fulham vs Charlton Athletic Charlton should have broken the deadlock after just 12 minutes. A close-range header from Richard May drew a difficult save from John Forde, and the ball fell invitingly to Kevin McKenna - a centre-back who was doubling up as a centre-forward here. Fortunately, our right-back Grant Gibson came in with a great last-ditch tackle to stop the Canadian Dion Dublin in his tracks. That was a sign of things to come, as we barely left our half in an opening 45 minutes that the Addicks dominated. Charlton captain Tranquillo Barnetta unleashed a particularly great half-volley just before half-time that hit the bar, but not the net-ta. We faced a real battle to get anything out of this game, especially after winger Wayne Cable was struck down with a knee injury late in the first half. His replacement Derek McIntyre couldn't get our attack going in the second period, and neither could Daniel Cooke, who replaced the ineffective Adrian Disler in the hole. Indeed, we were so utterly dismal that we wouldn't muster a single shot at goal, let alone on target! It was only thanks to some wasteful Charlton shooting that we came away with another goalless draw, extending our unbeaten run to eight games. Fulham - 0 Charlton Athletic - 0 Division 1, Attendance 29,659 - POSITIONS: Fulham 3rd, Charlton 6th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Gibson (Simpson), Friberg, Mitchell, Guðmundsson; Weber, Schneider; Stewart, Disler (Cooke), Cable (McIntyre); Devlin. I'd given Disler one more chance, and he had blown it. He was just not the creative force we needed in that attacking midfield slot... but I was hopeful that our latest signing would be. Two months after signing a pre-contract agreement with us, Greg Scott officially completed his £250,000 transfer from Barnsley. The 23-year-old speed demon had delivered 19 goals/assists in as many Division 2 matches for the Tykes this season. If he could carry that form over from south Yorkshire to west London, he would probably be one of the biggest bargains in this club's history! Scott was given a warm welcome to Craven Cottage in our last match before Christmas - a huge promotion battle with league leaders Preston. The Lilywhites ran out comfortable winners at Deepdale on the opening day, but with Greg in tow, we felt confident we could give David Moyes' boys a much tougher game. 21 DECEMBER 2013: Fulham vs Preston North End To paraphrase Sir Bruce Forsyth, we were so much better than last week... at least in the sense we actually tested the opposition keeper this time. Peter Devlin was still struggling to recapture his early-season form, but Alan Stewart did threaten a breakthrough in the 38th minute, when his fierce strike from the right wing was stopped by Preston goalie Martin Kelly. In the 43rd minute, however, Stewart displayed the wrong kind of aggression. A mindless two-footed lunge on Preston's attacking midfielder Mika Väyrynen left the referee with no choice but to send Alan off. That moment of stupidity had handed all the momentum to our opponents. Barely a minute later, Lilywhites left-back Christos Skrekas skipped past our midfield debutant Greg Scott and drove a threatening shot goalwards. John Forde tried to repel the shot but could only parry it to midfielder John Murray, and the league leaders were 1-0 up. We effectively lost the match in the closing stages of that first half. Though Devlin did get a couple of shots on target after the break, we hardly ever looked like getting back level until Preston killed us off in the 88th minute. 23-year-old former Sheffield Wednesday striker Mike Downes headed in the goal that completed our third home league defeat of the season. Fulham - 0 Preston North End - 2 (Murray 44, Downes 88) Division 1, Attendance 17,521 - POSITIONS: Fulham 4th, Preston 1st FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Gibson (Simpson), Friberg, Mitchell, Guðmundsson; Weber, Schneider; Stewart, Scott, Hall (McIntyre); Devlin. SENT OFF: Stewart. In our last three games, we'd scored no goals and picked up two red cards. What the hell were we doing?! Alan Stewart was handed a three-match ban, which would start early in the new year. He was among several players who were dropped for the Boxing Day trip to Nottingham Forest. Our hosts had also hit a slump and were now outside the play-off places, but they couldn't be written off easily. 26 DECEMBER 2013: Nottingham Forest vs Fulham Both goalkeepers were kept busy throughout the first half. In the Fulham goal, John Forde bravely resisted a couple of dangerous efforts from home left-back Hjálmar Jónsson and striker René Kaiser. Across the pitch, Forest keeper turned away chances for Greg Scott to score his first Fulham goal ever, and for winger Atle Iversen to net his first in the league this season. There was a decisive shift in the 36th minute, when Forest playmaker Eugen Bopp was bopped in our penalty area by a clumsy Peter Mitchell. The referee pointed to the spot, from which midfield workhorse Gareth Roberts - who helped Leyton Orient knock us out of the League Cup earlier this season - fired his new club into a 1-0 lead. Mitchell seemed pretty cut up by his mistake, and it got worse just before the break. The Scottish centre-back lost track of Kaiser, whose shot was parried to Roberts for another home goal. Mitchell, Iversen and defensive midfielder Christian Weber would all be sacrificed at half-time, as I made all three substitutions before the second half. One of those players who came on was Henning Numme, who died a much better job of protecting our defence alongside captain Florian Schneider than Weber had done. Forest would not add to their lead, though Roberts' double was still enough to move them up to 7th place - just two points behind us. From a Fulham perspective, another disappointing result did at least end on a positive. After failing to score in over seven hours of football, we finally had something to cheer about in the 81st minute, when Scott's low cross was driven home for Derek McIntyre's first goal of the season. Was Scott's assist an indicator of better things to come? Nottingham Forest - 2 (Roberts pen36,45) Fulham - 1 (McIntyre 81) Division 1, Attendance 9,974 - POSITIONS: Nottm Forest 7th, Fulham 6th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Edwards, Mitchell (Heikkinen), Friberg, Simpson; Weber (Numme), Schneider; Iversen (Disler), Scott, McIntyre; Devlin. BOOKED: Weber. It's funny how much can change in just a few weeks. Having looked like we were looking like we could crack the top two, we were now potentially another defeat away from slipping out of the top six. Actually… that's not very funny, is it? Our last chance to save anything from a disastrous month came 48 hours later, at home to a Reading team who were battling relegation. As Schneider was too tired to start, and Arnar Guðmundsson was out of form, I decided to give the captaincy to... goalkeeper John Forde! Yeah, who could have seen that coming two months ago? 28 DECEMBER 2013: Fulham vs Reading Jerel Ifil was back in the Fulham defence after three weeks out... but his comeback lasted just 20 minutes until his troublesome knee gave way once again. The Saint Lucia centre-back was stretchered off, which should have given a boost to a Reading team who had looked the more aggressive side in those opening stages. Ifil's injury actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as his replacement Peter Mitchell gave us the lead just 10 minutes later. Mitchell used his head to flick in an impressive free-kick delivery from Henning Numme - the free-kick having been awarded after Reading midfielder Ryan Carter hacked down our right-winger Daniel Cooke. Carter almost made amends for Reading just before half-time, setting up a chance that his midfield colleague Leon Bell drove wide. That miss would come back to haunt the Royals nine minutes into the second period, as Florian Schneider came off the Fulham bench and doubled our lead! Then, after 63 minutes, we secured all three points with a third goal. The move began with a throw-in deep in Royals territory, which Numme threw to Peter Devlin in the penalty area. Though Devlin finished this month without a goal, he did at least notch up an assist, putting in a low cross for Greg Scott to score his first Cottagers goal! The first of many? Fulham - 3 (Mitchell 30, Schneider 54, Scott 63) Reading - 0 Division 1, Attendance 13,674 - POSITIONS: Fulham 6th, Reading 18th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Gibson, Ifil (Mitchell), Friberg, Simpson; Weber (Schneider), Numme; Cooke, Scott (Disler), McIntyre; Devlin. BOOKED: Friberg. After four games without a victory, we had ended 2013 on a winning note. All was well at Craven Cottage again... right? Not exactly. Ifil had suffered a recurrence of his persistent knee injury, and it had got to the point where he would need intense physiotherapy to save his career. It's unlikely we'll see Jerel again until March at the earliest, if at all. We'll certainly be seeing plenty more of Numme, who won Division 1's Young Player of the Month award for the second time this year. Could 2014 be the year in which the Norwegian talent establishes himself as a regular starter?

DIVISION 1 TABLE (End of November 2013) Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Preston 21 8 1 1 25 13 7 2 2 15 12 48 2nd Wolves 21 9 1 1 33 16 5 2 3 19 15 45 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Fulham 21 7 2 2 19 11 5 3 2 19 12 41 4th Aston Villa 21 9 0 2 19 7 3 1 6 11 16 37 5th Nottm Forest 21 6 2 2 19 9 5 1 5 20 17 36 6th Charlton 21 6 3 1 22 12 4 2 5 21 21 35 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th Norwich 21 5 2 3 19 13 6 0 5 22 19 35 8th Man City 21 7 1 2 25 13 4 1 6 23 27 35 9th West Ham 21 7 2 2 12 5 3 2 5 11 11 34 10th Huddersfield 21 7 2 2 23 14 2 5 3 15 18 34 11th Sunderland 21 7 1 2 18 10 3 2 6 18 26 33 12th Grimsby 20 7 3 1 16 8 2 1 6 10 12 31 13th Macclesfield 21 6 2 3 24 18 3 1 6 11 17 30 14th Coventry 21 7 1 3 21 21 2 2 6 13 21 30 15th Gillingham 21 6 2 2 22 12 2 1 8 13 21 27 16th Carlisle 21 6 0 5 22 18 3 0 7 13 25 27 17th Birmingham 21 4 2 4 16 12 3 3 5 14 20 26 18th Bradford 21 5 1 4 12 9 2 3 6 7 15 25 19th W.B.A. 21 4 1 5 12 18 3 1 7 12 22 23 20th Reading 21 5 0 5 21 18 1 3 7 15 24 21 21st Oldham 21 3 3 5 19 22 1 3 6 10 19 18 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22nd Rochdale 21 2 2 6 17 23 3 0 8 15 27 17 23rd Tottenham 21 3 6 2 19 18 0 1 9 9 29 16 24th Chesterfield 20 2 1 7 16 24 0 1 9 8 25 8 ELSEWHERE IN FOOTBALL... Despite winning 2-0 in Roma, Hajduk Split top their Champions League group and go through to the last 16 alongside the Italian giants. Barcelona blow several opportunities to beat Lommel and are relegated to the UEFA Cup for the first time in nine years, prompting fans to wave their hankies at manager Franky Van der Elst. Van der Elst's former club Dortmund also exit the Champions League after Mido scores twice for Celtic in a 3-0 home win. Despite that, Andreas Brehme leads them back to the top of the Bundesliga with a 3-2 comeback win at Leverkusen. Incredibly, BVB haven't had a single goalkeeper under contract since Gábor Király moved to Chemnitz last summer! The Premiership title race takes another twist when Manchester United's winning streak is halted by champions Chelsea. Cristiano Ronaldo shows off his six-pack after scoring both goals in a 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge. Everton boss Fabio Cannavaro and Stoke chief Guðjón Þórðarson are both sacked as their teams battle relegation... but newcomers Notts County keep faith in Jimmy Sandison, despite picking up just two points and five goals in their first 16 games! Wales secure one of the last tickets to the World Cup, as Torquay forward Craig Fowler scores a hat-trick in a 7-0 aggregate win over Japan. Belgium also qualify through the play-offs, coming from behind to beat Romania on away goals. Romania striker Marius Stan is so upset that he puts his wife in the boot of his car and drives off a bridge. After an incredible 14 months as manager of Guarani, Raúl leaves the Brazilian second tier to take on his next managerial challenge - replacing Javier Zanetti at Ligue 1 strugglers Nîmes. Elsewhere in France's top flight, holders Marseille extend their unbeaten start and build a five-point lead, thanks to Arjen Robben's 90th-minute winner in a 3-2 thriller at Lyon. IN OTHER NEWS... "Fast & Furious" actor Paul Walker and his friend Roger Rodas are killed in a single-vehicle accident in California. Rodas' Porsche crashes at high speed into a lamp post and then strikes two trees before catching fire. Filming for "Furious 7", which 40-year-old Walker had been working on prior to his death, is delayed indefinitely. India’s Sachin Tendulkar - regarded as one of the greatest batters in cricket history - plays his 200th and final Test match against the West Indies in Mumbai. The 40-year-old ‘Little Master’ brings to an end an incredible career that began all the way back in 1989, and saw him achieve 15,921 runs in Tests and 18,426 in One Day Internationals - both records. Another Indian king - Viswanathan Anand - loses the World Chess Championship in Chennai. Anand is defeated by Norwegian former child prodigy Magnus Carlsen, who reaches the pinnacle of the chess world before his 23rd birthday. After getting lucky with Daft Punk earlier this year, Pharrell Williams feels like a room without a roof on his next hit single “Happy”. Meanwhile, scores of little girls are ecstatic to see Disney’s animated fantasy film “Frozen” in cinemas.

