Our next class trip was a Saturday afternoon at Craven Cottage to watch Fulham play Hull City. Our day started with a tour of Craven Cottage, where our first stop was the 110-year-old press stand.
This is the view of the pitch from the stand. We then headed over to the historical cottage itself, but unfortunately we were not able to go in. The entrance to the dressing room is below, and the friends and family of Fulham players get to watch the matches from prime seats on the porch.
Next, we headed onto the pitch toward the team seats. Here is the bench area, as well as the view from the team seats.
Behind the stand was the riverside area of the ground. Along the Thames, there were food booths and the entrances to several VIP boxes. The area underneath the riverside stand also held the Brian McBride bar, named after the former Fulham captain and United States star.
McBride was one of several American players for the club, including current players Tim Ream and Emerson Hyndman, who featured in starting and substitute roles, respectively. Inside the bar were McBride’s cleats and jersey.
After a break for lunch in the area around Craven Cottage, we returned for the 3:00pm kickoff. We were seated in the Fulham section and their supporters were lively and very vocal. The quality of the players was noticeably worse than the Premier League matches that we have watched, but the atmosphere of the match more than made up for it. The game started with a fair amount of attacking from both sides, but neither team could convert their chances. As the match went on, the chances dwindled as Fulham started playing safer football. However, this would prove to backfire in the 80th minute when Hull’s Abel Hernandez converted a penalty into the bottom left corner to put Hull City up 1-0, despite Fulham keeper Andy Lonergan getting a hand to the ball. Fulham’s defensive strategy proved to backfire, as the game would end without another goal. Here is a photo from BBC Sport of the penalty.
Fulham fans were still very supportive of their team at the end of the match as they put a valiant effort. We returned to Ability Towers on the tube after a lovely day at Craven Cottage.
– Joey, Owen, Adi, Brandt, Ian
