With 2018 well underway and as we creep into March it’s time to look back at February and assess how Fulham performed.
It would be difficult to find a fan who disagrees that February has been a very good month for Fulham, continuing our unbeaten run, climbing the table and showing play-off rivals why we should be a team to be feared. Fulham’s record for February ended at 3-2-0 (W-D-L), with a total of 8 goals scored versus 2 conceded.
February results in full are as follows; Fulham 2-0 Notts Forest, Bolton 1-1 Fulham, Fulham 2-0 Aston Villa, Bristol city 1-1 Fulham, Fulham 2-0 Wolves.
Our top scorer for February was shared between Mitrovic and Sessegnon with two goals apiece. Mitrovic has shown exactly what we hoped he could bring to the mix, dynamic hold-up play, combined with a strong work-ethic has transformed the Fulham front line from one that as part of a system could cause damage against opposing teams to a front line that needs to be feared and respected in equal measures. His solo goal against Wolves showed how he operates and with 3 months of football left to play, he could be the man to lead Fulham to the Premier League.
Our top scorer for the season remains Ryan Sessegnon with 13 goals, six clear of the nearest challenger which is Aboubakar Kamara. Fulham’s top assist provider of the season is Ryan Fredericks, a stat which seems to go unnoticed by many and a player who has drastically improved his defence capabilities over the course of the season, coinciding with the excellent form of Tim Ream, the American has really transformed himself from a flop of a signing to one of the first names on the team sheet.
As a result of Fulham’s oddly reliable defensive performances recently the team has kept five clean sheets in the last eight home games with three coming in the month of February alone. This is an unusual but enjoyable experience and is one of the major reasons we have been able to keep our unbeaten run extending.
The most impressive performance of the month is a close-call between the Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers games, luckily for Fulham, arguably the best players at both of the above clubs were unavailable for our contests with them but the way with which we professionally dismantled the pair has made many pay attention to little old Fulham. The most important result, however, was undoubtedly the Aston Villa game, we held them back and prevented them gaining ground on us in the race for the top-seeded play-off places or possibly even the second automatic promotion spot, all while looking comfortable doing so.
Overall the month of February was a very good month for Fulham, the only result that can cause disappointment realistically is the 1-1 draw away to Bolton Wanderers, however, only an Adam Le Fondre wonder goal pegged us back. A clear understanding is being developed by the back four and McDonald and the lack of goals conceded reflects that. A solid February has set us up nicely for a strong March however it won’t be easy. Fulham face away trips to Pride Park, Deepdale and Carrow Road to face-off against Derby, Preston and Norwich respectively while Sheffield United and QPR visit the Cottage with the latter being on Sky Sports. If Fulham are able to continue their great vein of form and pull through March unbeaten then it certainly isn’t unfeasible to imagine us challenging for that second place come the start of April. I personally believe Fulham will come out of March with a very respectable 3-1-1 (W-D-L) record and a strong place in the playoffs.