NOVEMBER 2013 I begin this month with some disappointing news. Another player has broken club rules - and quite seriously. In mid-October, defender Halldór Magnusson failed to report for training. He had reportedly gone back home to Akranes in Iceland because of a bereavement in the family. On closer investigation, it emerged that all Halldór's close family members were still alive, and that had simply left the country because he was homesick. In other words, he used the Stephen Ireland excuse. Homesickness or not, Halldór had gone absent without leave. I simply didn't have a choice. He had breached the terms of the contract, which meant we were entitled to sack him for minimal compensation. The 21-year-old had surely thrown away the best chance he had of a meaningful career in professional football. Meanwhile, I had another clear-the-air conversation with goalkeeper John Forde. I apologised for being unduly harsh towards him, but also admitted that the Fulham board were putting me under pressure to sell him. At that point, John confessed that he never actually wanted to leave. He had simply been in a bad place mentally after a messy relationship breakup. Now, though, he was ready to fight for his place again - and eager to prove that I was right to call him "the best goalkeeper in Division 1". The first leg of Forde's redemption tour was a home game, against 16th-placed Carlisle. Defensive midfielder Christian Weber and playmaker Daniel Cooke were also back in the team, having missed our last three matches after... well, let's just say they hadn't been particularly happy about the Coventry incident. 2 NOVEMBER 2013: Fulham vs Carlisle United Worryingly, it was Carlisle who made the livelier start. Fulham goalkeeper John Forde was forced into a save by Cumbrians forward Danny Schofield after just three minutes, while fellow returnee Christian Weber also did his sweeping duties by clearing a couple of dangerous opportunities. The tide turned after 23 minutes, as a couple of homegrown Scots put us ahead against the run of play. Derek McIntyre showcased his talents with an excellent run down the left wing before his cross was smashed into the net by right-back Grant Gibson. That was only Gibson's third goal for Fulham, having scored twice in the 2008/2009 season before leaving for Clyde. Meanwhile, Forde continued to show just how brilliant he could be on his day. Schofield, his strike partner Jimmy Davis and left-back Andy Willis all had shots saved by the Irishman just before half-time. Carlisle had been constantly banging at the door throughout the first half, but nothing had opened it. Those fans who'd made the long journey from the north-west were feeling even grimmer midway through the second half. Alan Stewart doubled our lead with a fantastic solo effort on 68 minutes, and that was followed six minutes later by another strike from the unstoppable Peter Devlin. The shot statistics had suggested that this might be a close game, but we ran out comfortable winners by 3 goals to nil! Fulham - 3 (Gibson 23, Stewart 68, Devlin 74) Carlisle United - 0 Division 1, Attendance 16,420 - POSITIONS: Fulham 4th, Carlisle 16th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Gibson, Mitchell, Hill, Guðmundsson; Schneider, Weber (Numme); Stewart, Cooke (Iversen), McIntyre (Cable); Devlin. A truly stunning performance across the pitch. Now just watch us roll over and lose our next game at St Andrew's! To be fair, Birmingham did have a very good recent record against us - especially since Paul Lambert took the reins. We wouldn't let the Blues' lowly position of 18th lull us into a full sense of security. 9 NOVEMBER 2013: Birmingham City vs Fulham I had kept the same starting line-up that had demolished Carlisle... but after just five minutes, I was already forced into a change. A nasty collision with a Birmingham attacker left Grant Gibson on the turf grasping at his right foot, and so the full-back had to be replaced with Thomas Friberg. The other members of our starting back four were keen for retribution. Clint Hill, Peter Mitchell and Arnar Guðmundsson ALL picked up yellow cards later in the first half after three robust challenges - the only fouls that we would commit all game. By contrast, Birmingham were even dirtier and conceded nine fouls, yet escaped with only one yellow card. The Blues were usually so entertaining in front of goal, but their attacking game completely deserted them, as midfielder Benedict Vilakazi and striker Fabio Campese each missed the target twice. It was a rather better afternoon for their goalkeeper Matt Bates, who produced four saves - two apiece from Peter Devlin and Florian Schneider. By full-time, we had every reason to be frustrated that the scoreline was still 0-0. Birmingham City - 0 Fulham - 0 Division 1, Attendance 29,540 - POSITIONS: Birmingham 18th, Fulham 4th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Gibson (Friberg), Mitchell (Numme), Hill, Guðmundsson; Schneider, Weber; Stewart, Cooke, McIntyre (Cable); Devlin. BOOKED: Hill, Mitchell, Guðmundsson. The news around Grant Gibson's injury was not great. A damaged foot put the Scottish right-back out for the next three weeks. There was better news for Peter Devlin, whose record of 45 goals since the start of last season finally earned him a call-up to the Republic of Ireland senior squad. The 26-year-old made his debut in the closing stages of a 0-0 home draw against Slovakia. Meanwhile, Arnar Guðmundsson earned his 31st cap for Iceland, getting an assist in a 3-3 draw with Slovenia. Back at home, I allowed third-choice goalkeeper Craig Price to go on loan to Farnborough in the Conference. The 19-year-old is set to stay in Hampshire for the rest of the season, but I have told Boro boss Chris Hope that I won't hesitate to recall Craig if he doesn't play. Our next home game was against a low-scoring West Brom side who were 16th in the table. Our last meeting with the Baggies ended in a comprehensive 6-1 win at The Hawthorns back in March, and we were confident of another goal glut. 16 NOVEMBER 2013: Fulham vs West Bromwich Albion The match got off to a slow start, but it all livened up with a fantastic strike from Peter Devlin in the 23rd minute. West Brom's veteran defender Neil Clement was probably regretting turning us down when Devlin raced past his 34-year-old legs and fired the ball into the top corner. During his mazy run towards goal, Devlin also skinned Albion's defensive midfielder Markus Messner... but what the Austrian lacked in speed, he made up for in great technical skill. We had the lead for just five minutes until Messner found some space and sweetly volleyed in a long ball from his fellow midfielder Steven Rogers. Swiss youngster Adrian Disler nearly restored our lead on 30 minutes, unluckily hitting the bar from Florian Schneider's free-kick. It took him another half-hour to produce another effort, which was tipped away by Stefanos Kotsolis. The same Baggies goalie who'd conceded six minutes against us at The Hawthorns was determined to avoid another goal glut. The match then swung back and forth until the 83rd minute... when a misplaced header from right-back Thomas Friberg cost us dear. The loose ball was collected by West Brom striker Neil Mellor, whose shot was punched away by John Forde. However, the Cottagers goalie could only send it as far as Albion's other frontman Dean Shiels, who lashed in what he thought was a winner. West Brom tried to calmly see the game out in their half, but when Messner backed into Alan Stewart in stoppage time, we were handed one last opportunity to snatch a point. Schneider's free-kick into the penalty box was squared low across goal by Peter Devlin to Stewart, who broke clear of the last defender and tapped it home! Fulham - 2 (Devlin 23, Stewart 90) West Bromwich Albion - 2 (Messner 28, Shiels 83) Division 1, Attendance 16,922 - POSITIONS: Fulham 5th, West Brom 16th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Friberg, Mitchell (Heikkinen), Hill, Guðmundsson; Schneider, Weber; Stewart, Disler (Cooke), Cable (Hall); Devlin. BOOKED: Schneider. Thank heavens for that late Alan Stewart equaliser. He's probably saved his team-mates from another volcanic eruption... Devlin had now scored 17 goals. Only one other player in Division 1 had found the net more often - Manchester City's Darren Reid, who had 18. Can you guess where we were heading next? Yep... we were heading to Maine Road. 3rd vs 5th. Manchester City vs Fulham. Reid vs Devlin... ...except, no, it wasn't! Reid had suffered a knee ligament injury when City beat Southampton in the League Cup in midweek, and this meant he would miss the next few games of their promotion challenge, including this one! We had to take advantage. 23 NOVEMBER 2013: Manchester City vs Fulham After their late heroics in the previous game, Peter Devlin and Alan Stewart combined again to give us the lead after just two minutes at Maine Road. Stewart repaid his colleague's assist by returning the favour to Devlin, whose volley got us off to the best possible start! Unfortunately, Manchester City also scored from their first attack. Their captain - and one-time Fulham loanee - David Fox outfoxed us with an excellent through-ball to 18-year-old local lad Paul Naylor, who scored just the second goal of his fledgling career. Fox almost added another goal four minutes later but was denied by a fine save from John Forde. At the other end of the pitch, we presented several tests for City's young goalkeeper Pavels Stepanovs, who already had 33 caps for Latvia at the age of just 22. Stepanovs was a strong and stocky guy, but he was a bit on the short side. Six minutes before half-time, our centre-back Clint Hill - hardly a giant himself at exactly 6ft - climbed above Stepanovs to head in Stewart's free-kick and restore our lead with his first Fulham goal. Cottagers captain Florian Schneider had been booked early in the first half. Knowing that the German loved a crunching tackle, I considered substituting him early in the second period... and at pretty much that exact moment, Florian wiped Naylor out in our penalty area. The referee awarded City a penalty, and then showed Schneider a second yellow, followed by a red! Henning Numme came off the bench to fill Schneider's place in midfield, with winger Wayne Cable the man to be sacrificed. The pressure on Numme grew instantly, as Oman defender Khalifa Ayil Al-Naufali confidently scored the penalty to draw Fulham level after 57 minutes. For the next half-hour, we faced a major battle to preserve a 2-2 draw with only 10 men. It didn't feel like we were a man down, however, as Forde was once again playing like we had two goalkeepers. Whatever City fired towards our Irish shotstopper was easily repelled, as we remained on course for one point... ...until the 87th minute, when we stole two more! The Citizens got sloppy and gave away a free-kick, which our stand-in captain Arnar Guðmundsson whipped into their penalty area. Stewart's header on goal was parried by Stepanovs, but the Scot fired in the rebound, sealing an incredible 3-2 victory for the Cottagers! Manchester City - 2 (Naylor 6, Al-Naufali pen57) Fulham - 3 (Devlin 2, Hill 39, Stewart 87) Division 1, Attendance 27,811 - POSITIONS: Man City 3rd, Fulham 4th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Friberg (Edwards), Mitchell, Hill, Guðmundsson; Schneider, Weber; Stewart, Cooke (Iversen), Cable (Numme); Devlin. BOOKED: Schneider, Weber. SENT OFF: Schneider. The third red card of Florian Schneider's Fulham career earned him a one-match ban, which he would serve. I understood that bookings were a working hazard with a player of his nature, but I still decided to issue him with a formal warning. Meanwhile, Devlin's form was now proving irresistible as far as Premiership strugglers Stoke were concerned. The Potters offered £8million - but just like with Wayne Cable when Blackburn came calling a few months ago, I was holding out for much more. I certainly wasn't selling a player who had scored more than half our goals this season for just £8million! It was then back to Craven Cottage for a meeting with mid-table Gillingham. Schneider kept his place despite the red card, but centre-back Peter Mitchell lost his spot after a recent dip in form. 27 NOVEMBER 2013: Fulham vs Gillingham Four days after seeing red in Manchester, Fulham's captain wasted little time in redeeming himself. A 20th-minute foul from Gillingham midfielder Simon Rusk gave away a free-kick 25 yards from goal - a distance that perfectly suited Florian Schneider, who hammered it straight into the top corner! Barely three minutes later, though, Gillingham were attacking us hard. John Forde came under pressure as he parried a fierce strike from midfielder Leon Britton, then pushed Rusk's rebound behind from a corner. Rusk then rushed to the corner and drifted a quick delivery to defender John O'Shea, whose pinpoint header restored parity. An incredible spell of play ended with a third goal in the space of just seven minutes! Swiss midfielder Adrian Disler was on hand to restore our advantage, pouncing on the rebound after Alan Stewart's strike had been blocked by Justin Bray in the Gills goal. Though we were still 2-1 up at the break, Gillingham had ended the first half strongly and looked increasingly likely to equalise again. Noting a hint of fragility in defence, I replaced right-back Graham Edwards and defensive midfielder Henning Numme at half-time, replacing them with Terry Simpson and Christian Weber respectively. Weber's introduction in particular made a huge difference. As well as making as more solid at the back, the Austrian midfielder showed that he had great technical skills in the 61st minute. Weber latched onto a deft header from winger Wayne Cable and skipped past a challenge from Gills defender Ramuel Grosvenor before blasting in his first Fulham goal! 3-1 to the Cottagers! That third goal was a fateful blow for Gillingham, who had already lost Rusk to injury early in the second period. Right-back Hannu Haarala also ended the game injured, prompting manager Peter Reid to resort to damage limitation for the closing stages. Fulham - 3 (Schneider 20, Disler 26, Weber 61) Gillingham - 1 (O'Shea 23) Division 1, Attendance 22,993 - POSITIONS: Fulham 3rd, Gillingham FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Edwards (Simpson), Ifil, Hill, Guðmundsson; Numme (Weber), Schneider; Stewart (Cooke), Disler, Cable; Devlin. BOOKED: Stewart, Ifil. With a second straight win, we were now up to 3rd. Our erratic recent results - combined with the relentless form of Wolves and Preston - meant we remained seven points adrift of the promotion places, but a play-off spot was now looking more secure. We stayed at home for our next match, against another team flying high in the top six. Inspired by their rapid Icelandic attacking midfielder Stefan Jónsson, Norwich had won three league matches in a row - and five of their last six. 30 NOVEMBER 2013: Fulham vs Norwich City Norwich's impressive recent form was no thanks to a shaky defence, which made a costly mistake after just seven minutes. A wayward header from centre-back Steven Fenwick was collected by our captain Florian Schneider, and the German's subsequent cross was expertly finished by... who else? Peter Devlin. The Canaries' heads could have dropped after that, but they stayed cool and gradually rebuilt their confidence. Captain Darren Kelly had their first shot on target just before half-time, which was repelled by John Forde. Kelly and dangerman Stefan Jónsson also had a couple of promising efforts after the break. Mind you, it would have taken something truly special from Norwich to get them level. Not only was Forde on form, but Clint Hill was hardly missing a tackle, showing at age 35 that he was back to the top of his game. Indeed, the only other player to outshine Forde and Hill was the Canaries' own goalkeeper Dembo Touray, who made two magnificent saves to deny Devlin a potential hat-trick. Even after the loss of centre-back Guy Branston to an ankle injury, Touray and his City colleagues limited us to just one goal... but one goal would be all we needed. Fulham - 1 (Devlin 7) Norwich City - 0 Division 1, Attendance 16,060 - POSITIONS: Fulham 3rd, Norwich 7th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Gibson, Ifil, Hill, Guðmundsson; Weber, Schneider; Stewart (Iversen), Cooke, Hall (McIntyre); Devlin. Preston won again, but Wolves were surprisingly beaten 3-0 at home by Reading. That leaves us four points adrift of 2nd place... and six points clear of Norwich in 7th. Of course, despite going unbeaten throughout November, I didn't win the Manager of the Month award. That honour went to Frank Yallop at Wolves. Bloody Canadians.

