The All-American showdown went to Landon Donovan, Tim Howard and Everton.

Donovan came up with two assists to guide the Toffees to a 2-1, come-from-behind victory over Clint Dempsey's Fulham at Goodison Park in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Friday.

Donovan hit summer acquisition Denis Stracqualursi with a pinpoint left-footed cross from the right in the 27th minute, and the Argentine headed it past Fulham goalkeeper David Stockdale to pull Everton level at 1-1.

By Alan Duffy

Fulham 5-2 Newcastle United Premier League 21 January 2012

"I gave a free-kick against you because I hate you and your big head of lovely big hair"

Newcastle were always going to face their biggest test when the Africa Cup Of Nations robbed them of two of their star performers this season, Demba Ba and Cheik Tioté, and judging on today's result, the Magpies could face a difficult month.

Venue: Craven Cottage, London. Date: Sat 21st Jan, 2011. Kick-Off: 3:00 pm. Referee: Lee Mason (Lancs). If ever you want to see a textbook example of "a game of two halves", get the DVD of this game. though personally, it's a video horror show I'll be steering clear of. United went into this game sitting [.

This morning, Clint Dempsey became the first American to score a hat trick in the Premier League, leading Fulham to a come-from-behind 5-2 win over Newcastle at Craven Cottage. Danny Guthrie put Newcastle on top with a goal from distance in the 42nd minute, but Fulham's Danny Murphy converted a penalty kick following a foul by Davide Santon against Damien Duff in the 50th minute to tie the match
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By Alan Duffy

Blackburn Rovers 3-1 Fulham Premier League 14th January 2012

Steve Kean watched his side produce a superb battling performance at Ewood Park on Saturday, a performance which ultimately moved Blackburn out of the relegation zone for the first time since September.

Clint Dempsey had the standout performance for National Teamers Abroad over the weekend, scoring three times as Fulham advanced 4-0 over Charlton Athletic in the FA Cup. Playing at home, Dempsey had Fulham's first goal eight minutes in, adding a second in the 61st and converting an 81st minute penalty to finish off the hat-trick.

In a day of very few shocks, two Premier League sides Bolton and Wigan were surprised by lower league opponents in the 3rd round of the FA Cup.

Wigan's troubled season took another turn for the worse as they crashed out 2-1 too League Two side Swindon Town. Calum McManaman had put Wigan 1-0 up but Swindon, managed by Italian Paolo Di Canio, struck back to claim a famous win with goals coming from Alan Connell and Paul Benson.

Will need to step up tonight

What a wonderful night of football yesterday was, if only for the one game which mattered. Nicklas Bendtner did us no favour as he squandered an early chance to put his team ahead but Sunderland won it right at the death to beat Roberto Mancini's Manchester City.

Of all the issues that's been plaguing this club for years (age, changing of managers, the Michael Jackson statue) one that has been overlooked, or brought up and then seemingly forgotten whenever we go after the next shiny new transfer acquisition, is lack of speed from the wings.

Now, that's different from creativity from the wings.

A big one in Europa League today for Americans to watch.

No, not Tottenham.

Wisla Krakow is nipping at the Cottagers heals. A win for Krakow and loss for Fulham rules Damien Duff's dudes out of Europa.

While American media will be all over Dempsey playing at home after eating at the Swansea gaffe-ateria, Nigerian Peter Utaka is a proficient "B movie" European striker with 99 goals in 246 club matches in his career.

Most people hate him now after his Chelsea own goal but i still love the big Norweigan!...Liverpool make the long trip down to Fulham for a Monday night fixture this week. The Reds have just come off the back of a 2-0 win over Chelsea in the League Cup and are in fighting form at the moment.

Trip To Craven Cottage

Most people hate him now after his Chelsea own goal but i still love the big Norweigan!... Liverpool make the long trip down to Fulham for a Monday night fixture this week. The Reds have just come off the back of a 2-0 win over Chelsea in the League Cup and are in fighting form at the moment.

Liverpool visit Craven Cottage tomorrow and a Fulham side that's struggled to piece together any sort of positive results domestically, winning only twice thus far on the season. They've got nearly identical records home and away, with their first and only win at home coming in early October.

FULHAM v Liverpool: Damien Duff provides major concern for Martin Jol after limping off mid-week

Damien Duff looks doubtful for Fulham's Barclays Premier League encounter with Liverpool on Monday.

