2007–08 Fulham F.C. season

Fulham F.C.

2007–08 season
Manager	Lawrie Sanchez (until December) Roy Hodgson (from December)
Premier League	17th
FA Cup	Third round
League Cup	Third round
Top goalscorer	League: Clint Dempsey (6) All: Clint Dempsey, David Healy, Diomansy Kamara and Danny Murphy (6)
Highest home attendance	25,357 (vs. Chelsea, 1 January)
Lowest home attendance	10,500 (vs. Bolton Wanderers, 26 September)
Home colours Away colours
← 2006–07 2008–09 →

The 2007–08 season was Fulham F.C.'s seventh consecutive season in the Premier League. Lawrie Sanchez was in charge of the club for the first few months of the season after taking charge at the end of the previous campaign, but left the club by mutual consent in December 2007 after a string of poor results had sent Fulham sliding towards the relegation zone. He was replaced by ex-Finland national team coach Roy Hodgson, who had previously been in charge of fellow Premier League side Blackburn Rovers amongst many other clubs around Europe. Fulham managed to save themselves from relegation to the Championship with a 1–0 away win against Portsmouth at Fratton Park, their third-straight away victory, despite wins for relegation rivals Reading and Birmingham City, staying up on goal difference.^[1]

Season review

August

Fulham almost started the season off perfectly when they went ahead against Arsenal through a David Healy goal after one minute during the first weekend of the season, but Arsenal won the game in the last ten minutes with goals from Robin van Persie and Alexander Hleb. Fulham, however, did win their first home match of the season in a midweek match against Bolton Wanderers with goals from Healy and Alexey Smertin (later confirmed as a Gerald Cid own goal), having come from behind after ex-Fulham striker Heiðar Helguson's early goal. It would be several months before Fulham would experience another league victory.

In their third game of the season, Fulham again experienced a turnaround, but this time the scoreline went against them. They were 1–0 up against Middlesbrough – Brian McBride scoring before being carried off injured – but they could not hold on to their lead and lost 2–1. There was controversy about the result because, in the last minute, Healy had a clear goal not given as the referee or linesman could not see that the ball had crossed the line.

The final league game of the month was against Aston Villa; for a fourth game in succession, the team scoring the first goal failed to win. Fulham scored through Healy after six minutes, but two second half goals from former Fulham defender Zat Knight and Shaun Maloney gave Villa the victory.

September

After three agonising defeats in their first four games, Fulham felt that they deserved some luck; this came in the first game of September against Tottenham Hotspur. Younès Kaboul and Dimitar Berbatov had put Tottenham in cruise control with two first goals before Dempsey replied for Fulham just before half-time. Gareth Bale extended Tottenham's lead on 61 minutes to 3–1 but Fulham managed to snatch a draw. Alexey Smertin's 77th-minute goal (also confirmed as an own goal, this time by Ricardo Rocha) and Diomansy Kamara's bicycle kick in stoppage time gave Fulham a 3–3 draw.

In the next game, away to Wigan Athletic, it was the opposition that rescued the game late on. Dempsey gave Fulham the lead but Jason Koumas scored a penalty 10 minutes from time after Bouazza's foul on Mario Melchiot to give Wigan a point. Another two draws followed in September: firstly a 3–3 draw against Manchester City, throwing away a lead twice before having to eventually come from behind (Hameur Bouazza, Simon Davies and Danny Murphy scoring for Fulham, with the City goals coming from Martin Petrov and Émile Mpenza). They followed that up by holding Chelsea to a 0–0 at Stamford Bridge.

In the League Cup, Fulham suffered a 2–1 home defeat to Bolton.

October

Fulham started October with a home defeat against Portsmouth, through deflected strikes by Benjani and Hermann Hreiðarsson. A week later, against Derby County, Fulham had their second goalless draw of the season in a game of few chances, although in truth Derby could have snatched the win.

