It's a game of 2
halves...and of 2 players - Diao and Alonso. And it's been a while
we came back fm 2 goals down.
1st half began poorly for both teams; but slowly, Fulham began to
take control. Our passings were poor, if not sloppy! Frankly, the
whole team was sloppy... but it was Diao who "stood up" for his
numerous bad passes, one of which cost us the 1st goal.
The 2nd goal started fm a mix-up b/w him and Hamann...both going
for the same player n ended up tackling each other to the grd. By
now, the Reds were dis-spirited and counting the minutes to the
1/2.
Thank goodness our prayers were answered in the 2nd-H. Alonso came
on n the whole team looked fired-up. Lady luck blessed us with our
early 1st goal. A hit and hope attempt by Baros was deflected by a
defender and flew beyond the reach of the so-far reliable Van de
Sar.
Our saviour then created the 2nd with a great cross fm the left.
Garcia headed attempt was parried by the goalie only 4 Baros to
react 1st and hit it home. By then, we knew we cld go for the kill.
This was h/r dampened, albeit temporarily, by Josemi's 2nd yellow n
sending off.
The 3rd goal came almost immediately fm a free-kick. Alonso's
curling attempt was helped by a wicked deflection fm a Fulham
player and flew in the top-left-corner. It's another stroke of
luck...but we deserved it for pushing forward!
The last and sweetest goal might be late but by then, we were quite
sure of the points. Biscan came on with less than a minute of
added-time. Good work fm Cisse who won the ball in the middle and
raced upfield. Another sub - Warnock played a part by laying the
ball back to Biscan who surprised everyone including the goalie by
slicing it goal-wards...n the rest is history!
While the 1st-H was best forgotten, it was a spirirted display by
the team in the 2nd-H. We were still going forward even when we
were 1-man down; the win was thoroughly deserved and the score
cld've been better if Alonso had converted a free-sitter after his
free-kick-goal. Nevertheless, he's easily the best player of the
nite...n more importantly, he has given us much hope for the
future! 