It may surprise you that I wrote that line literally about 10 minutes before I posted it here.

DIVISION 1 TABLE (End of October 2013) Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Preston 15 6 0 1 17 9 5 1 2 12 11 34 2nd Man City 15 6 1 1 21 9 4 1 2 17 13 32 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Wolves 15 6 1 0 20 10 3 2 3 15 13 30 4th Aston Villa 15 6 0 1 12 3 3 1 4 9 12 28 5th Charlton 15 4 2 1 13 7 4 1 3 19 17 27 6th Fulham 15 4 1 2 10 8 4 2 2 16 10 27 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th West Ham 16 5 1 2 8 3 3 2 3 9 7 27 8th Macclesfield 16 5 2 1 18 11 3 1 4 10 13 27 9th Grimsby 15 6 1 0 14 5 2 1 5 10 11 26 10th Nottm Forest 15 3 2 1 13 6 4 1 4 16 12 24 11th Huddersfield 15 6 2 1 19 11 0 4 2 5 9 24 12th Coventry 16 5 1 2 16 14 2 2 4 12 17 24 13th Sunderland 16 5 1 2 14 9 2 2 4 11 19 24 14th Norwich 15 4 2 2 16 12 3 0 4 10 11 23 15th Gillingham 15 5 2 1 19 10 1 1 5 9 14 21 16th Carlisle 15 5 0 3 16 11 2 0 5 10 19 21 17th Birmingham 15 4 1 3 15 10 1 2 4 8 12 18 18th W.B.A. 15 3 1 4 9 14 2 0 5 5 12 16 19th Bradford 15 3 1 4 9 8 1 2 4 5 10 15 20th Tottenham 16 3 4 1 14 12 0 0 8 6 23 13 21st Oldham 16 2 2 4 13 17 1 1 6 9 18 12 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22nd Reading 15 3 0 4 13 11 0 2 6 9 20 11 23rd Rochdale 16 2 1 5 13 16 1 0 7 5 21 10 24th Chesterfield 16 2 1 5 12 17 0 1 7 6 20 8 ELSEWHERE IN FOOTBALL... With Michael Owen on the sidelines after running over a rabbit, Wayne Rooney scores twice to fire England to a 5-1 home win over Belgium - and secure qualification for the World Cup. France scrape through after Djibril Cissé bags a 90th-minute equaliser against Serbia & Montenegro, while Wales set up a Playoff with Japan. Just two years ago, Turkmenistan were ranked 167th in the world. Next year, the Central Asian minnows will make their World Cup debut in Scandinavia, having beaten UAE 2-1 to finish 2nd in their Asian qualifying group! The Karakum Warriors' star men include Feyenoord playmaker Begli Nurmyradow... and pacey striker Yusup Annadurdiyew, who plays for David Beckham's Rostselmash in the Russian Premier League. Manchester United smash Arsenal 3-0 at Highbury to go five points clear in the Premiership. But while the Red Devils are back to their best in the league, they crash out of the UEFA Cup at the second hurdle, losing 3-1 to Serie A strugglers Bologna. United fans refuse to eat spaghetti in protest. Swedish side Helsingborgs reach the Champions League's second group phase for the first time, recording a shock 2-0 away win to eliminate Toulouse. German debutants Wolfsburg are also in the last 16... but Roma's hopes hang by a thread after Israel forward Guy Levi salvages a 3-3 draw at Lommel, who had recovered from 2-0 down to lead 3-2. For once, it appears that Lazio and Roma are not the teams to beat in Italy! Kazuki Harada leads a resurgent and undefeated Juventus team to the top of Serie A, and Russian playmaker Aleksey Eremenko is in scintillating form for 2nd-placed Milan. Meanwhile, Ajax legend Frank Rijkaard rejoins the Eredivisie champions as their new manager, after Luka Peruzovic jumps ship to Brazilian giants Flamengo. IN OTHER NEWS... Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel wins the Indian Grand Prix - his 10th race victory of the season - and secures his fourth Formula 1 Drivers' Championship in a row. What is it with Germans and F1 domination? A year after Windows 8 came out to a very negative reception, Microsoft releases its new operating system. Imaginatively named Windows 8.1, it improves on its predecessor by introducing… [gasp] a “Start” button on the taskbar! Dave Cameron tries to prove that he is down with the kids by becoming a singer - releasing his debut single “Better In Stereo” on Walt Disney Records. No, wait… that’s Dove Cameron, from the Disney TV series “Liv and Maddie”. There are no more perfect days for Lou Reed, as the legendary former Velvet Underground frontman dies of liver disease aged 71. Meanwhile, fans of “The Simpsons” mourn the passing of 70-year-old actress Marcia Wallace, who provided the voice for schoolteacher Edna Krabappel. We’ll really miss you, Mrs K.