The final game of the month saw Fulham throw away yet another lead with a 1–1 draw against Sunderland. Simon Davies gave Fulham the lead in the first half and they held out until the 86th minute, when Kenwyne Jones was in the right place to score an equaliser for Sunderland.

November

Fulham started November with a 3–1 home victory against Reading. Simon Davies put Fulham in front after 18 minutes. Kevin Doyle equalised ten minutes after the break, but Fulham struck back with goals from Clint Dempsey and David Healy. Elliott Omozusi was sent off in injury time, in only his second appearance, for a second yellow card.^[2] Fulham were unlucky to lose in their next game away at Liverpool as Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard both scored in the last ten minutes for a 2–0 victory. It was very harsh on Fulham, who had resisted the Liverpool pressure for the majority of the game.^[3]

After the international break, Fulham drew 2–2 with Blackburn Rovers, having twice been in front through goals from Danny Murphy and Diomansy Kamara, only to be pegged back by Brett Emerton and Stephen Warnock.^[4]

December

December was a busy month, with matches crammed together at the end of the month. It turned out to be a very unsuccessful period for Fulham, as they took just two points from a possible 18.

January

A very bad start to the new year saw Fulham defeated by close rivals Chelsea 2–1 at Craven Cottage.

April

April started with a 3–1 defeat at home against Sunderland with second half goals from Danny Collins, Michael Chopra and Kenwyne Jones, even though Fulham had equalised through a brilliant David Healy goal from 30 yards out. Things improved the next week though as Fulham finally recorded their first away win since beating Newcastle United in September 2006, against Reading at the Madejski Stadium. Brian McBride and Erik Nevland scored the goals. It came as some relief to the long-suffering away support and put Fulham's survival bid back on track. However, Fulham then suffered a home defeat against an under-strength Liverpool side, Jermaine Pennant and Peter Crouch scoring for Liverpool. This defeat meant for most Fulham fans that relegation was looking almost certain; if results would not go their way the following week, then they could be relegated.

The following week, Fulham gained a priceless three points away to Manchester City to record their second successive away victory. After falling behind 2–0 in the first half, Fulham fought back from mathematical relegation to score three goals in the last twenty minutes, culminating with a 92nd-minute goal by Diomansy Kamara, his second of the game.

May

On 3 May, Fulham were able to pull themselves out of the drop zone as Reading lost to Tottenham, and Fulham earned a vital three points with a win against Birmingham, one point above Fulham in the league table. This sent Birmingham to 19th position and Reading to 18th position, as Fulham leapfrogged both to 17th position on goal difference. Fulham's Premier League survival was in their own hands going into the last game of the season; both Reading and Birmingham registered big wins, but Fulham survived on goal difference with a 1–0 victory away to Portsmouth.

First-team squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Kasey Keller 2 DF Moritz Volz 3 DF Carlos Bocanegra 4 DF Paul Konchesky 5 DF Philippe Christanval 6 DF Dejan Stefanović 7 MF Seol Ki-hyeon 8 MF Alexey Smertin 9 FW David Healy 10 FW Jari Litmanen 11 FW Diomansy Kamara[5] 12 GK Tony Warner[6] 13 GK Ricardo Batista 14 FW Eddie Johnson 15 FW Erik Nevland 16 MF Michael Timlin[7] 17 DF Paul Stalteri (on loan from Tottenham Hotspur) 18 DF Aaron Hughes

No. Position Player 20 FW Brian McBride (captain) 21 MF Jimmy Bullard 22 DF Elliott Omozusi 23 MF Clint Dempsey 24 FW Hameur Bouazza[8] 25 MF Simon Davies 26 MF Leon Andreasen 27 MF Danny Murphy 28 MF Robert Milsom 29 GK Antti Niemi 31 DF Adam Watts 32 DF Brede Hangeland[9] 33 DF Toni Kallio 34 DF Chris Baird 35 MF Simon Elliott 37 DF Adrian Leijer FW Collins John[10]