View the full story here: The Mail

A news article on 2011-12-02 11:06:27 from: The Mail

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Fulham winger Damien Duff doubtful for Liverpool clash

Martin Jol revealed Damien Duff is set to miss Monday night's Premier League clash with Liverpool after he limped off during Fulham's 1-0 Europa League Group K defeat to FC Twente.

View the full story here: The Mail

A news article on 2011-12-02 00:36:29 from: The Mail

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Following the International break, we are back in the full swing of club football with Arsenal playing their third game in a week; what with City on Tues, Wigan on Saturday and Olympiakos the following Tues, we are busy. Long may it remain thus because it means we are in all competitions.

Today brings Martin Jol's Fulham to the Emirates.

While Abou Diaby and Tomas Rosicky look to have been confirmed as available for the Gunners, Fulham Arsenal's opponents on Saturday evening have far more significant injury concerns. Republic of Ireland international Damien Duff is out of the clash at the Emirates with a calf problem and countryman Stephen Kelly's groin injury keeps [.

Come on Robin be honest, you can't dribble past 4 players can you?

One more match before the return of Samir Na$ri to the Grove. Not as if Arsene Wenger sees Manchester City as any kind of a threat. Such is the confidence of the team at the moment, the manager looks to put his second string side to face the league leader.

I think we all agree that the Chelsea job isn't exactly a bed of roses based on the levels of expectation put on you as manager. You would imagine that only the most confident, determined and focused managers would even entertain the idea of taking the hot seat here and a task of taking the club out of the shadows of the Jose Mourinho era at the club.

Arseblog has teamed up with Thomas Cook Sport, official travel partner of Arsenal, to provide two pairs of tickets for this Saturday's game against Fulham.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply answer the following question:

Which current Fulham midfielder started his football career at Arsenal?

Ireland confirmed their place at next summer's European Championships with a 1-1 draw against Estonia in the second leg of their Euro 2012 play-off.
Already four up from the first leg, Ireland looked to be coasting when Stephen Ward fired home the opener after keeper Pavel Londak failed to hold Kevin Doyle's header.

Sing it, Damien Fulham winger Damien Duff didn't get a copy of the memo passed around the Republic of Ireland camp today that said they were not doing their sideways national anthem routine ahead of this evening's Euro 2012 qualification play-off against Estonia. Conveniently positioned at the end of the line-up and with his eyes [.

Stephen Kelly is out of Ireland's Euro 2012 play-off decider against Estonia on Tuesday night at Landsowne Road.
The Fulham defender has been ruled out with a groin injury, although John O'Shea has recovered from a hamstring problem and is likely to slot into the right-back position.

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On this week's report we focus on the four play-off ties that will decide the last four spots in next summer's European Championship finals in Poland and Ukraine.

Middlesbrough forward Tarmo Kink has acknowledged the depth of the Ireland team that arrived in Estonia for the first leg of the Euro 2012 qualification playoff between the two nations but has singled out Spartak Moscow's Aiden McGeady as the biggest threat.

Kink, who has scored four times in 22 appearances for his Championship outfit, is wary of other seasoned Irish performers such as the Los Angeles Galaxy's Robbie Keane and Fulham's Damien Duff but admits that the 25-year old McGeady is the one striking fear in Estonian hearts.

By Alan Duffy

Stoke City 2-0 Fulham Premier League 15 October 2011

After an utterly dismal first half, this game came to life (ish) in the second-half, with the home side eventually securing a deserved 2-0 win.

The Cottagers are usually rubbish on the road, so cranky Dutch boss Martin Jol won't be too disappointed with the result.

Simon Cox will start in attack alongside Kevin Doyle for Ireland in tomorrow's vital Euro 2012 qualifier with Armenia in the Aviva Stadium. It was widely expected that in-form West Brom striker Shane Long would partner doyle, in the event of Robbie Keane failing his fitness battle.
Stephen Kelly comes in for the suspended Stephen Ward.

Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni has named his team for Friday's Euro 2012 Group 2 qualifier with Andorra.
John O'Shea replaces Stephen Kelly with Sean St Ledger coming in for the suspended Richard Dunne from Ireland's last game in Russia.
Trapattoni has resisted the temptation to bring Keith Fahey into the midfield after he hinted at using the Birmingham midfielder in training earlier this week.

True or False: Damien Duff did not complete a single pass in the second half on Sunday.

Okay, that's a trick question. He didn't even attempt one.

Here is yesterday's passing chart. I don't know if the Guardian staffer fell asleep or it really was that atrocious.

