Fulham F.C.

Fulham Football Club is a football team based in Fulham, London. Founded in 1879, they celebrated their 125th anniversary in 2004, and they are playing in the top tier of English football, the FA Premiership.

History

Foundation & The Amateur Years

Fulham Football Club started its existence as Fulham St Andrew's Church Sunday School FC in 1879. They won the West London Amateur Cup in 1887 and, having changed the name to 'Fulham' in 1888, the West London League in 1893 at the first attempt. They gained professional status on December 12 1898.

Related Topics:
1879 - 1888 - 1893 - Professional - December 12 - 1898

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They played in colours more akin to Arsenal F.C. in this era.

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Pre-1945

After turning professional, it was a number of years before Fulham gained admission to the professional league, which they did by winning the Southern League Championship in the 1906/07 season. Fulham's first ever match as a league side saw them losing 1-0 at home to Hull City in September 1907. The first win came four days later against Derby County, and when they eventually found their feet in the division they impressed, ending up only three points short of promotion.

Related Topics:
Hull City - Derby County

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They didn't come any closer to the First Division for a while, finishing consistently in the mediocracy up until the outbreak of World War II. They won one minor cup, in 1910, the London Challenge Cup.

Related Topics:
First Division - World War II

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Post-1945

Post-war, Fulham were promoted to the First Division in 1959, and had crowds regularly exceeding 30,000. They never pushed higher than mid-table though, and were eventually relegated in 1968. They later saw stars like Bobby Moore and George Best play for the club, and reached the FA Cup Final in 1974. Despite a Malcolm Macdonald team in the 1980s which looked to be the start of a new revolution, Fulham hit the football league basement in 1994, in being relegated to the Third Division.

Related Topics:
Bobby Moore - George Best - FA Cup - Malcolm Macdonald - 1994 - Third Division

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Recent History

Before Al Fayed

After the side's relegation, Ian Branfoot was installed as manager. His first season in charge yielded a seventh place finish, which would have given them a place in the play-offs if not for a restructuring of the league. Branfoot's second season was a disaster, with the side languishing near the foot of the table and only seeming safe due to Torquay United being hopelessly adrift at bottom position. The situation came to a head when Fulham played Torquay at their Plainmoor ground and lost, meaning that they had only won two from their previous twenty league games. Fulham followed the match with three draws which hardly improved the situation, and Branfoot was sacked two weeks after the Torquay match (though retained in other capacities for a while afterwards)

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Micky Adams was appointed as manager and oversaw an upturn in form that lifted the side out of what little relegation danger was present. The next season he engineered a complete turnaroudn in form and his side, captained by Simon Morgan finished second, only missing out on first due to the league dropping the old "goal difference" system in favour of a "goals scored" tally. While Fulham's goal difference was one better than that of champions Wigan Athletic, they scored twelve less goals. This was subtly ironic, as the club's then Chairman Jimmy Hill, had successfully argued that goals scored should decide places of teams tied on points while sitting on an FA panel.

Related Topics:
Simon Morgan - Jimmy Hill - FA

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Al Fayed's Era

Millionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed purchased the club that summer and sacked Adams in the aftermath of a poor start. In Adams' place he installed a managerial 'dream team' of Ray Wilkins and Kevin Keegan, pledging that the club would reach the Premiership with five years.

Related Topics:
Mohamed Al-Fayed - Ray Wilkins - Kevin Keegan

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After an argument over team selection, Wilkins left the club, having nearly secured promotion to the First Division. Keegan steered Fulham to a spectacular promotion the next season, winning 101 points of a possible 138, captained by now manager Chris Coleman. He then left to become manager of the English national football team, and veteran player Paul Bracewell was put in charge.

Related Topics:
Chris Coleman - English national football team - Paul Bracewell

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Fulham's first season in the 1st Division was deemed a failure, despite a respectable 9th place finish. Bracewell was sacked in March after their early promotion charge faded into a mid-table position. Karlheinz Riedle was named caretaker manager, though the majority of the remaining matches were overseen by Roy Evans after Riedle was hospitalized due to a collapsed lung.

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Jean Tigana was put in charge, and having signed a number of young stars, including Louis Saha, he guided Fulham to their third promotion in five seasons, again in emphatic style. During this season club captain and now manager, Chris Coleman was involved in a car crash which, 18 months down the line, finished his career. Fulham were widely tipped to take the Premiership by storm, with many pundits predicting a challenge for the UEFA cup or even Champions League places. The expected challenge never materialised and a mid-table campaign was the result. The following season saw Fulham dangerously close to the relegation zone, and Tigana announced that he would leave his job at the end of the season. He left slightly sooner than that, with Chris Coleman taking charge for five games at the end of the season.

Related Topics:
Jean Tigana - Louis Saha

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Coleman was named as Fulham's head coach at the start of the 2003/2004 season. He had spent a number of months in temporary charge prior to that, Tigana had been sacked after two and a half average Premiership seasons, with the only highlight being a short run in the UEFA Cup. This came courtesy of victory in the Intertoto Cup, a UEFA Cup qualifying system often shunned by bigger clubs.

Related Topics:
UEFA Cup - Intertoto Cup

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Coleman, a favourite with the fans, and his assistant Steve Kean, believe their primary aim at the start of every new season should be to avoid relegation from the Premiership, although the fans, without a win in a major tournament in the club's entire history, are hungry for more.

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