There were just two divisions of the Football League when Fulham's second successive Southern League championship gained them admission to the Second Division. The club's League career began inauspiciously, with a 0-1 home defeat on a Tuesday evening in September 1907 against Hull City. The first victory, courtesy of a Walter Freeman goal, came at Derby County four days later, and the following week, the Cottagers recorded their first home win in the League, a resounding 6-1 victory over Lincoln City. Although it took Fulham several months to adjust to the new level, by the turn of the year they were in top form and made a serious challenge for promotion. In the end, three defeats in their final six matches consigned them to fourth place, three points short of a promotion place.
It was, nevertheless, a splendid debut and was as close as the club came to promotion to the top flight for a quarter of a century. The key to Fulham's high position in 1907-08 was their away record. Although they played only 38 matches that season, the ten away victories they recorded set a record that was not beaten until 1996-7, and only then by a team playing two divisions down in a 46-match season. In addition to the League placing, the Cottagers reached the semi final of the FA Cup, and it was exactly 50 years before they were to do as well in both competitions in the same season again.
From then until the outbreak of the First World War, Fulham settled into a comfortable mid-table position, finishing between 7th and 12th positions, with between 37 and 41 points from 38 matches. It was the home record that kept them safe, for in these seven years, only 32 of the 133 away games were won. The team also relied more heavily on its defence. After scoring 85 goals in their first season, the Cottagers then averaged 56 over each of the next seven seasons. In every one of these seasons, however, the club had a positive goal difference, and conceded an average of 49 goals a season. If promotion was never again a realistic prospect before 1915, then relegation was never a serious threat.
The surprise departure of manager Harry Bradshaw in 1909 after two League seasons made little difference to the club's progress. He had done much to establish Fulham as a national footballing force but his successor was equally experienced. In fact, Phil Kelso had taken over at Woolwich Arsenal when Bradshaw left to go to Fulham. An administrator in the tradition of the era, Kelso was also a disciplinarian who favoured the close passing game of his native Scotland for the team's style. His tenure in the job lasted until 1924, making him Fulham's longest-serving manager, and the 15 years split into three periods, pre- and post-war and the difficult war years themselves.
Although only one minor cup (the London Challenge Cup in 1910) came Fulham's way during Kelso's stewardship, he helped start the tradition of Cottagers' sides that comprised a mix of big names (usually on the way down), some loyal club stalwarts and a few eccentric individuals. Before the Great War, goalkeeper Arthur Reynolds and half back Jimmy Torrance were the two major Fulham characters to emerge under Kelso, and he brought the great Jimmy Sharp back to the club, and signed famous international stars like Arthur Brown, Tim Coleman and Bobby Templeton. In his five post-war seasons, Fulham fans were treated to the likes of Andy Ducat and Danny Shea, albeit at the veteran stage, alongside locally developed talent such as Alec Chaplin, Frankie Penn and Frank Osborne.