What may be worse than the sheer lack of passes is where three of the four completed outfield passes went to: behind and to his left.

This seems to have flown under the radar a bit with all the hand-wringing about Sunday, but our squad for the Europa League group stages has been announced. Not too many surprises, except one.

Goalies
1 Mark Schwarzer
22 Csaba Somogyi
38 Neil Etheridge*
41 Marcus Bettinelli*
44 Jesse Joronen*

Defenders
2 Stephen Kelly
3 John Arne Riise
5 Brede Hangeland
6 Chris Baird
14 Philippe Senderos
18 Aaron Hughes
26 Zdenek Grygera
28 Matthew Briggs*
39 Stephen Arthurworrey*
40 Alex Smith*

Midfielders
4 Steve Sidwell
10 Pajtim Kasami
13 Danny Murphy
15 Marcel Gecov
16 Damien Duff
20 Dickson Etuhu
21 Kerim Frei
23 Clint Dempsey
37 Courtney Harris*
43 Josh Pritchard*

Forwards
8 Andrew Johnson
9 Orlando Sá
25 Bobby Zamora
30 Moussa Dembélé
35 Richard Peniket*
42 Marcello Trotta*

No, the surprise is not Ruiz.

Ireland boss Giovanni Trapattoni has rewarded Shane Long for his strong start to the season at West Brom with a starting place for tomorrow's vital European Championship qualifier against Slovakia, with Kevin Doyle the player to miss out.
Kevin Kilbane has failed to recover from a back injury and will return to Derby County this afternoon.

Its easy on transfer deadline day to only focus on the acquisitions made on transfer deadline day. It's almost as if all the other summer signings are suddenly forgotten about, like how the newest toy immediately replaces all the others in their heart.

Well, let's ignore that and gauge our summer acquisitions in full.

Chelsea's Juan Mata sparked on his debut game for Andre Villas-Boas' team by scoring a fine goal against Norwich City last weekend, the Spaniard's fine contribution on that game gave plenty praises from many people including his teammate, Frank Lampard.

The Blues' vice captain saw glimpse of Arjen Robben and Damien Duff in the way Mata plays especially with the ex-Valencia player's ability to deliver telling crosses as well as playing on two football, which have been something that Lampard's miss for a while.

August is the month in the football calendar for untrammelled optimism, and most pre-season predictions for their team this season were less than flattering, but the supporters of Wolverhampton Wanderers will finish the second weekend of the season with something of a smile on their face as they look at a league table that sees their team in second place on the Premier League table after a comfortable win against Fulham at Molineux this afternoon.

Quick Reminder, Real Life An odd season at Fulham saw them lose their very successful manager to Liverpool where he was a flop. His replacement managed them to a very solid 8th place finish in the standings with no reason to expect that it was either a fluke or that a huge regression was coming but then he left too.

Well who knows? Did we do well to see off a lively side, or struggle to beat an average one?

Without really working the RNK keeper, Fulham were in the ascendency early on. The returning Clint Dempsey looked quite sprightly, and was combining nicely with John Arne Riise on the left. Zamora and Johnson were buzzing around.

[UPDATE! Rich weighted the data according to playing time! See below]

[UPDATE ii- just moved this up as I think it's worth a look and don't want it buried under the Split stuff. Interesting that when we pro-rate age for playing time you've got an almost absurdly consistent line upwards.

Piggybacking off Rich's post from the other day, I've been looking at the average age of our squad over the years. Remember learning mean, median, and mode, along with standard deviation from math class? Well, it's back Fulham style!

We all know that the side is in some (not dire) need of youth, and that our stalwarts aren't just getting older, they're nearing the end of their careers I for one would not be surprised to see Danny Murphy and Damien Duff hang up their boots after this season.

A nice enough evening stroll for the men in white. It wasn't especially pretty or effective, but a 7-1 aggregate win is emphatic enough.

The goals were all fairly routine and made us wonder why there weren't more of them. For 1-0 AJ slipped through, and calmly finished, for 2-0 Senderos sent Duff scampering clear, and he calmly finished, then Zamora scored at the far post to make it three, then Sidwell overcame a serious case of finishing yips to make it four.

Faroe Play Fulham kick off season 2011-12 is a post from: Just Football

It's 7pm on June 30th, precisely one month after Swansea's play-off final triumph over Reading heralded the close of the season. Hoards of football fans flow out of Putney Bridge station, some adorned with white shirts, some carrying beers, but all looking distinctly out of season.