It was just over one hundred and twelve years ago that Fulham and Derby first played in a competitive football league game in the old League Division 2. That was on September 7th 1907, away at the Baseball Ground, we won one nil.

Fulham and Derby have meet 64 times in their histories, we've lost 23, won 21 and drawn 20. Let's hope we can make that 22 won this season however that is easier said than done so that dominant performance (62.4% possession and 17 shots at goal compared to Derby's 8) was a big step in the right direction.

My original corny headline for the preview of this match read "Here's hoping this'll not be a Ram Raid, or that we get too sheepish about this one"

As it turned out and on the evidence of the first half it was less a case of the Rams coming to the Cottage to butt heads with the Whites but more a case of sheep being led to slaughter.

I know that sounds cruel but Derby were quite the tamest collection of professional footballers I have ever witnessed in the first 45 minutes in a competitive game. That included all of the most wretched Fulham performances home and away in the last 30 years or more (the game in which 10 goals conceded against Liverpool are not included in these dire performances).

This first half was so one sided that Fulham completely dominated every part of the pitch and the surprising aspects to our tactics was that we didn’t do more direct attacking and retained our irritating and risky tippy-tappy possession football in our area so often. Fortunately, Derby had done no research and were blatantly unaware of our defensive frailties and didn’t press us in our half as the football conventions would dictate.

The reality was that Derby’s players didn’t get closer to any Fulham player than two metres when we had the ball in our half, this was a direct contrast to the QPR tactics which had concluded with Rangers dominating us in our own back yard for most of last Friday’s evening meeting. They must have been told that been an outbreak of something contagious at the Cottage.

They weren’t wrong, our players had been stricken with an inability to ruthlessly exploit this golden opportunity and with Tom Cairney keeping our tempo turned down to a sleepwalk we only managed to pilfer two measly goals in the first 45 minutes. For vast swathes of the first half Cairney and Johansen were virtul members of our back line.

This modus operandi is obviously ordained by the coaching staff and it’s fair to say that with a 100% record over three games, it indicates that the system works but my, oh, my, it’s boring to watch and is so risky. Barcelona, Bayern, Man City and teams at their level can do this type of stuff in their sleep and make it an effective part of an overall attacking game. Our lot just sleep walk it.

The first goal, after a mere seven minutes, was a well-deserved conversion from Bobby Decordova Reid who enjoyed another encouraging outing, another assist from the rejuvenated prodigal son AK who likewise gave a flat-out, committed and attacking showing.

Despite my dislike of our sometime lethargic build up play, Fulham managed to make something like eight strikes at goal and totally dominate proceedings in the first period, Derby had a couple of chances, mostly caused by the usual dozy Fulham defence. We’d started the half giving away free kicks but Derby soon levelled that statistic and Ivan Cavaleiro was booked for simulation in the Derby area, that was harsh but indicative of the current refereeing trend. The whistle came after 47 minutes, an encouraging score line but not quite the breath-taking performance we’d have liked to go with those two goals

This ought to have developed into a rampage but it was another 33 or so minutes before Mitro gave us his pre-requisite goal. This one glanced of the top of his bonce as he rose above a melee of players converting a Cavaleiro cross after a corner.

The first half terminated with our boys in complete control but during the interval it was a confused Cottage Crowd that awaited the re-start, Derby could not possibly be that timid in the second half. “We must get the ball moving more quickly and penetrate their midfield and defence more aggressively, it’s obvious isn’t it?” formed the conversations around where I sit.

The second half resumed in much the same fashion as the first, Derby players were now committing fouls more frequently and were beginning to gain the upper hand in the their free-kicks against column. Unfortunately, in the 54th minute, Kamara was subbed after taking a knock which put an end to another excellent and eager performance being replaced by Anthony Knockaert. Bobby Decordova-Reid also suffered an injury and made way for Josh Onomah a mere six minutes after Aboudar’s withdrawal.

As the clock ticked on, Fulham had attempt after attempt at goal and mercifully, Knockaert had been let off his leash to carry on where Aboubakar Kamara left off and did what we’d been begging for by heading pell-mell towards the Derby goal, all this did not enable us to add to our two goal lead however and Derby now started to have more possession and encroach on our own area.

It seemed ridiculous that we hadn’t scored more goals in this one, Knockaert alone, could have grabbed a hatful then 0n 70 minutes Derby really ought to have scored, Waghorn being put through by the Derby sub Morgan Whittaker with the Fulham defence nowhere, his pitiful attempt culminated ina scuffed attempt which only bothered the worms, this somewhat summed up Derby’s evening.

With 10 minutes remaining, Cyrus Christie took the place of Ivan Cavaleiro who had to be helped off injured, he’d had a mixed outing, at times incisive while still not being entirely convincing, though he’d be on my team sheet.

The ensuing half wobbled it’s way towards the 90th minute with Fulham sitting atop their comfortable two goal cushion but with our every side and back pass keeping us firmly entrenched in our own half, it seemed that we’d settled for that result and that we encouraged the opposition to take heart from our fake Barcelona defensive act to their advantage.

Then Derby’s keeper made a right old hash of a clearance, bashing his attempted hoof against one of his defenders allowing a grateful Mitro who calmly controlled the ball and feed it through to a lurking Cairney, luckily his left boot was available so he duly volleyed the sheep’s bladder into the onion net and that dear readers, was that, three goals and 3 points seemingly assured, in the 80th minute.

When five minutes appeared on the fourth official’s board, the apprehension was almost audible, after all, we have been vulnerable late in games when the opposition mount all-out attacks and kicks us in the complacency zone, thankfully, not this time.

This was a perplexingly mixed showing by Fulham, an easy win while not playing anywhere near our best, I’ll gleefully take that but can’t help feeling that against better opposition we’d have not been so happy.

We look forward to meeting Derby County once again at the Cottage on Tuesday evening and seeing how tight the Championship is after 18 games, the fact that they are five points and seven places below us in the league means little.

As we have seen to our cost, every team in the Championship is capable of beating their rivals and often do so our lot had better heed the lesson learned against Hull and from some of our other patchy recent performances.

The thing to aim for is naturally a win and three points, that would do nicely thank you very much and would put us on 32 points which after 19 games would be more than a welcome early Christmas present.

Mitro will be available for selection but after AK's heroics on Friday night, who'd bet against Mitro starting the game with Aboubakar also in the line-up.