Transfers

Summer

In

Date	Pos.	Name	From	Fee
27 June 2007	DF	Aaron Hughes	Aston Villa	£1,000,000[11]
5 July 2007	MF	Steven Davis	Aston Villa	£4,000,000[12]
9 July 2007	FW	Diomansy Kamara	West Bromwich Albion	£6,000,000[13]
12 July 2007	DF	Chris Baird	Southampton	£3,035,000[14]
13 July 2007	FW	David Healy	Leeds United	£1,500,000[15]
13 July 2007	DF	Paul Konchesky	West Ham United	£3,250,000[16]
19 July 2007	MF	Lee Cook	QPR	£2,500,000[17]
4 August 2007	MF	Adrian Leijer	Melbourne Victory	Undisclosed[18]
8 August 2007	DF	Hameur Bouazza	Watford	£3,000,000
23 August 2007	GK	Kasey Keller	Borussia Mönchengladbach	Free[19]
30 August 2007	DF	Nathan Ashton	Unattached	Free[20]
31 August 2007	FW	Shefki Kuqi	Crystal Palace	Loan[21]
31 August 2007	MF	Danny Murphy	Tottenham Hotspur	Loan
31 August 2007	MF	Seol Ki-hyeon	Reading	Undisclosed[22]
31 August 2007	DF	Dejan Stefanović	Portsmouth	£1,000,000[23]

Out

Date	Pos.	Name	To	Fee
14 June 2007	GK	Mark Crossley	Oldham Athletic	Free[24]
1 July 2007	MF	Matthew Collins	Swansea City	Free
23 July 2007	FW	Heiðar Helguson	Bolton Wanderers	Undisclosed[25]
31 July 2007	MF	Michael Brown	Wigan Athletic	Undisclosed[26]
3 August 2007	DF	Franck Queudrue	Birmingham City	£2,000,000[27]
29 August 2007	DF	Zat Knight	Aston Villa	£3,500,000[28]
31 August 2007	MF	Papa Bouba Diop	Portsmouth	Undisclosed[29]
31 August 2007	DF	Liam Rosenior	Reading	Undisclosed

Winter

In

Date	Pos.	Name	From	Fee
18 January 2008	DF	Brede Hangeland	Copenhagen	Undisclosed[30]
22 January 2008	DF	Leon Andreasen	Werder Bremen	Undisclosed[31]
23 January 2008	FW	Eddie Johnson	Kansas City Wizards	Undisclosed[32]
31 January 2008	DF	Toni Kallio	Young Boys	Undisclosed[33]
31 January 2008	FW	Jari Litmanen	Malmö FF	Free
31 January 2008	DF	Paul Stalteri	Tottenham Hotspur	Loan

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 12 GK Tony Warner (on loan to Barnsley) 16 MF Michael Timlin (on loan to Swindon Town) 19 DF Ian Pearce (on loan to Southampton) 28 MF Robert Milsom (on loan to Brentford) 30 MF Wayne Brown (on loan to Brentford) 38 MF Nathan Ashton (on loan to Crystal Palace)

No. Position Player DF TJ Moncur (on loan to Bradford City) DF Gabriel Zakuani (on loan to Stoke City) MF Lee Cook (on loan to Charlton Athletic) MF Steven Davis (on loan to Rangers) FW Ismael Ehui (on loan to Carshalton Athletic) FW Björn Runström (on loan to 1. FC Kaiserslautern)

Club

Management

Position	Staff
Manager	Roy Hodgson
First-team coach	Ray Lewington
Goalkeeping coach	Mike Kelly
Reserve team coach	Billy McKinlay
Academy coach	Gary Brazil
Head of youth development	John Murtough
Physiotherapist	Jason Palmer
Club doctor	Steve Nance
Chief scout	John Marshall

Other information

Chairman	Mohamed Al Fayed
Managing director	David McNally
Technical director	Les Reed
Director	Omar Fayed
Director	Karim Fayed
Director	Mark Collins
Director	Stuart Benson
Commercial manager	Olly Dale
Commercial manager	Mark Maunders
Secretary	Zoe Ward
Ground (capacity and dimensions)	Craven Cottage (26,600 / 112x72 yards)

