Fulham FC — Fulham v Southampton — 6 January 2018

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The Captain

Tom Cairney

W

e couldn’t have

started 2018 much

better than we did

against Ipswich on Tuesday

evening.

Despite finding ourselves 1-

down at half-time, it was quite

a positive teamtalk at the break.

The gaffer just told us he wanted

more of the same as we’d played

well in the first half apart from

putting the ball in the back of the

net. We talked about not giving

them too many set-pieces as

they’d won a few wide free-kicks

in the first half, which was silly

from us, and we’d been punished

from one of them.

The red card for Jordan Spence

was obviously one of the main

talking points but I thought it was

the correct decision. It was just

a moment of madness from him,

he saw red and lashed out - you

can’t do that. It changed the game

in that we could attack them even

more and take more risks, but I

felt we’d always been on top.

Aboubakar Kamara now has four

goals in his last two games and

I’m delighted for him. No matter

what league you play in and no

matter how good defenders are, if

you’re a lot quicker and stronger

then it’s hard to stop. And there

aren’t many quicker and stronger

than him!

He’s now getting in good

positions and, not only that, his

general play has been excellent

these last few weeks. Hopefully he

can continue this run and keep us

climbing up the league.

That’s four home wins in a row

now, which we’re really pleased

about after struggling at the

Cottage in the early part of the

season. You aren’t going to do

anything in any league unless

your home form is good and

we’ve set ourselves up well for a

strong 2018.

We’re looking forward to facing

Premier League opposition in

Southampton today. The FA Cup

is always a special competition

and one of my favourites. I

got to a Quarter-Final Replay

against Liverpool when I was at

Blackburn in 2015 so I was one

game from Wembley.

I think it’s good for the fans to

see a top-flight team come to the

Cottage and nice for us to measure

ourselves against very good

players. People say that the FA

Cup isn’t Southampton’s priority

but they could play a strong side

today in order to end their recent

poor run. They won’t want to

lose to a lower-league team so I’m

expecting a tough match.

Enjoy the game,

Tom Cairney, Captain.

The skipper is delighted with Fulham’s recent home form...

THE CAPTAIN

“You aren’t going to do

anything in any league

unless your home form

is good and we’ve set

ourselves up well for

a strong 2018”

THE CAPTAIN

Tom Cairney

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