For March 2nd I'm going back 36 years to 1985 and Fulham's League Division 2 game against Crystal Palace.
Craven Cottage, the home of Fulham is a splendid football ground. Situated right on the banks of the River Thames it can usually be spotted as part of the background scenery to the annual Varsity Boat Race. The Boat Race is a strange phenomenon. As a kid I can remember being encouraged to sit down and watch it by parents and grandparents none of whom went to either Oxford or Cambridge or even to University. You could still root for the dark blue or the light blue and it seemed to sit with great cultural importance in the British sporting calendar along with the Grand National and the FA Cup Final, all once a year sporting contests which were required viewing for everyone owning a TV. These days the Boat Race is nowhere near as important as it once was, rather like the FA Cup Final I suppose.
Craven Cottage is named after the Cottage which sits proudly in one corner of the ground, rather like a cricket pavilion. The present cottage is not the original cottage. The original one stood in the middle of what is now the pitch and had to be removed when constructing the new stadium. Interestingly the Mears building firm did the work. The same Mears family subsequently owned local rivals Chelsea for many years. Apparently, and in the best traditions of Enid Blyton and Scooby-Doo, once the old cottage was removed, the demolition workers uncovered a secret tunnel to a wharf on the Thames! There is no other building quite like the Cottage in British football. It is the location for the dressing rooms and the players enter the field of play from that corner. Much of the rest of the ground was designed by Archibald Leitch, a famous architect of football grounds up and down the land including Rangers, Everton, Tottenham, Portsmouth and a host of others.
This visit to watch Fulham was my most recent visit to Craven Cottage. I did subsequently see Fulham at "home" at Loftus Road, home of Queens Park Rangers in 2003 at a time when Fulham had vacated their traditional home and it was by no means certain that they would be returning. However pressure from the fans brought a return to the Cottage in 2004, now a new look refurbished 22,000 all-seater stadium. Today, on the River Thames side of the ground, a brand new stand is under construction which will include walkways jutting over the river itself to allow fan access to the new stand. I will wait for that work to be completed but I'm looking forward to going back one more time after all these years!
This game finished 2-2. Fulham, under the management of Ray Harford included future England international Paul Parker, Leroy Rosenior and Ray Houghton in their side. Meanwhile Palace, under Steve Coppell, had George Wood, Alan Irvine and Chris Hughton's younger brother Henry within their ranks.
A word about the programme. I've always enjoyed Fulham's programmes down the years. I recall the day they played Newcastle United in the playing days of Kevin Keegan and their programme included a pen pic of Keegan claiming to know nothing about him! Another quirk was to put players names in full i.e. James instead of Jimmy, Patrick instead of Pat, Philip instead of Phil and so on. But the cover art on this programme is truly dreadful isn't it?
CRB Match No. 356
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