Source: Fulham article on 15 Aug 2007

Competitions

Overall

Competition	Started round	Current position / round	Final position / round	First match	Last match
Premier League	—	—	17	12 Aug 2007	11 May 2008
Football League Cup	2nd round	—	2nd round	28 Aug 2007	26 September 2007
FA Cup	3rd round	—	3rd round	6 Jan 2008	22 January 2008

Last updated: 11 May 2008
Source: Competitions

Premier League

Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Manchester United !Manchester United (C)	38	27	6	5	80	22	+58	87	2008–09 UEFA Champions LeagueGroup stage
2	Chelsea !Chelsea	38	25	10	3	65	26	+39	85
3	Arsenal !Arsenal	38	24	11	3	74	31	+43	83	2008–09 UEFA Champions League Third qualifying round
4	Liverpool !Liverpool	38	21	13	4	67	28	+39	76
5	Everton !Everton	38	19	8	11	55	33	+22	65	2008–09 UEFA Cup First round
6	Aston Villa !Aston Villa	38	16	12	10	71	51	+20	60	2008 UEFA Intertoto Cup Third round
7	Blackburn Rovers !Blackburn Rovers	38	15	13	10	50	48	+2	58
8	Portsmouth !Portsmouth	38	16	9	13	48	40	+8	57	2008–09 UEFA Cup First round
9	Manchester City !Manchester City	38	15	10	13	45	53	−8	55	2008 UEFA Intertoto Cup First round
10	West Ham United !West Ham United	38	13	10	15	42	50	−8	49
11	Tottenham Hotspur !Tottenham Hotspur	38	11	13	14	66	61	+5	46	2008–09 UEFA Cup First round
12	Newcastle United !Newcastle United	38	11	10	17	45	65	−20	43
13	Middlesbrough !Middlesbrough	38	10	12	16	43	53	−10	42
14	Wigan Athletic !Wigan Athletic	38	10	10	18	34	51	−17	40
15	Sunderland !Sunderland	38	11	6	21	36	59	−23	39
16	Bolton Wanderers !Bolton Wanderers	38	9	10	19	36	54	−18	37
17	Fulham !Fulham	38	8	12	18	38	60	−22	36
18	Reading !Reading	38	10	6	22	41	66	−25	36	Relegation to League Championship
19	Birmingham City !Birmingham City	38	8	11	19	46	62	−16	35
20	Derby County !Derby County	38	1	8	29	20	85	−65	11

Updated to games played on 5 May 2008.
Source: Barclays Premier League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
More about European qualification:
a. The 6th-placed team will qualify for the UEFA Cup if Portsmouth beat Cardiff City in the FA Cup Final and finish 5th;
b. The highest-placed team who applies for the Intertoto Cup and does not finish in an automatic UEFA Cup spot will be awarded with a place in the Intertoto Cup. Everton, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers and Manchester City are the applicants for the Intertoto Cup;^[34]
c. A further place in the UEFA Cup is available via the Premiership Fair Play League. The winner is placed into a draw with the winners of Fair Play leagues in other countries which score an average of over eight in Uefa Fair Play League except the top one will automatically receive one of the UEFA Cup berths. The representatives from the two countries that come out of the hat first are given a place in the UEFA Cup First Qualifying Round. If the team who finishes top of the Premiership Fair Play League has already qualified for Europe via the league, their place in the draw will be awarded to the next highest placed team in the Fair Play League who hasn't qualified for Europe;^[35]
For further information on European qualification see Premier League - Competition.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Results summary

Overall								Home						Away
Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
38	8	12	18	38	60	−22	36	5	5	9	22	31	−9	3	7	9	16	29	−13

Last updated: 11 May 2008.
Source: Barclays Premier League

Results by round

Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38
Ground	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	A	H	H	A	A	H	A	A	H	A	A	H	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	A	H	A
Result	L	W	L	L	D	D	D	D	L	D	D	W	L	D	L	L	L	D	L	D	L	L	L	D	W	L	L	L	D	W	L	D	L	W	L	W	W	W

Last updated: 11 May 2008.
Source: Competitive Matches
Ground: A = Away; H = Home. Result: D = Draw; L = Loss; W = Win; P = Postponed.

