Fulham FC — Fulham v Southampton — 6 January 2018

36 The Official Fulham FC Matchday Programme

up their end of the bargain, with a

crowd of 17,000 turning up for the

midweek encounter, something

rarely seen today.

“The Premier League is such a

money-maker now that teams

often put out weakened sides,”

states Neilson. “They say it’s a

squad game, but in my opinion,

teams should try and win every

match, build their confidence

and put their best sides out. If

you said to a kid, ‘You’ll get to the

FA Cup Final at Wembley’, they’d

all want that.”

Neilson lined up as left-back in

a defence that included Coleman,

Symons and Steve Finnan, but

it was striker Barry Hayles

who took the headlines after

his 85th-minute strike put the

Whites in the hat for the Fourth

Round. “We paid £2m for Barry

and I think he’d admit that when

he first arrived he was a bit

overawed,” Neilson muses. “But

he’s still playing now. When you

build a successful team you need

all the right characters and we

had him, Sean Davis, Steve, who’s

a good friend of mine, Maik, who

I speak to regularly - we had

some great times.”

The intervening two

decades have seen Fulham

and Southampton embark on

contrasting journeys, but Neilson

believes it won’t be long until the

Whites join Saints back in the

big time. “Both clubs have great

academies and have top young

players coming through,” says

Alan. “It’s just getting harder

to get in the top flight and stay

there. There are three leagues

within the Premier League - the

top, middle and bottom thirds.

A lot of teams that get promoted

just want to finish 17th. Even the

middle third get drawn into the

relegation scrap.”

Fulham famously went on to

beat Aston Villa at Villa Park in

Round Four, before bowing out

of the competition with a 1-0

loss to Manchester United at Old

Trafford. Domestically, however,

the Whites would go on to win

Division Two with a record 101

points. Injury limited Neilson to

just four league appearances, and

though he got on the scoresheet

with a rare goal against Luton

Town at home in October, the fact

it was in a 3-1 loss summed up his

luck that season. Despite that, he

remains upbeat.

“I remember all my goals,” he

smiles. “It was a header from

about six yards. I’d love to say

they were all 30-yard blasts, but

I think they all came to a total

of about 30 yards! I still say now

to my players, ‘It doesn’t matter

where you score from, it’s still a

digit on your stats.’”

While Fulham were firmly in

the ascendance during Alan’s

four-year stay at Craven Cottage,

it’s safe to say that wasn’t the case

at The Dell. He remembers several

last-day hair-raisers. “In my first

season at the club we played

“I remember all my

goals. l think they all

came to a toal of about

30 yards! Bu i’s still

a digi on your stas”

FFC-034-Ex-File-Southampton.indd 36 04/01/2018 12:14