OCTOBER 2013 As brilliantly as Fulham had started the season, I felt that our attack was lacking a little bit of star quality. Our newest signing might just bring that to the fold. I have been tracking Barnsley's attacking midfielder Greg Scott for some time now. The 23-year-old is rapid and has great off-the-ball awareness - and after getting 28 goal contributions in Division 2 last season, he has been making noises about wanting to join a bigger club. I first tried to buy Scott this summer for around £1.5million, but Barnsley wanted much more than that. They must be feeling silly now, as Scott's contract became unprotected last month, which meant we could approach to sign him for just £250,000! During the October international break, we sat down with Greg and his agent, and agreed terms on a four-and-a-half-year contract worth £9,000 per week. The kicker is that he won’t join us until 15 December... but I'm more than happy to wait for one of the Football League's most exciting attacking talents. In other news, we rejected Sheffield Wednesday's £1million offer to sign in-form defender Peter Mitchell. We also rebuffed Division 1 leaders Preston's attempts to nab our backup goalkeeper and former captain Wayne Hudson for £1.3million. Once all the internations were done and dusted, we set out to extend our unbeaten league run into double figures - but that would be a tricky feat against a West Ham team with the best defensive record in Division 1. Centre-back Jerel Ifil made his first appearance since August, filling in for the suspended Clint Hill. 12 OCTOBER 2013: Fulham vs West Ham United After just 11 minutes, things were already looking pretty grim. A foul from Alan Stewart handed West Ham a free-kick, which Dutch sweeper Wim Brunswijk swung deep into our half. Striker Simon Lynch got to the ball ahead of goalie John Forde and headed it home for an early Hammers blow. Forde did redeem himself later in the first half, denying Lynch a second goal as well as parrying a shot from his strike partner Robert Earnshaw. However, it was a concern that we weren't creating anything going forward, and so at half-time, I brought on Wayne Cable to replace Jordan Hall on the left-wing. Would the Welshman make an impact? Well... that Welshman didn't. After 69 minutes, it was the veteran Wales international Earnshaw who doubled West Ham's lead. Forde was once again caught out by a free-kick, as Earnshaw climbed above him to convert a delivery from left-back Barry Gale. And yes, Stewart gave away that free-kick as well... While our poor discipline and weakness from set-pieces had cost us dear, we did at least salvage something from an otherwise miserable home defeat. Jerel Ifil scored a penalty in the final minute after Daniel Cooke was scythed down in the Hammers area by visiting wing-back Scott Richards, though it was just a consolation. Fulham - 1 (Ifil pen90) West Ham United - 2 (Lynch 11, Earnshaw 69) Division 1, Attendance 26,406 - POSITIONS: Fulham 4th, West Ham 6th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Friberg (Simpson), Mitchell, Ifil, Guðmundsson; Weber (Numme), Schneider; Stewart, Cooke, Hall (Cable); Devlin. Typical. That break has taken away all the momentum we had. The board had a few choice things to say to me after that defeat. One of the biggest criticisms was aimed at my insistence on playing John Forde in goal while he was still looking for a transfer. I just said, "He's the best goalkeeper in the league. As long as he's playing well, he stays in the team." I will concede, though, that John didn't play well against West Ham. Another performance like that in our midweek home game against Coventry, and I would surely have to consider his long-term future. The following afternoon, I got a call from Newcastle's manager Billy Davies, offering to sign our 19-year-old wonderkid winger Wayne Cable... for £8million. It was an eyewatering amount of money for a second-division club... but it wasn't enough as far as I was concerned. When Cable heard that I'd turned down Newcastle's offer, he was pretty upset and frustrated. I told him, "You've played 10 games so far, but you've got only one goal - and not a single assist. If you want your big move to the Premiership, you've got to earn it." As further incentive for Cable, I started him on the left wing against Coventry, dropping the in-form Jordan Hall. We were facing a wounded Sky Blues side who had parted company with manager Garry Hill after dropping to 18th place. This was a great opportunity for Wayne to show his best form. 15 OCTOBER 2013: Fulham vs Coventry City I decided to put Adrian Disler in attacking midfielder, but the Swiss youngster could not roll Coventry over. Having fired a dismal shot wide in the 16th minute, Disler then left our defence horribly exposed in the 27th, when he was easily beaten by a mazy dribble from Michael Curtis. The City defender then glided past two more Cottagers before breaking the deadlock, to the delight of caretaker manager Richard Money. Thankfully, Disler did make amends by playing a key role in our equaliser five minutes from half-time. He played a skilful one-two with Alan Stewart, who then crossed low from the right to pick out Peter Devlin. When Devlin has the ball in the penalty box, there is only one outcome - and we were back level just in time for the break! We were now reinvigorated... and five minutes into the second half, we were also leading. Stewart's header drew a difficult fingertip save from the Sky Blues goalkeeper, who was forced to concede a corner. Joel Armstrong was walking alone down the boulevard of broken dreams when Jerel Ifil smashed in Florian Schneider's delivery, making it 2-1 to Fulham! But just eight minutes later, our own dreams were shattered. Coventry's second major attack of the match brought them their second goal, as veteran left-back Kieran McAnespie blasted home from distance after a mistake by our right-back Thomas Friberg. Things got worse for Tommy in the 68th minute. Kenny Miller came off the Cov bench and skinned the young Swede before delivering a devastating cross for one-time England striker Shola Ameobi to head home. Another City shot, another City goal. From 2-1 up, we had now gone 3-2 down... but we didn't lose hope. On 72 minutes, Friberg pumped a long ball up the right flank to Stewart, who provided Devlin with another killer cross to prod home. Unfortunately, Peter was just a smidge offside -and after Wayne Cable headed wide our last equalising opportunity in the 83rd minute, we had to face up to another Craven Cottage defeat. Fulham - 2 (Devlin 40, Ifil 50) Coventry City - 3 (Curtis 27, McAnespie 58, Ameobi 68) Division 1, Attendance 16,616 - POSITIONS: Fulham 7th, Coventry 18th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Friberg, Mitchell, Ifil (Hill), Guðmundsson; Weber, Schneider (Numme); Stewart, Disler (Iversen), Cable; Devlin. BOOKED: Schneider, Ifil. We'd now lost back-to-back home games... and I had finally lost my patience with Forde. After watching Forde concede from all three Coventry shots on target, I hurled a water bottle in his direction and screamed, "ARE YOU BLIND, JOHN? Or are you letting these goals in ON PURPOSE? I can't have you in the team if you're gonna keep throwing games away and keep on letting your team-mates down! "The team ALWAYS comes before the individual. I cannot and WILL NOT tolerate your entitled arrogance anymore, John. You are DROPPED!" A deathly silence fell across the dressing room... punctuated only by John's sobs. His team-mates didn't know what to think. Amid all the carnage, Ifil was being strapped up after picking up yet another knee injury - one that would sideline him for the next three weeks. All in all, it was just a regular Wednesday night at Craven Cottage. Four days later, we picked up the pieces and tried to put them together again at the Alfred McAlpine Stadium, where we were up against mid-table Huddersfield. With Forde back in the doghouse, Wayne Hudson was back in goal. 19 OCTOBER 2013: Huddersfield Town vs Fulham Most of the early chances went Huddersfield's way. Northern Ireland striker Sean Doherty hit the side netting after an excellent Terriers move in the 9th minute, while Aussie midfielder Vincenzo Grella was thwarted by a great save from Wayne Hudson in the 14th. Then, on 19 minutes, we drew first blood against the run of play. Left-winger Jordan Hall was back in the starting XI and instantly back to his best, laying the ball off for Alan Stewart to finish from the right! It took Huddersfield a little while to recover from that, but when they did, they were devastating. Hudson did well to parry another fierce long-ranger from Grella, but Chris Simpson - an energetic Geordie midfielder whom Town had recently signed from non-league Scarborough - buried the rebound. 1-1 at half-time. Hall was carrying a knock when we returned to the dressing room. I didn't want to take any risks with a player in a purple patch, so Derek McIntyre came on for the second half. The Scottish teenager proved his worth after 61 minutes, superbly setting up Peter Devlin to score his 50th league goal for Fulham! Devlin put us in total control seven minutes later, giving us a 3-1 lead with assistance of our ever-brilliant captain Florian Schneider. Though Lawrie Sanchez's hosts battled valiantly in the final quarter of the game, we would leave West Yorkshire with all three points. Huddersfield Town - 1 (Simpson 40) Fulham - 3 (Stewart 19, Devlin 61,68) Division 1, Attendance 12,579 - POSITIONS: Huddersfield 14th, Fulham 4th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Hudson; Friberg, Mitchell (Gibson), Hill, Simpson; Heikkinen (McDonald), Schneider; Stewart, Disler, Hall (McIntyre); Devlin. Now there's a way to bounce back... but if we really wanted to show that we meant business this season, we would need to do it in front of our increasingly impatient home fans. The next visitors to Craven Cottage were Rochdale, who won there on the final day of last term. However, the Mancunians had won just one league game since then and appeared to be suffering from 'second season syndrome'. The Dale were also without a manager, as the hierarchy believed that sacking Steve Bruce would be the cure to their ailments. 23 OCTOBER 2013: Fulham vs Rochdale It may not surprise you that Division 1's leading goalscorer quite relished playing against the team sitting in last place. Peter Devlin had two great opportunities to break through after 15 and 19 minutes, but on both occasions, Rochdale's keeper Andoni Cantero managed to get across his goal and push the ball away. After 31 minutes, though, it was third time lucky for our Irish beast. A fierce drive from Alan Stewart stung Cantero's palms, and even the athletic Spaniard wasn't quick enough to react to Devlin's rebound. We were 1-0 up, and surely there were even more goals to come? Despite our almost complete dominance of the first half, we wouldn't double our lead until five minutes into the second. Jordan Hall provided the cross from the left... and you can probably guess who provided the finish. For the SEVENTH time already this season, Devlin had a brace to his name! Peter again had to settle for just the two goals, as Cantero denied him a hat-trick in the 59th minute. That was a little disappointing, but the win was never in doubt - not even when the aptly-named 19-year-old Gary Kidd headed in a consolation goal from Rochdale late on. Fulham - 2 (Devlin 31,50) Rochdale - 1 (Kidd 87) Division 1, Attendance 13,980 - POSITIONS: Fulham 4th, Rochdale 24th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Hudson; Friberg (Gibson), Mitchell, Hill, Guðmundsson; Heikkinen (McDonald), Schneider; Stewart (Iversen), Disler, Hall; Devlin. Peter Devlin is now on 15 goals in just 14 league matches. This guy is unstoppable! The Stadium of Light had its anti-Devlin defences on standby three days later, when we paid Sunderland a visit. Another victory here would potentially fire us into the automatic promotion places... but defeat would put our play-off spot at risk. 26 OCTOBER 2013: Sunderland vs Fulham I always expect an intense attacking game when Richard Hill is in the opposition dug-out, and Sunderland certainly sent plenty of attacks our way in the first half. Fulham centre-back Clint Hill needed to be at his strongest to frustrate the Mackems' frontmen Darren Ross and Armann Smári Bjørnsson, while goalie Wayne Hudson produced an excellent fingertip save to deny defender Andrew Henry in the 17th minute. Sunderland's best chance of the first half had come after 31 minutes, when captain Michael Stewart smashed a free-kick against the bar. That free-kick came about after a clumsy foul on Tim Cahill from our vice-captain Arnar Guðmundsson, who went into the book. But while our Iceland international was having a difficult afternoon... ...the hosts' own Iceman showed six minutes into the second half that he was ice cool. Bjørnsson might have been a defender/striker, but his skilful volley from Henry's lob into the penalty area was most definitely a striker's finish. Hudson couldn't keep it out, and we were 1-0 behind. Sadly, our fortunes against the Black Cats did not improve. Devlin put in one of his weakest performances of the season, missing the target with his only two shots at goal, and none of our other attackers looked like they could step up. After two wins in a row, this was a disappointing return to our old ways. Sunderland - 1 (Bjørnsson 51) Fulham - 0 Division 1, Attendance 41,911 - POSITIONS: Sunderland 16th, Fulham 5th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Hudson; Friberg (Gibson), Mitchell, Hill, Guðmundsson; Heikkinen, Schneider; Stewart, Cable (Iversen), McIntyre (Hall); Devlin. BOOKED: Guðmundsson. It must always be a struggle with Fulham, mustn’t it? We're still inside the top six, but only by the narrowest of margins. If we want to stay in the thick of the promotion hunt, we need everyone at this club be working together on the same page... and that means I have some apologising to do.

