The history of matches against Fulham and Leeds started later than many of our opponents and it was on Christmas Day 1919 that the Whites travelled to Yorkshire for that first fixture.

That game a hundred years ago fisnished in a scoreless draw In the ensuing 100 years we have met 55 times, losing 25, drawing 15 and winning 18, all rather Fuhamish.

Our last meeting was at the Cottage on April 3 2018 with the Lily Whites running out two nil victors but let's face it by that stage in the season, we'd become pretty decent!

Another keenly contested meeting in which Leeds showed why they are up at the top of the league and our inconsistent team demonstrated that we're better than any when the mood strikes us.

The Leeds number 2 Ayling was lucky to stay on the pitch for the 72 minutes he played before being hooked off as he was constantly fouling all in his path and gifted us with a soft penalty on seven minutes by two handing Bobby Decordova-Reid in the back.

Mitro duly converted to put us one goal up though the keeper seemed to get a modest touch.

Later in the game (after 32 minutes to be precise) he attacked Tom Cairney from behind right on the touchline directly in front of the benches in the ghost-like shadow of the demolished Riverside Stand, it’s pilings peering through the gloom above the skeletal structure of the temporary TV Stand, itself a Meccano Set sort of construction, resembling a garage shelving system. A bit like our team sometimes really.

This was off the ball and totally unprovoked unless he was merely taking the penalty ward out on any player in a White shirt, he certainly seemed out to cripple the whole side. He deservedly saw yellow at last for this latest infringement, to the chagrin of the faithful as Red seemed more appropriate.

The remainder of the first half past with Fulham being slightly on top but Leeds seemed likely to score with every move forward, their shots at goal far outnumbered ours and Rodák had to be on his mettle until the whistle sounded to end the first half.

The second half duplicated the opener to the earlier 45 minutes with the Whites stringing together some keen passing and swift moving football and as in the first period, the formation and team work showed a pleasing unity, so unlike many of our earlier fixtures this season. We had another chance converted by Mitro with a neat finish completing a superb move, the flag was in the air prior to the shot being struck unfortunately.

Nine minutes after the restart, Leeds scored when a drive from Eddie Nketiah lost his markers and collected a decent pass to circumnavigate our defence, his shot was pushed out to a lurking Bamford who made no mistake with his tap-in, one all. Caveliro, who was showing signs of a revival in his form, almost regained our advantage almost fifteen minutes after this set-back, his right footed strike swerved goal wards to be cleared by the Leeds goalie; Castilla.

Nine minutes later our lead was re-established, Josh Onamah who had been having his best game since he joined the side and was playing with a noticeable self-confidence, volleyed a clearance that the goalie had punched clear from a Mitro overhead attempt, I wouldn’t describe it as a scissor kick though that seems to have been the intention. Josh’s rocket lasered through the gaggle of players between him and the goal and rippled the net.

2-1 with 70 minutes played and that’s all that counts as despite the minute f incident and exchanges, Leeds couldn’t do anything to redress the situation… relief all round!

We're back now almost to the point before the first of our four wins on the trot, all but balanced out by the third consecutive defeat.

No point in ading to the woes but at this rate we'll be looking fearfully over our shoulders if we can't get back on track.

It was apparent that after those 4 wins, some of them somewhat fortuitious, that the exalted third place we occupied seemed somewhat unrealistic and that we were still there prior to the Brentford game at least gave us a little encouragement.

After the result against Brentford though we have managed to stay in touch with all but the top two so providing that this blip proves to be just, maybe we might just make it into the new year with the prospect of repeating our promotion season antics.

Prior to the recent defeats I reckon we'd have been mildly optimistic about the vist of Leeds but now they are clearly odds on favourites to muller us. That's what we like in SW6, a challenge as the underdog!

At the end of the day we're in sixth place and there are enough games to play yet so let's just sit back and enjoy another bumpy Fulhamish rise!

COYW!

Well there goes the “steps forwards, sideways and backwards” theory, the sequence is now forwards, forwards, forwards, forwards, backwards, backwards, backwards, forwards!

I’m rather in favour of keeping that going now. Having said that, I have to say that the team were magnificent and played with a renewed vigour and determination against a very good Leeds side. Fulham attacked as a unit, pressed Leeds when they had the ball and kept a lively and eager attacking philosophy on the front burner throughout the game.

Although not entirely absent, there was little fiddling around at the back when dangerous and unnecessary, nor were they leaving massive empty areas between our midfield and attack, another major problem in many of our matches this season.

There were still far too many unforced errors and careless play, passes gifted to the away team straight after we’d won the ball or were advancing dangerously towards the opposition goal. I’m not mentioning any by name but we all saw this happening time and time again. None of this, though, detracts from the overall superb work the guys put in to win an important three points from one of those teams that will surely be vying for the automatic promotion places at the season’s end.

Yes the penalty award was fortuitous, we all saw the two-handed push but it seemed innocuous from the Johnny Haynes Stand so when the ref blew for it we were momentarily stunned. Overall, it was probably justice as the Leeds number two Ayling, was getting away with murder throughout the game, he wasn’t the only one, the ref made some bizarre calls after the penalty award and neglected to dish out words of wisdom or punishment on quite a few occasions.

Who cares, we won and let’s hope that settles the guys for a good three match run over the Christmas and New Year fixtures.

COYW