Fulham will re-visit Wembley for the second time in as many seasons after surviving a determined and unlucky Cardiff.

That’s most likely the opinion of most neutral onlookers and probably fair comment. However this is a TOOFIF biased Match Review so we might expand on that and add a bit of local colour.

Scotty fielded the same team as that which had performed so well in the first leg, meaning that Mitro was again rested. Whether this was a precautionary manoeuvre or because his injury made it an absolute necessity, or whether it was a tactical master stroke was unknown to me at the time that the team was announced. The bench was revised with Ivan Cavaleiro taking Jasper’s place

Fulham began proceedings sprightly enough and within the opening two minutes we had an attempt at goal from Knockaert who had connected with a ball from Josh Onomah that had come from a rampage he’d carried to the heart of Cardiff. Knockaert’s effort was harmless sadly, the spectacle with which we have become painfully familiar this season. His approach play is physical. Bustling, skilful and effervescent but sometimes the final attempt at goal hasn’t worked for him, I bet he’s a frustrated boy right now but let’s hope he gets that magic touch working again on Tuesday.

Ah that old chestnut, the set piece, oh yes we do not like them, especially from a herd of big lumps galloping into the penalty area and so it quite obviously, gain led to the concession of an early goal when the dreaded long throw doodle-bugged down on the heads of all and sundry and by judicious blocking and grappling of Rodák, naturally overlooked by the ref, the visitors took the lead in the eighth minute, oh dear!

Fortunately for us, our guys went straight for the jugular from the re-start and Bobby Decordova-Reid flashed down the right wing , with Anthony Knockaert mirroring his movement on the opposite flank which was a masterful piece of distraction. Bobby laid a tantalising low cross goal side of the retreating remnants of Cardiff’s defence where Neeskens was amongst them and matching their pace like a wold=f in a flock of sheep (no jokes please!), his outstretched boot’s contact with the ball was dextrous, affirmative and wonderful, Neil Harris looked like a bulldog chewing a stag beetle!

We had restored a two-goal cushion and the world was great again. I have to mention that another encouraging factor in the last few games has been the return to something approaching his best is the form of Tom Cairney and he began to take on more possession once we had equalised, indeed he was instrumental in creating a chance for Onomah with a thundering long range shot at goal following a Harrison Reed corner. Josh’s shot from the rebound was blocked and cleared, Fulham were definitely in control at this stage

Approaching 30 minutes, Knockers played a deceptively clever ball which set Booby goal bound, the move game to nothing due to a fine intervention form Morrison who was again having a pretty good game for the Bluebirds

Knockers then benefited from another forceful incursion by Tom Cairney who danced through the henge-like Cardiff defence to feed him, Knockaert’s shot from 18 yards out was pushed away by the very reliable Alex smithies between the Cardiff posts.

The Whites were seemingly determined to make their dominance fruitful as the clock neared half time and Cyrus Christie took his chance at a free kick with a fiercely struck shot that Cardiff’s saviour, Smithies again denied, his pushed save landed at Knocker’s feet but his effort was unfortunately not of his repertoire of magic and was deflected over the bar and the half was terminated with the scores level and with the Whites retaining their two goal cushion

Neeskens Kebano had picked up an injury so Kamara replaced him during the interval. Let’s hope he recovers for the Final! Tomlin who has deservedly earned his much-vaunted reputation, replaced Pack at the interval for Cardiff, with Junior Hollett, who had taken a fair few knocks, making way for Mendez-Laing.

In a near example of lightning striking twice, Cardiff took the lead in the second minute of the second half, ironically their substitute, Mendez-Laing heading what seemed a certain goal which Rodák saved brilliantly only for his parry to land invitingly for his fellow substitute to make no mistake in converting the rebound, now it was getting desperately tight.

Fulham now went into wobble-mode and Cardiff had another golden opportunity to level the Semi-Final, the two Cardiff substitutes combining to give gift a chance to Josh Murphy who with seemingly an open goal headed a ball which the grateful Rodák probably dreamed of all Friday night as he easily dealt with the threat,

Captain Tom was off on a terrific rampaging foray before being demolished unceremoniously, the free kick was in a perfect position and with no Kebano available, Cairney lined up for a customary left footer only to lose his standing leg and fall on his behind with the ball harmlessly twizzling away, a definite custard pie moment.

Cardiff were definitely looking the more likely and were having some decent possession but Fulham were not out of the tie by any means and with three minutes to the 70th minute, AK47 was keen to make a mark on the game, he did his impression of an Olympic sprinter galloping down the left wing, dismissing Bacuna to smack a fierce shot goalward, naturally Smithies was still on top form and his handling was enough to keep the scores as they were. Kamara was immediately threatening again, this time firing an unstoppable shot on target for the bottom right, Smithies, of course, just got a fingertip to it, his flimsiest of fingertip contact making the ball skim the post.

Cardiff now had obviously remembered how Fulham are susceptible to set pieces and set out working the game to earn dangerously positions to set some up, Rodák looking like the victim of a City-Centre mugging as Cardiff players flew in from all sides while his colleagues in White shirts looked aimlessly on, how the final attempt was cleared off the line is still baffling, I may have to have another look at the recording and add that later.

As a game of pure creative football, it was not one to savour and the final moments were as tense as any of us really want to keep re-visiting, we all know that it quite naturally will, so the final whistle was as effective as an anaesthetic before surgery and it felt pretty good!

We’re on our way to Wembley!!