It's been nearly two months. Could I have a response to this, or even an acknowledgement?

It's been nearly two months. Could I have a response to this, or even an acknowledgement?

It's been nearly two months. Could I have a response to this, or even an acknowledgement?

It's been nearly two months. Could I have a response to this, or even an acknowledgement?

DIVISION 1 TABLE (End of September 2013) Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Preston 10 5 0 0 13 3 3 1 1 9 8 25 2nd Man City 10 5 1 0 17 8 2 0 2 10 8 22 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Nottm Forest 10 3 2 0 11 3 3 1 1 12 7 21 4th Fulham 10 3 1 0 5 2 3 2 1 13 8 21 5th Gillingham 10 5 0 0 16 5 1 1 3 7 10 19 6th Wolves 10 4 1 0 13 8 1 2 2 7 8 18 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th West Ham 10 3 0 2 6 3 2 2 1 6 3 17 8th Grimsby 10 4 1 0 10 4 1 0 4 6 7 16 9th Macclesfield 10 3 1 1 12 9 2 0 3 6 7 16 10th Aston Villa 10 4 0 1 8 3 1 1 3 6 9 16 11th Charlton 10 2 2 1 11 7 2 1 2 13 13 15 12th Carlisle 10 3 0 2 9 8 2 0 3 8 15 15 13th Huddersfield 10 3 2 0 12 6 0 3 2 5 9 14 14th Birmingham 10 3 1 1 10 5 1 1 3 6 9 14 15th Norwich 10 2 1 2 8 8 2 0 3 6 9 13 16th W.B.A. 9 2 0 2 4 7 2 0 3 5 7 12 17th Bradford 10 2 0 3 5 5 1 2 2 3 6 11 18th Sunderland 9 3 1 1 10 6 0 1 3 3 11 11 19th Coventry 10 2 1 2 8 10 1 1 3 7 12 11 20th Tottenham 10 2 2 1 10 9 0 0 5 5 15 8 21st Oldham 10 2 1 2 7 7 0 0 5 3 11 7 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22nd Reading 10 2 0 3 10 9 0 0 5 5 14 6 23rd Chesterfield 10 1 1 3 9 12 0 1 4 4 11 5 24th Rochdale 10 1 1 3 9 10 0 0 5 2 16 4 ELSEWHERE IN FOOTBALL... Burnley's decision to sell top scorer Van Linh Tô to Kaiserslautern for just £1.3million turns out surprisingly well. The Clarets record five straight victories - including beating Middlesbrough 5-1 and Leeds 3-2 - to storm to the top of the Premiership. As for their UEFA Cup adventure… they, er, lose 2-0 to Lyon in Round 1. Manchester United make their biggest signing for six years, spending £13million on Nürnberg's holding midfielder Michael Essien. The Ghanaian international duly scores twice in a 3-2 comeback win over Crewe, with another recent United signing - England striker Chris Worthington - also finding the net. Roma's Champions League campaign is off to a weird start. After Sergio Zani's double sees off Belgian champions Lommel, the Giallorossi are humiliated 5-0 at Hajduk Split - with Mate Bilic scoring a hat-trick for the Croatian underdogs! Roma somehow bounce back to win 2-1 at the Olimpico against pre-tournament favourites Barcelona! The new Trond Sollied crew are off to a flyer in the Bundesliga, as 1.FC Köln win five of their first six matches, including a 2-0 victory over champions Dortmund. Local rivals Leverkusen have an even more impressive 100% record... despite being in 14th place! Thanks to European exploits and torrential weather, Die Werkself haven't played any league matches since beating Babelsberg 5-2 on the opening day on 10 August! Portuguese giants Sporting are looking for another new manager after Dong-Keun Lee is poached by Botafogo in Brazil. They eventually turn to a suave 50-year-old named José Mourinho, who proclaims himself "a special one" and points out that he won the 2012 Taça de Portugal with Beira-Mar. IN OTHER NEWS... Rockstar's action-adventure video game "Grand Theft Auto V" is released worldwide and becomes the fastest-selling entertainment product in history, raking in $1billion in just three days. While GTA 5 receives widespread critical acclaim, it is also criticised for its graphic violence, not to mention its misogynistic portrayal of women. Fresh from her antics at the VMAs, Miley Cyrus comes in like a “Wrecking Ball” on her new music video - in which she wears even fewer clothes! Liverpool fans soon start chanting the song in tribute to their new manager Alan Cork. Strewth! Australia has its third Prime Minister in the space of three months! Having ousted Julia Gillard as Labor leader in June, Kevin Rudd is himself removed from the premiership when a coalition led by Liberal rival Tony Abbott wins the federal election! Of course, such turmoil would never happen in the UK… After a two-year partnership, Microsoft pay over $7billion to buy Nokia’s mobile device business outright. As they might ask in Finland, “Mikä voisi mennä pieleen?”

