Click HERE to rate the performances of the players who played at Fulham.
Let us remind ourselves that in their last match Fulham lost 6-0 to Hull. We scored after 7 minutes. And then…
This is what I tweeted after 44 minutes of the match…
What on earth was he thinking? This was only his second match after coming back from a three match ban having been sent off against Liverpool for another needless attack on a Liverpool player. As a 31 year old and as team captain, should he not know better?
That tweet got a massive reaction and was retweeted several hundred times. And this was on my normal twitter feed – @IainDale -, not just my West Ham one – @IainDaleWestHam. Many people are calling for him to be stripped of the captaincy and even for him never to play for the club again.
That reaction is understandable not least because this was a game we should have won, even with a makeshift side. Credit to the players for the way they rallied in the second half, but the fact remains that we remain second from bottom.
There are of course also calls again for Sam Allardyce to be sacked. We are told that he is the best man to get us out of our difficulties, but the fact is, he is the manager who put us there in the first place. If you want to sack a manager you have to be pretty sure there is someone better out there to put in his place. Remember what happened when Terry Brown got rid of Harry Redknapp? We ended up with Glen Roeder. I don’t see an obvious replacement out there, much as though I’d like there to be.
Kevin Nolan should be fined the maximum amount possible and be publicly rebuked by his manager. He should issue a televised abject apology and the captaincy should now be transferred to Mark Noble. Except that it seems Mark will now be out for a while too, having picked up a calf injury. This season just gets worse and worse…
UPDATE: Watch Sam Allardyce’s post match interview with Sky. He labels Nolan “irresponsible to say the very least”.