COYW

So, it’s all over now and the fat lady has sung, the geese are getting fat and we’ll all be buying Christmas cards soon.

There we were watching the somewhat vacuum-like experience of another match at a stadium devoid of spectators but unfortunately still stuffed full with Talking Heads and Language Mangling ‘experts’ and the obligatory assault on the National Anthem, perhaps in this regard “Auferstanden aus Ruinen“ would have been more suitable

Not to mention the now statutory kneeling and clenched fists . Along with masked sideliners mingling with those unmasked, one might have been forgiven that we were actually witnessing the filming of a substandard futuristic science fiction horror series, not a blockbuster but straight to Betamax.

That’s the daft world we’ve been coerced into so that’s how it’s going to be for now and maybe this will be the future of our lives, I reckon that in that context, football is probably as irrelevant as the Roman Games.

On to the action, Aleksander Mitrovic was rested again but at least was included on the subs’ bench, Odoi replaced Christie (a clue to our tactics there) and Abou Kamara made a welcome return to the starting line-up in place of the out of sorts Anthony Knockaert. The replaced duo warmed the bench with Bettinelli, Sessignon, McDonald and Johansen.

The Superwhites started brightly against a Brentford side wearing blue shirts, why, oh, why do teams have to do this when there is no clash of colours? Within four minutes, we cruised into the danger zone and the impressive Josh Onomah unleashed an on-target corker from long range which the Bees’ keeper Raya kept out with deftness.

Both teams shadow boxed in the opening minutes, the Super Whites demonstrating marginally better footwork and they were enjoying the time with the ball at their feet in larger slices than our West London neighbours.

Around ten minutes or so into the half, Fulham pushed forward with atypically sinewy incursion by AK47, his pacey ball enticed Raya into fumbling his interception and the ball arrowed directly at the incoming Bobby Decordova-Reid, it all happened so instantly that before any meaningful attempt could be made, the re-assembled defence stifled the danger, rather like a soaked towel on a chip pan fire.

This was all very encouraging as Fulham definitely were in charge of the controls so far and again came close seven minutes later. Skipper Tom Cairney this time the supplier, his subtle ball was picked up by Josh Onomah who pinged off goal-bound effort to the far upright, the excellent Raya again performed athletically, I hope the Bees can hang onto their keeper and other excellent players too, in the aftermath of this disappointing defeat.

With the obligatory drinks break on twenty-two and a half minutes Brentford showed how dangerous they were with two quick attempts, Mbeumo with his head easily caught by Rodák followed by the former narrowly missed getting on the end of a great cross from Jensen, Hector this time earning his pay to snuff out the danger.

We had a decent chance before the break as Fulham maintained their dominance on earning a free kick in a dangerous position about twenty yards out, Neeskens whipped in a beauty with the keeper beaten and the net bulged, my word my poor neighbours, we went ballistic, unfortunately it had narrowly zipped wide and had nestled behind the goal.

We really didn’t want a break as Fulham were enjoying a really dominant first twenty-odd minutes.

Once the game resumed after the water-break, Brentford were gamely doing their bit but Fulham were still on top

Then a Bobby Decordova-Reid attempt was added to the repertoire, his snap shot from a deceptive Neeskens Kebano cross was wide of the mark having been latched onto rather unexpectedly.

The first 45 minutes ended with no score, an uneasy feeling that once again we may rue our missed opportunities and that possession is all very impressive in the statistics book but goals are what count and surely Brentford would get their act together in the second half

Sure enough the game saw more of Brentford when the game restarted but dragged on with few clear cut opportunities worth noting towards the end of normal time. Kebano again coming agonising close with a corker that appeared to swell the back of the net

Scotty had got Mitro on the side-lines for 20 minutes or so prior to the whistle, “Will he, Won’t he?” we all mused, I personally thought he looked a bit creaky and reasoned that Scotty was using him in a touch of psychology and so it proved. Despite warming up, training vest over his shirt and then stripped off he was never called into action and with extra time seeming likely, that appeared to be a sensible move.

Ollie Watkins finally woke up late on to come close in the opening period of extra time butt on the evidence of the 90 it seemed more than likely it would be settles by the dreaded penalty shoot-out. The first period was close to 15 minutes when another brought Fulham incursion was ended with the referee awarding a free kick in a very dangerous position 20 odd yards outside the 18 yard line to the left, Joe Bryan addressed the ball and with the goalie and defence anticipating a cross, were all caught out by Joe’s curling cannon shot way beyond the keeper to the empty side of the goal, a brilliant goal, timed at 105 minutes.

The final fifteen minutes was much of the same, Brentford now desperately probing but excellent covering, pressing and defending from the white shirts kept the advantage with Fulham and with just two minutes remaining on the clock we broke forward again and Bryan ran into the area onto a delightful through ball, evading all defenders, to coolly slot the ball to the left of Raya who was diving the wrong way. Stoppage time was passed and the boys clocked off, job well done, except they’d forgotten that Brentford were still on the pitch and Watkins grabbed an easy consolation just before the game ended.

We’d done it, back in the top flight after one season’s absence. Just as all those ‘experts’ predicted, me, I think we did it despite them.

Speaking to FFCtv after the game, Bryan described the feeling at full-time as ‘the best he’s ever had’ in his football career.

"If you look at the team spirit we have, it’s unbelievable,” he said after the game.

"Since we came back after the break we had one goal and we achieved it.”

COYW!