SEPTEMBER 2013 Despite winning three of our first four league matches, it wouldn't be long before our latest promotion challenge hit its first snags. During the international break, skipper Florian Schneider felt a twinge in his calf while doing some exercises on the training ground. The 28-year-old German was found to have suffered a serious strain, which meant he would be out for around three to four weeks - and Arnar Guðmundsson would have to take over the captaincy in his absence. To make matters worse, Alan Stewart bruised his shin while on international duty with Scotland. He too would miss at least our next couple of matches. The first of those was at home to Oldham, who were playing in Division 1 for the first time since the 1996/1997 season. Andy Ritchie's Latics had endured a baptism of fire, picking up only one point and one goal in their opening four matches. 7 SEPTEMBER 2013: Fulham vs Oldham Athletic Peter Devlin's first chance to score came after 10 minutes, when he was denied by a parried save from Oldham's goalkeeping captain Michael Phillips. Devlin had better luck a dozen minutes later, blasting in an excellent left-wing cross by our stand-in skipper Arnar Guðmundsson. Oldham's front two then went on the offensive to try and restore parity. Darren Burgess' 26th-minute header was easily caught by Fulham keeper John Forde, though he did set up an opportunity for his partner Chris Gordon eight minutes later. The man whose 15-goal tally fired the Latics to promotion last season found the net for the first time in this campaign. Oldham were now hoping to head into break with the game still level at 1-1... but we had other ideas. Attacking midfield playmaker Daniel Cooke showed great vision to pick out Devlin in the Latics box, and the Irishman fired home to restore our advantage! We had 67% possession in the first half - and although Oldham enjoyed a fairer share of the ball after the break, we looked more likely to enhance our lead than lose it. Our best chances came midway through the half, when Guðmundsson and Wayne Cable were each denied by Phillips. It was a fairly quiet afternoon for Forde at the other end, and so we held on for a 2-1 win. Fulham - 2 (Devlin 22,45) Oldham Athletic - 1 (Gordon 34) Division 1, Attendance 14,035 - POSITIONS: Fulham 1st, Oldham 21st FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Gibson (Simpson), Mitchell, Hill, Guðmundsson; Numme, Weber; Iversen (Disler), Cooke, McIntyre (Cable); Devlin. While I was a little annoyed that we hadn't won more convincingly, it really didn't matter. For the first time since the 2007/2008 season, Fulham fans could proudly sing that their team was top of Division 1! One player who'd been particularly impressive for us so far was centre-back Peter Mitchell. Premiership leaders Burnley had taken a keen interest in the Scot, offering us £1.4million to sign him. We still had close to £10million in our bank balance, so I felt no pressure to sell Peter. Despite the obvious success our 4-2-3-1 was having, I decided to try a slightly more cautious approach at Chesterfield. It remained to be seen whether the gamble would pay off, as the Spireites were still trying to find their feet under new manager Paul Bracewell after parting company with Bryan Robson late last season. 11 SEPTEMBER 2013: Chesterfield vs Fulham Chesterfield were now captained by my former Kidderminster centre-back Tobias Redhe... but it was one of his defensive colleagues who broke the deadlock after 19 minutes. Saltergate erupted when 19-year-old local lad Simon Piper enhanced his growing reputation by smashing home an inswinging corner from Spireites stalwart Chris Carruthers. There was a sense of negativity in the Fulham team now, and the hosts sensed more blood. Wing-back Michael Cobb had a great chance for 2-0 saved by John Forde in the 35th minute, while Iranian veteran Ali Karimi fired wide another opportunity shortly afterwards. We only trailed by one goal at half-time, but something clearly had to change. After a slow start to the second half, I eventually reverted to our usual 4-2-3-1 formation for the last half-hour. Within moments, Peter Devlin had a shot saved by Chesterfield keeper Jörg Hamann - a missed opportunity that he would rue in the 69th minute. Lars Iver Strand had scored 91 goals in three-and-a-bit seasons at Saltergate, and he delighted the home fans with a curling shot that went in off the bar. At 2-0 down, the game was surely over... and it could well have been if Strand's strike in the 75th minute hadn't clipped the post. Three minutes later, however, it was game on again. A fantastic solo goal from substitute winger Jordan Hall - who started his career at Chesterfield - gave us what appeared to be a way back into the match. Then, with four minutes to go, Hamann made a costly mistake. The 21-year-old German thought he was a sweeper keeper as he carried the ball out of his box and tried to play a through-ball deep into our half. However, Wayne Cable jumped high to intercept it, nodding it on for Daniel Cooke to fire into an unguarded net! From a perilous position, we had somehow clawed a point back! Chesterfield - 2 (Piper 19, Strand 69) Fulham - 2 (Hall 78, Cooke 86) Division 1, Attendance 5,976 - POSITIONS: Chesterfield 22nd, Fulham 4th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-1-4-1 Attacking): Forde; Friberg, Mitchell, Hill, Guðmundsson; Weber (Numme); Cooke, Disler (Hall); Iversen (Ryan), Cable; Devlin. Hands up, guys. I got my tactics wrong at the start of the game. If our attackers hadn't turned it on in the closing stages, I would have looked like a proper clown. Despite throwing top spot away, we were still in a good position heading into our next home game against Wolves. Our visitors had started the season well but also had a very leaky defence, which presented Peter Devlin with a great opportunity to add to his goal haul. 14 SEPTEMBER 2013: Fulham vs Wolverhampton Wanderers Jordan Hall's goalscoring cameo at Chesterfield was rewarded with a first start of the season. The skilful 29-year-old almost got an assist after just four minutes, but Alan Stewart fired his cross off target. Wolves then gave us a few scares. John Forde had to get his fingertips to a particularly tricky header from striker Markus Kvarneå in the 11th minute. Forde was soundly beaten by a fierce long-ranger from visiting captain Luke Ellis two minutes later, but the winger's shot cannoned off the bar and back into play. Former Bayern München forward Claudio Pizarro also missed a great opportunity for Wanderers. The Wolves crossbar then took a couple of hits in the 34th minute - both from Stewart, who simply couldn't believe that he hadn't scored. Another chance went begging just before half-time, when the Scotsman's header was caught by Wolves number 1 Craig Barnett. There was more end-to-end stuff early in the second half, as Wolves winger Danny Coid and Fulham frontman Peter Devlin were both denied by opposing goalkeepers. Things then died down somewhat, though Frank Yallop's side did have one more chance to silence Craven Cottage 11 minutes from time. Pizarro's speculative shot from 25 yards didn't catch out Forde, whose goalkeeping - combined with some great defending from Clint Hill and Peter Mitchell - kept the scoreline at 0-0. Fulham - 0 Wolverhampton Wanderers - 0 Division 1, Attendance 16,878 - POSITIONS: Fulham 4th, Wolves 3rd FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Grant, Mitchell, Hill, Guðmundsson; Numme (Heikkinen), Weber; Stewart (McIntyre), Cooke, Hall (Cable); Devlin. BOOKED: Numme. Guys... I think that was the best goalless draw I've ever watched! We would probably have fallen apart in this situation a year or two ago, so I'll definitely take a point! Meanwhile, another Fulham player was attracting interest, with Charlton making an £800,000 bid for teenage defensive midfielder Henning Numme. [Scoff] Come on, fellas. You know he's worth more than that... Schneider returned to light training a week later, but he wasn't quite fit enough to feature at Moss Rose against Macclesfield. The Silkmen were back in Division 1 after winning the Division 2 title under Geraint Williams (who, incidentally, is now at Charlton). New boss Dave Watson had got off to a decent start, as they sat in 8th place. 21 SEPTEMBER 2013: Macclesfield Town vs Fulham Peter Devlin might not have scored in our previous two games, but our lucky Irish charm wouldn't be denied here. Just five minutes into the game, Devlin used his explosive pace to take Christian Weber's through-ball past Macclesfield defender John Paul Potter before tapping it into the bottom corner. Unfortunately, Arnar Guðmundsson sustained a dead leg in the build-up to Devlin's goal and had to be replaced, with Peter Mitchell taking up the captaincy. Thankfully, that didn't disrupt our rhythm too much. Another brilliant assist from Weber was fired home by winger Jordan Hall, and we were leading 2-0 inside nine minutes! The Silkmen finally woke up at that point, as their ex-Peterborough striker Francis Green drew a difficult save out of John Forde in the 23rd minute. Right-back Grant Gibson then cleared the danger, as we held our nerve to take a two-goal cushion into the break. Two minutes into the second half, we put the result beyond any reasonable doubt. Macc goalkeeper Geoffery Nijs was caught in no man's land as Alan Stewart flicked in a curled cross from Hall. As talented as young Wayne Cable is, he might well struggle to get back in the team if Jordan can keep this form up! Macclesfield threw everything at us to try and at least restore some respectability, if not complete an incredible fightback. They couldn't even get a single goal on the board, as John Forde produced one of his best performances in a Fulham goalkeeper's jersey. Two more saves from Green sent us on our way to another clean sheet... and back to the top of Division 1! Macclesfield Town - 0 Fulham - 3 (Devlin 5, Hall 9, Stewart 47) Division 1, Attendance 6,206 - POSITIONS: Macclesfield 10th, Fulham 1st FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Gibson, Mitchell, Hill, Guðmundsson (Simpson); Numme, Weber (Heikkinen); Stewart, Iversen, Hall (Cable); Devlin. BOOKED: Hill. Guðmundsson's injury in the opening stages ruled him out of our next match at Aston Villa. Though Schneider was still not quite at 100% fitness, I gambled on him and hoped he would inspire us to another big early-season victory. 25 SEPTEMBER 2013: Aston Villa vs Fulham The atmosphere at Villa Park was electric, and things only heated up in the 19th minute. Aston Villa goalkeeper Mark Goodlad didn't live up to his name when he brought down Alan Stewart in the area, prompting the referee to point to the penalty spot! A mini-scuffle then ensued, in which Fulham defender Clint Hill appeared to kick out at Villa striker Peter Crouch. Once things had calmed down, the referee resisted calls from both teams to bring out the red card - instead issuing yellows to both Goodlad and Hill. Clint's near-namesake Jordan Hall then came forward to take the penalty, and he sent Goodlad the wrong way to score his third goal in four matches! As Villa's other frontman Gary Doherty wasted a couple of equalising chances, Crouch was preoccupied with continuing his feud with Hill. The giraffe-man eventually lost his cool and pushed our Scouse centre-back to the ground, but somehow escaped with only a booking. Fulham midfielder Christian Weber would also see yellow before the end of a feisty first half. The Villans set out to rescue the game early in the second half - and when attacking midfielder Jimmy Moran headed in a left-wing cross from Jeff Smith in the 48th minute, it looked like the momentum had shifted towards then. But barely a minute later, Peter Devlin took the ball upfield and restored our lead in double-quick time! The battle of Villa Park then intensified further, as both teams had penalty claims waved away. The referee also found time to give out a fifth yellow card - this one to our young winger Atle Iversen, who shoved Villans midfielder Stephen Richards in the 56th minute. Iversen was swiftly replaced with Daniel Cooke, who effectively sealed victory for Fulham in the 76th minute. A lobbed ball set up Devlin to put a second goal past his former club, and he revelled in the jeers of those Villa supporters who used to cheer him. While we celebrated another three points, the hosts' miserable afternoon ended with a knee injury to defender James Evans. Aston Villa - 1 (Moran 48) Fulham - 3 (Hall pen19, Devlin 49,76) Division 1, Attendance 37,333 - POSITIONS: Aston Villa 8th, Fulham 2nd FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Gibson, Mitchell, Hill, Simpson (Magnusson); Schneider, Weber (Numme); Stewart, Iversen (Cooke), Hall; Devlin. BOOKED: Hill, Weber, Iversen. That's 8 goals and 2 assists for Devlin already this season! I bet Aston Villa are regretting letting him leave on the cheap now! In other news, reserve right-back Dave Taylor completed a £100,000 transfer to Doncaster. The 23-year-old hadn't kicked on since coming through the Cottagers academy in 2009, so he will be hoping for a fresh start in Yorkshire. We were soon back in London for an intriguing derby match at White Hart Lane. You might remember that Tottenham lost the Playoff Final 3-2 to Notts County, having been 2-0 ahead after just 15 minutes. That horrific collapse seemed to be affecting the Spurs players in the early stages of this season, as they'd won just twice in nine matches. 28 SEPTEMBER 2013: Tottenham Hotspur vs Fulham After the first nine minutes of this match, the 'battle of Villa Park' was looking more like a playground fight. The referee at White Hart Lane had to issue three yellow cards early on - two to Spurs players, and one to Clint Hill, whose aggressive tackling once again drew an official's ire. Incredibly, there wouldn't be any more bookings thereafter. John Forde was the busier goalkeeper in the first half, as he produced several saves to frustrate Spurs. He was eventually beaten in the 31st minute, as home captain Ian Stewart drove in a cool low strike after latching onto a flick-on from... Mark Smith, the former Fulham youngster. Yep. Steve McClaren's side slowed down in the second half and tried to protect their narrow lead against a barrage of Fulham attacks. Goalkeeper Johan Koopman and defender Peter Clark resisted as much as they could... but after hitting the crossbar in the 59th minute, Peter Devlin eventually broke through in the 60th. One-all! Tottenham lost their right wing-back Stuart Roberts to a knee injury just before Devlin's equaliser, but they didn't lose hope of restoring their lead. After 65 minutes, Nigeria midfielder Chris Obodo did precisely that, catching Forde off guard with a hopeful shot from distance. Two minutes later, though, we were on level terms once again. Christian Weber's third assist in as many matches was a sublime long ball into the area for Devlin, who volleyed in a landmark goal. Devlin's 10th goal of the season was also the 50th of his Fulham career - and it only took him 76 matches to reach that milestone! Unfortunately, there would be no Devlin hat-trick. There would be no late winner for Fulham either, as a promising header from Alan Stewart in the 81st minute was caught by Koopman. Despite having 13 shots on target compared to Tottenham's 7, we felt a little aggrieved to leave North London with only a 2-2 draw... but hey, at least we didn't lose. Tottenham Hotspur - 2 (Stewart 31, Obodo 65) Fulham - 2 (Devlin 60,67) Division 1, Attendance 36,238 - POSITIONS: Tottenham 20th, Fulham 4th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Gibson (Friberg), Mitchell, Hill, Simpson; Numme (Weber), Schneider; Stewart, Cooke, Hall (Cable); Devlin. BOOKED: Hill. We're now unbeaten in nine league matches since the disappointment of the opening weekend. That is partly down to the determined defending shown by Clint Hill... but the Scouser's aggression has come at a cost. After picking up his fifth booking of the season, Clint will have to serve a one-match ban once we return from the next international break. But to further underline how great our start has been... remember that Preston team who outclassed us 2-0 in that season opener? Well, they're now three points clear at the top of the table!

