As the Premier League season is nigh upon us, last night brings nary a pre-season game to report on. Fulham fought through torrential rain against FK Vetra in the 2nd leg of Europa League qualification, and Burnley continued last nights invasion of Scotland with a game away to Kilmarnock. Right then, let’s get into it…
Fulham started with an almost full strength side, the only notable omission being the injured Simon Davies. All of the regular faces lined up in an expected and familiar 4-4-2 formation: Schwarzer, Pantsil, Hughes, Hangeland, Konchesky, Gera, Etuhu, Murphy, Dempsey, Zamora & Andy Johnson. Despite qualifying for the Europa League, manager Roy Hodgson is quite obviously living within his means at Fulham, and such a small squad could be stretched to breaking point were their European adventure to continue.
And for the time being at least, the adventure is still very much on. Fulham followed their 3-0 away victory with an equally sound 3-0 home victory against the Lithuanian minnows. Unsurprisingly Fulham outclassed and out-powered a side of much lower calibre, most of the first half play was in the Vetra half and Andy Johnson went closest to breaking the deadlock when he hit the post with a nicely taken shot. The first goal came just before the hour mark when Dickson Etuhu scored a peach of a header from a Paul Konchesky corner. Andy Johnson soon followed with a brace of goals, scoring inside the six yard box from two left wing cut backs – Dempsey and substitute Eddie Johnson respectively providing the vital assists.
An altogether unsurprising result then, Fulham have now qualified for the Europa League proper and will now miss their Premier League fixture in gameweek 2 against Blackburn Rovers, making what was a somewhat murky affair now even murkier.
In the only other game of the night, Burnley ended up on the wrong end of a 1-0 loss to Kilmarnock thanks to an own goal from Clarke Carlisle. Owen Coyle put out a strong line-up, including the memorable faces of Jensen, Caldwell, Alexander, Elliott and new boy Steven Fletcher. The first half ran out an uneventful affair with barely an attempt worth noting, the second half brightened up and Fletcher was able to show some of his potential with a few attempts. It was all to be soured when Carlisle headed into his own net when under no pressure whatsoever. The only other point of interest in this match was new signing and Ecuadorian international Fernando Guerrero got a 20 minute run out towards the end of the game to begin his official stint at Burnley after impressing Owen Coyle while on trial in the Clarets recent trip to the US.
So not too much for us to ruminate on today, tonight will be an equally quiet affair with only Everton and Stoke in action. Let us make the most of these last quiet days before the season is well and truly upon us then.