Matches

Pre-season

Premier League

League Cup

FA Cup

Squad statistics

No.	Pos.	Name	League		FA Cup		League Cup		Total		Discipline
			Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
1	GK	Kasey Keller	12	0	0	0	1	0	13	0	0	0
2	DF	Moritz Volz	5 (4)	0	2	0	1	0	8 (4)	0	1	1
3	DF	Carlos Bocanegra	18 (4)	1	2	0	2	0	22 (4)	0	5	0
4	DF	Paul Konchesky	32	0	2	0	2	0	36	0	5	1
5	DF	Philippe Christanval	0 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	0 (1)	0	0	0
6	DF	Zat Knight **	4	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	0	0
6	DF	Dejan Stefanović	13	0	2	0	0	0	15	0	4	1
7	MF	Seol Ki-hyeon	4 (8)	0	0 (2)	0	0 (1)	0	4 (11)	0	0	0
8	MF	Alexey Smertin	11 (4)	0	1	0	1	0	13 (4)	0	2	0
9	FW	David Healy	15 (15)	4	2	1	1 (1)	1	18 (16)	6	4	0
10	MF	Steven Davis *	22	0	0 (1)	0	2	0	24 (1)	0	2	0
11	FW	Diomansy Kamara	16 (11)	5	0	0	1 (1)	1	17 (12)	6	7	0
12	GK	Tony Warner *	3	0	1	0	1	0	5	0	1	0
14	MF	Papa Bouba Diop	0 (2)	0	0	0	0	0	0 (2)	0	0	0
14	FW	Shefki Kuqi **	3 (7)	0	0	0	0	0	3 (7)	0	0	0
14	FW	Eddie Johnson	4 (2)	0	0	0	0	0	4 (2)	0	0	0
15	FW	Collins John *	0 (2)	0	0	0	0 (1)	0	0 (3)	0	0	0
15	FW	Erik Nevland	2 (5)	2	0	0	0	0	2 (5)	2	1	0
17	DF	Paul Stalteri	12	0	0	0	0	0	12	0	3	0
18	DF	Aaron Hughes	28 (1)	0	1	0	1	0	30 (1)	0	0	0
19	DF	Ian Pearce *	0 (1)	0	0	0	1	0	1 (1)	0	1	0
20	FW	Brian McBride (c)	13 (3)	4	0	0	0	0	13 (3)	4	1	0
21	MF	Jimmy Bullard	14 (2)	2	1	0	0	0	15 (2)	2	0	0
22	DF	Elliott Omozusi	8	0	0	0	0 (1)	0	8 (1)	0	0	0
23	MF	Clint Dempsey	28 (6)	6	2	0	2	0	32 (6)	6	4	0
24	MF	Hameur Bouazza	15 (5)	1	1	0	1	0	17 (5)	1	1	1
25	MF	Simon Davies	35 (1)	5	1	0	2	0	38 (1)	5	6	0
26	MF	Leon Andreasen	9 (3)	0	0	0	0	0	9 (3)	0	2	1
27	MF	Danny Murphy	27 (5)	4	1	1	1	0	29 (5)	5	5	0
29	GK	Antti Niemi	22	0	1	0	0	0	23	0	0	0
30	MF	Wayne Brown *	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
32	DF	Brede Hangeland	14	0	0	0	0	0	14	0	1	0
34	DF	Chris Baird	17 (1)	0	1 (1)	0	1	0	19 (2)	0	2	1
38	DF	Nathan Ashton *	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0

As of 5 May 2008

• * Player is out on loan
• ** Player has left club

References

External links

• Fulham FC official website
• 2007-08 statistics on Soccerbase