DIVISION 1 TABLE (End of August 2013) Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Norwich 4 1 1 0 3 1 2 0 0 5 3 10 2nd Macclesfield 4 2 0 0 5 1 1 0 1 5 3 9 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Wolves 4 2 0 0 6 3 1 0 1 3 3 9 4th Preston 4 2 0 0 4 1 1 0 1 3 4 9 5th Fulham 4 2 0 0 3 1 1 0 1 3 3 9 6th Aston Villa 4 2 0 0 2 0 1 0 1 3 4 9 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th Nottm Forest 4 1 1 0 4 1 1 0 1 3 1 7 8th West Ham 4 2 0 0 4 0 0 1 1 0 1 7 9th Huddersfield 4 2 0 0 7 3 0 1 1 2 4 7 10th Gillingham 4 2 0 0 5 2 0 1 1 0 1 7 11th W.B.A. 3 1 0 0 2 1 1 0 1 4 5 6 12th Grimsby 4 2 0 0 3 1 0 0 2 2 4 6 13th Carlisle 4 1 0 1 4 4 1 0 1 3 6 6 14th Charlton 4 1 1 0 5 3 0 1 1 4 5 5 15th Sunderland 3 1 1 0 4 3 0 1 0 1 1 5 16th Bradford 4 1 0 1 2 1 0 2 0 1 1 5 17th Coventry 4 0 1 1 3 6 1 1 0 4 3 5 18th Birmingham 4 1 1 0 4 0 0 0 2 1 3 4 19th Man City 4 1 1 0 8 4 0 0 2 4 7 4 20th Tottenham 4 1 0 1 5 5 0 0 2 2 7 3 21st Oldham 4 0 1 1 1 2 0 0 2 0 4 1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22nd Reading 4 0 0 2 2 5 0 0 2 3 6 0 23rd Chesterfield 4 0 0 2 2 6 0 0 2 2 5 0 24th Rochdale 4 0 0 2 2 4 0 0 2 0 6 0 ELSEWHERE IN FOOTBALL... France midfielder Francis Leclerc makes an instant impact at Chelsea after joining Jean Tigana's Premiership champions from Nîmes for £7.5million. The 29-year-old sets up two goals for Thomas Kahlenberg in the Blues' 3-0 Community Shield win over Arsenal, with Nihat also on target. Former champions Leeds make a slow start to the Premiership campaign, losing their opening three games to Manchester United, Arsenal and Ipswich. The Whites are clearly reeling from the summer departures of Mark van Bommel, Lee Bowyer and Michael Bridges. Not to worry, though, as Peter Ridsdale smashes his piggy bank open and spends a combined £17.75million on West Ham's Dave Nugent and Stoke's Jermain Defoe! Serie A holders Lazio announce the £15million signing of 23-year-old Italy striker Salvatore Annunziata, who got 23 goals and 15 assists for Porto last season. Meanwhile, arch-rivals Roma's season gets off to a chaotic start, as goalkeeper Andrea Guidi forgets his gloves before the Giallorossi fall to a 5-3 defeat at Milan! Milan miss out on the Champions League group phase, as Spartak Moscow overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit in the qualifiers. Liverpool are knocked out by Belgian Pro League runners-up RWDM, while Aberdeen cannot repeat last season's heroics after losing on away goals to Hajduk Split. The Croatians' victory is inspired by two assists from an unheralded 27-year-old midfielder called Luka Modric. Holland are the first European giants to qualify for the World Cup, as Sander Emanuelson's strike in Slovakia ensures that the Oranje easily win their group. 2010 runners-up Wales can now only hope for a play-off place, but they are held to a 0-0 draw in Armenia after Blackburn's teenage full-back Andrew Martin is sent off on his debut. IN OTHER NEWS... Former child star Miley Cyrus steals the show at the MTV Video Music Awards. The 20-year-old takes off her clothes and ‘twerks’ her backside towards R&B lothario Robin Thicke while he performs "Blurred Lines". Stay classy. That was the life that was. The British TV presenter, journalist, writer and President-botherer Sir David Frost - whose remarkable career lasted over 50 years - dies at the age of 74. Frost suffers a fatal heart attack while on board the MS Queen Elizabeth in the Mediterranean Sea. Alex Rodriguez - one of baseball’s biggest stars - is banned for 211 games after obtaining performance-enhancing drugs from the Biogenesis lab. The New York Yankees ace will effectively miss the entire 2014 Major League Baseball season. 25,000 students apply to attend the University of Liberia in western Africa… and every single one fails the entrance exam. One unsuccessful applicant says, “This is tougher to get into than the FMS Hall of Fame!”

AUGUST 2013 The new Football League season was barely a week away, and we were still one player short of my ideal squad. I was still in the market for a left-footed central defender. Then, at long last, it seemed that I had found my guy. 34-year-old Neil Clement was a free agent, having just been released by West Brom after making over 500 appearances in 14 years at The Hawthorns. His vast experience at this level would be priceless, so I offered him a two-year contract worth around £12,500 per week. We still faced a fierce battle to secure his signature, as several other clubs were also interested in him, including Rochdale, Macclesfield and top-flight Southampton. While we awaited Clement's decision, we turned our attention to a tricky friendly match against Premiership regulars - and 2011 FA Cup winners - Ipswich. George Burley was about to begin his 20th season as manager of the Tractor Boys. 3 AUGUST 2013: Fulham vs Ipswich Town This match pitted us against arguably the best young goalkeeper in England - Ross Fenton, who was already established as Ipswich's first-choice shotstopper at just 18 years of age. Fenton withstood a couple of shots from Peter Devlin, while his team-mates also had a few attempts at our goal. Then José Luis Márquez came off the bench to once again make his mark. The 19-year-old Spaniard found the net from Daniel Cooke's cross in the 75th minute, only to be flagged offside. Four minutes later, though, Márquez beat Fenton again - and his header from Christian Weber's long ball did count this time! The Tractor Boys had been stopped in their tracks! Fulham - 1 (Márquez 79) Ipswich Town - 0 Friendly, Attendance 4,421 FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde (Hudson); Edwards (Gibson), Ifil (Friberg), Mitchell, Guðmundsson (Simpson); Disler (Heikkinen), Schneider (Weber); Iversen (McIntyre), Cooke, Cable (Hall); Devlin (Márquez). BOOKED: Weber. After two goals in as many friendlies, it looked like José Luis Márquez was emerging as a real star of the future! Of course, it was a concern that neither Peter Devlin nor Alan Stewart had yet scored in pre-season. They would have one more chance to get off the mark when we headed to Essex for a midweek clash with Canvey Island. The Gulls made their Football League debut last season, but finished bottom of Division 3 and were relegated straight back to the Conference. 6 AUGUST 2013: Canvey Island vs Fulham This was more of a struggle than it perhaps should have been. Jordan Hall suffered a thigh strain in the early stages of a frustrating first half in which we had several shots at goal. Only one of them found the net - and that was a fluke from attacking midfielder Daniel Cooke, whose attempted cross to Alan Stewart in the 35th minute flew straight into the net! Peter Devlin opened his account 11 minutes into the second half to double our lead... at least until John Clarke scored an immediate reply for Canvey. Thankfully, reserve Jamie Davey soon put the result beyond doubt with our third goal of the night. Canvey Island - 1 (Clarke 57) Fulham - 3 (Cooke 35, Devlin 56, Davey 67) Friendly, Attendance 1,267 FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Hudson (Price); Gibson (Edwards), Friberg (Lynch), Ifil, Simpson (Magnusson); Weber (Disler), Heikkinen (Ryan); Stewart, Cooke (Iversen), Hall (Sturridge); Devlin (Davey). BOOKED: Heikkinen. Six games, five wins... and just that one defeat against the reigning Premiership champions. Based purely on results, that is probably the best pre-season campaign I've ever had as a manager! Most of our players looked sharp, fit, and in form. The only two issues were on the left wing, where Jordan Hall was ruled out for 10 days with a thigh injury, and Derek McIntyre was struggling to shift some excess weight he'd put on in the off-season. Lay off the tattie scones, Del boy. Annoyingly, Clement still hadn't made a decision about his future by the weekend. That meant we headed to Deepdale with Peter Mitchell and Jerel Ifil as our starting centrre-backs. I suppose they're both solid defenders, if not consistent ones. I expected a tricky start to the season against Preston, who were among only three teams to beat us at home in the league this season. Indeed, David Moyes' boys had a very strong record against us overall - in six meetings since I became Fulham manager, we had yet to win a single one. 10 AUGUST 2013: Preston North End vs Fulham We couldn't afford a slow start against one of our bogey teams, but that was exactly what happened. Preston came out attacking almost instantly, firing a barrage of shots in towards John Forde. John bravely withstood most of them, including a couple from Jamie Berry, but it was only a matter of time before the Lilywhites broke through. That time was in the 28th minute. Preston's attacking midfielder Mika Väyrynen took full advantage of a momentary lapse in concentration from the Fulham defence, playing a smart ball through to the onrushing Stephen Ferguson, who fired home. We just couldn't get our game up and running in the first half, and things would soon get worse early in the second. Three minutes after the restart, Preston won a corner. Right-back John King's delivery was headed goalwards by winger Dave Marsh, and Forde could only parry it to the feet of Dean Stevens, leaving the hosts' homegrown centre-back with a simple finish. Though Peter Devlin did have two shots on target, it was a frustrating afternoon's work for our number 9, who ended it with a yellow card before being replaced by league debutant José Luis Márquez. Wide forward Alan Stewart also went into the book, and his only shot didn't get anywhere near the goal. The less said about this, the better. Preston North End - 2 (Ferguson 28, Stevens 48) Fulham - 0 Division 1, Attendance 22,060 - POSITIONS: Preston 5th, Fulham 20th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Gibson (Friberg), Ifil, Mitchell, Guðmundsson; Weber, Schneider; Stewart, Cooke, Cable (Iversen); Devlin (Márquez). BOOKED: Cooke, Devlin, Stewart. That was a difficult opener to watch; we were simply outclassed from start to finish. But that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I persist with John Forde. Even when John is sulking about wanting to leave, he can still turn up and produce a brilliant goalkeeping performance to keep the scoreline respectable. There was more bad news 24 hours later, as Neil Clement informed us that he would not be joining Fulham. After weighing up several offers, the former West Brom defender decided to sign for... er, West Brom. I had a feeling Neil would say no, so I had already lined up an alternative signing. 34-year-old Clint Hill was a veteran of over 500 Football League matches for the likes of Tranmere, Blackburn, Millwall and Birmingham, and the burly Liverpudlian centre-back joined us on a free transfer following his release from Bolton. And yes, he is left-footed! Hill went straight into the starting line-up for our first home game of the season against newly-relegated Nottingham Forest, who'd opened up with a 4-1 towelling of Tottenham. There was also a surprise recall for Wayne Hudson... ...and that was because Forde was AWOL from training on Friday morning. John at least had the balls to apologise this time, but his bad behaviour wouldn't be tolerated. Wayne was back in the Fulham goal, ready to make it his own once again. 17 AUGUST 2013: Fulham vs Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest had the first scoring opportunity after 13 minutes. Captain Andy Reid played a clever flick-on from Tonton Zola Moukoko's cross, but 18-year-old striker Brian Steer couldn't quite steer it on target. The former Shrewsbury youngster was put under constant pressure by our new man Clint Hill, though Clint later picked up a yellow card for tripping Steer. The first half had been a bit quiet for us on the attacking front, but that all changed six minutes before the break. Henning Numme continued to make a name for himself in defensive midfield as he chipped a long ball to Wayne Cable on the edge of Forest's penalty area. Cable tried an audacious volley from out wide - and it caught goalkeeper Matthew Ramsey completely off guard, breaking the deadlock in style! The second period started badly for the visitors, who lost their centre-back Peter Oakes to an ankle injury in the 54th minute. Though our defence had its own issues in terms of performance, the Tricky Trees could only find the target with two of their 10 shots - and both of those were well saved by Wayne Hudson. Thankfully, Numme and captain Florian Schneider gave our struggling backline just enough protection to keep a clean sheet. Fulham - 1 (Cable 39) Nottingham Forest - 0 Division 1, Attendance 20,760 - POSITIONS: Fulham 15th, Nottm Forest 9th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Hudson; Gibson (Edwards), Mitchell, Hill (Heikkinen), Guðmundsson; Numme, Schneider; Stewart, Cooke (Disler), Cable; Devlin. BOOKED: Hill. Not the prettiest performance, but an encouraging result against one of the better teams in the league. And with Hudson keeping a clean sheet, Forde had better think twice before he decides to pull another sickie! We then played host to Division 2 mid-tablers Leyton Orient in Round 1 of the League Cup. In each of the last two seasons, we had been taken to penalties by lower-league teams at this stage of the competition - losing once and winning once. Could we make lighter work of Orient this time? 20 AUGUST 2013: Fulham vs Leyton Orient Er... no. We once again struggled to break down weaker, more defensive opposition. It wasn't until the 42nd minute that our Norwegian starlets eventually found a way through, as Henning Numme's incisive pass was headed in by winger Atle Iversen. After the break, though, the pendulum swung Leyton Orient's way. Scottish centre-back Graham Guy gave Wayne Hudson a major scare from long range in the 56th minute. Guy was involved in another great chance in the 77th minute, when his free-kick into the box found Shaun Berry. The substitute striker flicked it past Hudson, and we were pegged back to 1-1. Though Florian Schneider and Arnar Guðmundsson came on to try and inspire us for the closing stages, the match was slipping way from us. The Craven Cottage crowd held their collective breaths when Orient attacked again in stoppage time. Former Sheffield United forward Neil Eaton tried a volley from just inside the penalty area, but Hudson's parry ensured that we would take the game to extra-time. Alan Stewart replaced a misfiring Peter Devlin up front for the next 30 minutes, but a wayward overhead kick was the only shot that the Scot could muster. Then, in the 115th minute, Clint Hill's clumsy challenge on Eaton gave Leyton Orient another free-kick in a dangerous position. Berry scored once again - this time from midfielder James Graham's delivery - and consigned us to yet another humiliating early cup exit. Fulham - 1 (Iversen 42) Leyton Orient - 2 (Berry 77,115) [after extra-time] League Cup Round 1, Attendance 12,127 FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Hudson; Friberg, Ifil, Hill, Simpson (Guðmundsson); Numme (Schneider), Weber; Iversen, Disler, McIntyre; Devlin (Stewart). BOOKED: Simpson, Numme. Meanwhile, reserve defender Seán Lynch went on loan to Cheltenham for the season. The Robins are flying high at the top of the Conference, so the 19-year-old Irishman has clearly joined a good team who can hopefully help him kick on. Next up was an away trip to Reading, who'd recently celebrated back-to-back promotions after winning the Division 2 play-offs. The Royals had started the season with a couple of narrow defeats, but we knew that they had several quality players... including my former Dagenham and Kidderminster midfielder Ryan Carter, who was now 27 and in the prime of his career. 24 AUGUST 2013: Reading vs Fulham After starting the season with three blanks, Peter Devlin was determined to get off the mark at the Madejski Stadium. He first found the net in the 15th minute, but was flagged offside. Two minutes later, though, the flag stayed down as Devlin latched onto Alan Stewart's square ball to break his duck! We almost doubled our lead on 32 minutes, but Wayne Cable's daisy-cutter was brilliantly stopped by Reading keeper James Jowsey. Eight minutes later, the Royals launched a devastating counter-strike. An excellent team move involving seven different outfield players ended with striker and captain Andy Lewis prodding the ball home, and the game was back in the balance. The second half kicked off with a wayward shot in the 49th minute from our attacking midfielder Daniel Cooke, who was struggling to replicate the excellent form he'd shown last season. Devlin still had some rust to shake off too... but 10 minutes from half-time, the Irishman was back to his best. Peter dribbled past Royals midfielder James Jeffrey and left-back Paul Robinson before beating Jowsey to restore our lead. Seven minutes later, victory was secured. Reading playmaker Ryan Carter saw his header intercepted by his old Kidderminster club-mate Terry Simpson, who kicked off a counter-attack that ended with Devlin completing his hat-trick! It was Peter's second league treble for the Cottagers - and I doubt it'll be his last! Reading - 1 (Lewis 40) Fulham - 3 (Devlin 17,80,87) Division 1, Attendance 20,832 - POSITIONS: Reading 22nd, Fulham 6th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Gibson, Ifil, Hill, Guðmundsson; Schneider, Numme (Weber); Stewart, Cooke, Cable (McIntyre); Devlin. Fulham are in the play-off places! That's a sight for sore eyes! Unfortunately, Jerel Ifil was certainly feeling plenty of soreness in his ankle. The experienced centre-back was ruled out for the next three weeks with an ankle sprain, which he picked up in the closing stages. Our last match of the opening month was at home to the team who sat immediately below us in the table. In fact, Grimsby were only outside the top six because of alphabetical order - both teams had the exact same record of 2 wins, 1 loss, 4 goals scored, 3 conceded, and 6 points! 26 AUGUST 2013: Fulham vs Grimsby Town After his hat-trick heroics in Berkshire, Peter Devlin played a support role this time around. 10 minutes into the match, the 25-year-old striker held up the ball brilliantly in Grimsby's penalty area before squaring it to an unmarked Florian Schneider, allowing our captain to open his account for the season! Our joy was short-lived, as Grimsby's captain Jonathan Rowan scored his first goal of the campaign after 23 minutes. The 31-year-old - who was capped once by England when the Mariners were in the Premiership last season - outjumped Clint Hill to head home from left-back Christopher Jackson's whipped free-kick. Incidentally, was Rowan's 200th senior goal for his hometown club - in his 501st appearance. Grimsby never threatened to complete the comeback, as a toe injury to teenage winger Simon Taylor seriously weakened their attacking threat. Roy Evans' side instead switched to a defensive approach - and with Emile Baron making a series of fantastic saves in the Town goal, it looked like it would pay off. Then, in the 64th minute, came the turning point. After receiving a yellow card early in the first half, Mariners right-back John Thompson collected another when he clattered into Daniel Cooke. The Irish international was off, and we now had nearly half an hour to score against men. We would only need nine more minutes. A couple of Scotsmen combined to breach Grimsby's defence for a second time, as Peter Mitchell's long ball was headed in by Alan Stewart, who also got on the scoresheet for the first time this season! Mitchell's assist - along with his consistently brilliant tackling - saw him named 'man of the match', but it was a calm and controlled team performance that got us over the line here. Fulham - 2 (Schneider 10, Stewart 73) Grimsby Town - 1 (Rowan 23) Division 1, Attendance 20,743 - POSITIONS: Fulham 5th, Grimsby 12th FULHAM LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Forde; Gibson, Mitchell, Hill (Simpson), Guðmundsson (Simpson); Schneider, Weber; Stewart (Iversen), Cooke, Cable (Hall); Devlin. BOOKED: Hill. Three wins from our first four league games. That's the best start we've had since I took over. Could this be the season we finally get promoted?

