Phil McNulty, the BBC’s chief football writer, pens a special column for fulhamfc.com looking back on a unique night at Craven Cottage 10 years ago.
Fulham against Hamburg was a fantastic night all round.
Going into the game, from a journalistic point of view everyone was onto this story about Fulham because of what they’d done in the previous rounds. The other subplot to it was that Fulham were slightly up against the odds because Hamburg had the motivation of the Final being at their stadium. It was a great occasion at Craven Cottage. I suppose not many people thought Fulham would pull it off, but they had so much momentum that there was the feeling you could be onto a really big story, and a historic one as far as Fulham was concerned.
Things didn’t begin well but, funnily enough, even though that goal from Mladen Petrić went in, there was no sense at any point that the fans had given up. Perhaps that was because of what had happened against Juventus and teams previously, but I do recall that the atmosphere was not one of desolation. I think the fans had tapped into the fact that this was very much a fighting team, one with a great spirit.
When Simon Davies scored the equaliser there was a real feeling of belief, and then when Zoltan Gera scored the second there was a little bit of a sense of destiny about it. Everyone thinks of Craven Cottage as this nice, homely stadium where the atmosphere can be quite polite at times, but there was a proper European night atmosphere about the place, even when Fulham were behind. And of course, once they went ahead and the Final came into sight, it was absolutely fantastic, albeit very tense at the same time. But the calmest person there was Roy Hodgson. Stood on the touchline, he’d seen and done it all before. In the end Fulham pulled it off, and it was fantastic.
As a member of the media you do remain objective, but we were rooting for Fulham in the press box. Obviously you’ll never show any partisanship for anybody, but I think the fact that the story was such a great one; this team that Roy had saved from relegation when he first arrived was suddenly on the brink of a European Final. It was such an unlikely tale. Also, the fact that it was Fulham – who I think pretty much everybody regards with great goodwill as a club and a team – on the verge of this achievement, everybody was willing them on. Obviously not the German journalists, but everybody else, without being partisan about it, was willing them on and hoping they’d do it.
For those European games at the Cottage, the away fans were positioned just to the left of the press box, and I have a memory of Mr Al Fayed coming out before kick-off and giving, to put it politely, a defiant gesture to the Hamburg supporters when he walked past them. But they took it all in good spirits. German fans are absolutely great, they don’t mind a bit of back-and-forth. I remember travelling on the train back into central London afterwards and people were mixing on the platforms, it was all very friendly and good natured. A credit to both sets of supporters, there was no ill feeling at all. Obviously Fulham fans were in celebratory mood, while German fans are usually happy to celebrate victory or defeat with lots of lager! But the atmosphere between the two sets of fans was superb, a really great occasion.
Something very, very unusual occurred at the post-match press conference. When Roy entered he was given a very loud round of applause by the journalists, which I can’t remember happening too often. It’s a bit out of order really, in terms of etiquette, but people thought it was such an achievement by him that it was warranted. Roy was in quite quickly after the final whistle, and literally as he walked in somebody started this round of applause, and it built up. That is a very, very unusual thing to happen. I’ve seen it once or twice with foreign journalists when a team has pulled off a fantastic victory, but being typically British we’re usually a bit more straight laced, a bit more adhering to the etiquette. But on this occasion when Roy came in there was a very, very loud round of applause, which he appreciated and acknowledged.
When something like that happens, you always feel for the people who have covered Fulham for years, because it’s such a great thing that they probably never thought would happen. I remember when Blackburn won the title at Liverpool, I was good friends with a guy called Peter White, the Blackburn correspondent who had covered them through the darkest of days, and I remember Peter with tears in his eyes when they won the league at Anfield. And while it wasn’t quite like that when Fulham won, my thoughts were for – in addition to the fans and the team – my colleagues who had travelled up and down the country, following Fulham when things weren’t so great. This was such a brilliant occasion for them, and they had a Final now to look forward to as well.
I noted in my match report that night that Roy made a point of acknowledging the crestfallen Hamburg players at full-time. He’d seen and done it all, and maybe also because he’d lost a European Final himself with Inter Milan, he realised how the opposition would be feeling, as well as his own players. So he went around and not only congratulated his own players but made a point of consoling the Hamburg players, who I’m sure were looking forward to fighting for the trophy in their own stadium, which would have been a great occasion for them. I think Roy did an absolutely, in many respects, perfect job at Fulham. It was a great time for Roy and in a way it was a shame that it worked against Fulham, because he did so well that Liverpool came and took him, and that didn’t work out for him, unfortunately.
We spoke to Danny Murphy before the Final and he came out with a really interesting quote. I think he felt people were slightly patronising Fulham about what they’d done and how they’d done it. He said, “The Manager doesn’t sprinkle magic dust on us before we go out, we work very hard at this,” because everyone was painting the romantic picture of how they’d ended up playing in the Final. While we can talk about the romance of it, Fulham were also a very good and well organised side. If you look at the team – Mark Schwarzer, Brede Hangeland, people like Zoltan Gera, Danny Murphy, Damien Duff, Bobby Zamora – that is a very good side, and Roy had really drilled them. I think Danny maybe felt that people were suggesting it was some sort of fluke that they’d got there. People like Danny had been around the block, he’d played for Liverpool in the UEFA Cup Final so he knew what it was all about. If you look back at it, there was plenty of experience in that Fulham team, and that maybe is why when Petrić scored that goal in the first half, they were able to remain calm.
It’s a shame they couldn’t win the Final, but you look back at the team they were up against, and that was a very, very strong Atletico Madrid side. But even then, they almost did it, it was pretty late into extra-time when Atletico scored again. They had people like David De Gea in goal, and the forward line was Sergio Aguero and Diego Forlan, so you are talking about a top class side that Fulham pushed to the wire. It was a great run, and even the Final was a great occasion as well, despite the defeat. It’s just frightening that it was 10 years ago!