Promotion Secured
The Fulham Supporters’ Trust warmly congratulates
everybody associated with Fulham Football Club on winning the playoff
final at the weekend, and securing promotion back to the Premier League.
While that sentence might accurately and succinctly sum up Saturday’s
outcome, it does nothing to reflect the exhilarating way in which
promotion was secured, the record breaking achievements of the season
particularly since Christmas, and how much it means to all of those who
love Fulham Football Club.
Results are important in football,
but winning while playing entertaining and exciting football is what
every fan yearns to see. Under Slavisa Jokanovic, we have been
privileged to see a team built according to his principles, playing some
of the best football in the country, with a team spirit and
determination which transmits from the pitch to the stands -all making
it a joy to watch them play, home and away. We have seen players develop
and improve, forming a cohesive, committed unit that has surpassed all
expectations. To go half a season unbeaten in the Championship is a
remarkable achievement.
The culmination of the season at
Wembley on Saturday was the perfect way to finish the job. For Fulham
fans, having waited longer than almost anybody to play at Wembley, it
was the spectacle we wanted, and having 38,000 there to support the
Whites was going to make it something special. The game was billed as
youth v experience, skill v solidity, naive pretenders v the football
establishment – yet the way in which Fulham controlled the game and
created chances from the start, it was Aston Villa who looked overawed
and unnerved by the occasion.
Fulham fans wanted to play their
part, too. When the Trust ran a Twitter poll on what colour fans would
wear to the final, the #ffcwhitewall was born. With social media, blogs
and podcasts also pushing it, it is credit to the club for getting
behind the call to action and helping create the magnificent sight of
the east side of Wembley resplendent in white in the sunshine, with the
volume and passion of the support more than matching the opposition
fans, who after a few minutes subsided into sullen murmurings for much
of the game.
Over the next few weeks, the Trust will be
preparing for next season and we want to encourage more members to get
involved. Please keep an eye on our website, follow us on Twitter
(@fulhamsupptrust) and encourage friends, family and fellow fans to join
the Trust too, to support what we all want to see and will experience
for at least the next season – Fulham playing in Fulham at the top level
of English football.
Enjoy the close season
