Fulham started their extensive run of pre-season games with a trip to deepest Essex on Tuesday evening!
The opposition were Southend in a game that was always going to be more about fitness and physical exertion than tactics.
In front of a crowd of 3140 Fulham dominated proceedings and ran out worthy 2-0 winners.
Both goals came in the second half and in the space of a few minutes. The first came courtesy of Erik Nevland and the second from the left foot of Danny Murphy.
Fulham put out a strong starting eleven – David Stockdale, Moritz Volz, Paul Konchesky, Brede Hangeland, David Healy, Erik Nevland, Steven Davis, Jimmy Bullard, Simon Davies, Leon Andreasen, Chris Baird
And David Stockdale would have been grateful to have been given the nod between the sticks. The ex-Darlington youngster did well and received praise from Roy Hodgson in his post match interview, where Roy remarked,
“He did very well on Tuesday but he`s got a tough task to compete for the number one jersey,”
“To take the place of an experienced player like Mark Schwarzer won`t be easy but we saw enough on Tuesday night to know that we have signed a potentially good goal keeper. It wasn`t an easy match at Southend but we kept a clean sheet and he made two very good saves in the first half.”
And as for the game as a whole, Hodgson remarked,
“It was good workout for us on Tuesday night and Southend gave us a really good game.”
“It was a good competitive match so we got what we wanted in terms of fitness and in terms of giving the players some competitive football. It was our first serious game and we needed that before the matches we`ve got coming up.”
So, if our calculations are correct, that`s one down and ten to go!
Share this article