I searched to see if this had been reported before, but I didn't see that. Thanks for letting me know.

Fulham squad - Start of 2013/2014 season GOALKEEPERS 1. Wayne Hudson - GK, age 28, English Hudson has lost the captaincy and his starting place, but not his self-belief. The determined sweeper keeper has a great attitude and will be keen to bounce back. 13. John Forde - GK, age 24, Irish [6 caps] Forde's agility, ball-handling and intelligence makes him a great goalkeeper... when he's happy. Sadly, we had a huge row in March, and he's been eager to leave ever since. DEFENDERS 2. Grant Gibson - D R, age 24, Scottish [capped at Under-21s level] Academy alumnus Gibson returns to Fulham after four years in his native Scotland. The right-back is brave, has outstanding passing skills, and is defensively responsible. 3. Terry Simpson - D L, age 25, English Simpson is a solid professional, even if he isn't a regular starter for me. The tough-tackling former Kidderminster left-back particularly relishes big games. 4. Markus Heikkinen - D/DM C, age 34, Finnish [24 caps, 2 goals] Heikkinen is in his second and probably last season at the Cottage. This hard-working defensive stalwart may soon be overtaken by younger talents. 5. Jerel Ifil - D C, age 31, Saint Lucian [14 caps] Ifil only made 10 appearances last season because of injuries and erratic form. The big, burly Londoner realises that he needs to step up or ship out. 12. Peter Mitchell - D C, age 27, Scottish [capped at Under-21s level] Mitchell has become an understated but consistent presence in the heart of our defence. No Fulham player started more games than the ball-playing defender last term. 15. Arnar Guðmundsson - SW/D/DM RLC, age 24, Icelandic [28 caps, 1 goal] Guðmundsson was underwhelming last season, providing only two assists. I expect more drive and hunger from this undoubtedly talented wing-back. 22. Halldór Magnusson - D LC, age 21, Icelandic [capped at Under-21s level] I'm afraid Magnusson has also been a disappointment of late. He has plenty of energy and is a brave defender, but his inconsistency is frustrating. 26. Thomas Friberg - D RC, age 21, Swedish Friberg is a clever right-back with potential, but he's been rather slow to show it. I want to see him work on his athleticism to reach that next level. 30. Graham Edwards - D R, age 20, English Local lad Edwards has also shown some promise on the right and is always striving to improve. He's still some way off being a reliable start, but he's getting there. MIDFIELDERS 6. Florian Schneider - DM LC, age 28, German [capped at B level] Schneider is our defensive midfield rock, and he's only got better since becoming captain. Fulham fans have fallen in love with their set-piece-loving Teutonic knight. 7. Atle Iversen - AM RC, age 19, Norwegian Iversen netted 4 goals in 11 games last term, and a major breakthrough may not be too far. What he lacks in pace, he makes up for with his intelligence and technique. 8. Daniel Cooke - AM/F RLC, age 22, English Cooke joins us permanently after a productive loan from West Ham. He can be an explosive and creative presence anywhere across the attacking positions. 11. Jordan Hall - AM/F L, age 29, English Hall is an unpredictable inside-forward to say the least. His acceleration and silky dribbling are powerful weapons, but can he produce the goods often enough? 14. Christian Weber - SW/DM C, age 28, Austrian [1 cap] I'm intrigued by Weber, who looks like a powerful and skilful libero but is also a rugged ball-winner. Can the former Tirol Innsbruck star settle quickly? 16. Adrian Disler - M C, age 21, Swiss [capped at Under-21s level] Disler is an ambitious midfielder who has impressed in fits and starts. For all the skill he shows on the ball, does he also have the game to unlock stubborn defences? 19. Henning Numme - DM C, age 19, Norwegian [capped at Under-21s level] Numme is well on the way to becoming a top-class midfielder. The flamboyant long-shot lover helped himself to five assists last term, and there's surely more to come. 21. Wayne Cable - AM L, age 19, Welsh [capped at Under-21s level] Despite his tender years, Cable is now part of the Fulham furniture. The left-wing wizard will surely be coveted by bigger clubs if we don't get promoted this season. FORWARDS 9. Peter Devlin - S C, age 25, Irish [capped at B level] Aggressive frontman Devlin really has turned into a master poacher. His 29 goals last term were the most by a Fulham player in a single season since the 1950s. 10. Alan Stewart - F RC, age 29, Scottish [14 caps, 1 goal] Ex-Livingston goal machine Stewart will admit it took him a while to settle into the Cottage. Thankfully, he now provides regular goal contributions from the right wing. 29. Derek McIntyre - F LC, age 18, Scottish Pacey leftie McIntyre has emerged as one of our brightest young talents. He scored in his first two senior games and is now steadily working towards long-term success. RESERVES GOALKEEPERS: John Johnson (15), Craig Price (18) DEFENDERS: Kári Hansen (17), Gary Hogg (19), Seán Lynch (19), Stephen Richardson (22), Dave Taylor (23), Steven Weir (19) MIDFIELDERS: Chris McDonald (20), Colm Ryan (20), Phil Sturridge (18) FORWARDS: Jamie Davey (22), José Luis Márquez (19), Douglas McNeil (19, on loan at Slough)