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Opinion

What Fulham fans have had to say about playing Newcastle first game

8 years ago
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The eagerly anticipated release of the Championship fixtures at last arrived on Wednesday morning, with Fulham fans set to welcome Newcastle in their opening match.

It was nailed on that Newcastle would be chosen for Live TV but to move it to Friday night was a slap in the face for those travelling to the game from Tyneside.

Fulham really struggled last season and ended up fifth bottom of the Championship, with a lot of unrest at Craven Cottage maybe the best time to play them?

On the other hand, Fulham fans have seen their team win the last five games at home to Newcastle so it hasn’t been the happiest of away grounds.

It is now four years since Hatem Ben Arfa inspired Newcastle to their last opening day success, a 2-1 win over Tottenham at St James Park.

To gauge the reaction of Fulham fans as they await Newcastle’s visit, we visited two of their most popular message boards – Friends of Fulham and Fulham Web:

‘Why the hell has our first fixture of the season, against one of the ‘must see’ sides, been scheduled for a Friday evening in the middle of Summer? What was wrong with the following day, a good old fashioned 3pm kick off.’

‘Don’t really matter. Newcastle will stuff us because they’ve got a settled squad and we haven’t even begun to assemble a team.’

‘Plenty of Geordies resident in London, but those on Tyneside haven’t got a chance of getting back home after the game. And a lot of Fulham fans I suspect have better things to do on a Friday evening.’

‘Very ANNOYING indeed!!!Anyone with school kids and lucky enough to afford a (well deserved) summer break, like myself, will miss this biggest match of the season! I’d prefer old days when season starts in September…not beginning of August!’

‘Plenty of Geordies in London, not so many to come down, half of them already here.’

‘Yes, a good hiding awaits opening night at this rate. We’d better have the chequebook wide open for month of July or we are in trouble.’

‘Not worried in the slightest about playing Newcastle 1st up, best time to play them, they will be in as much turmoil as us, they will be expecting the Championship to be easy, most of their players will be either linked with other clubs in the Prem or gone already, only thing I am worried about is will we have 11 players at the club to get a team out??

‘I don’t think it is the best time to play Newcastle at all…they will be flying to get a good start…and they will probably keep hold of their best players until the end of August so it might be a different team in September. The best time to play them first would be about November when the championship might be beginning to take its toil.’

‘I’m not sure there a good time to play anybody. But perhaps, just maybe Newcastle might start the season a little complacent thinking, like we did, they are going to bounce straight back and give us a chance? Maybe, pretty please???’

‘Newcastle 1st game  – feel like we are 2 down already.’

‘That will be a huge test to how our season will go. If we beat them at home it will give us all a lot of hope.’

‘We won’t.’

‘Hoping for an outflux of players from Newcastle and they are still bonding as a team, we know ourselves this can take 2 years.’

‘As things stand the Newcastle team are going to be more familiar with each other than our team will be.  Still it’s a cracking start and the Geordies I work with are thrilled to bits.’

‘Mitrovic will be suspended which is good news, I imagine he will be a massive threat in this league so glad he isn’t playing.’

‘Wow what a start, no name bigger than Newcastle in the Championship and they must start as favourites to top the table.’

‘We should welcome them to the Championship by kicking them off the park.’

‘Judging by the vox pops on Sky today, the Geordies seem to think it’s three points in the bag.  It would be good to acquaint them with the harsh realities of life in the Championship from the outset.’

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