Teams I Hate (Part IV)

Fulham

This is a funny one, and is quite probably the least rational of all my pet hates. I, personally, only know two Fulham fans, but they are both very arrogant about their team – and everything else for that matter. To this day they believe that they are bigger than Chelsea. No, seriously they really do. They have so many reasons to justify that statement. “If Fulham had had that money and won those Premierships they would have easily have sold out a 50,000 stadium”. It is just not credible, it really isn’t.

The fact that these chaps really believed it would come a little surprise to football fans as I think we all believe that we would have done as well as Chelsea had we had the finance that Abamrovich provided. However, I don’t come into work sulking on a Monday if we lose to Chelsea on the Saturday. I am realistic enough to know where our real battles are.

This brings me nicely on to Fulham. Millwall have fallen so far behind us that we cannot really think of them as rivals. Sure they are local, and chances are that the majority of Charlton Fans know more Millwall fans than any other, so it is still there, but not rivalry. Palace have, over the last ten years, fallen behind us as well. It is difficult to have a big derby rivalry when we are in different divisions. West Ham were my choice of local rival, I mean we did share their ground, and as already mentioned I have no love for them. However they managed to drop out of the Premier League and then as soon as they got promoted again they came into loads of money. Fulham are, or were, our local rivals in terms of being a team that we were on a par with that we could easily beat twice, or lose to twice in a season.

Our results against Fulham in our First Division Championship season were a 1-0 win at home and a 2-1 defeat away. That away game was our first defeat that season (all be it on only the third game). In the six seasons in the Premier League (they were promoted the season after us) we managed just two wins, five draws and five defeats. Not exactly close, but not terribly one sided. Had they not been given that amazing free kick that won them a draw at The Valley last season, and if they had faced a proper Liverpool team in May they would have been relegated. They were the yardstick that I compared us against, and for that reason I hate Fulham.

In all honesty I have been much more interested with Palace this season, and even though I’d prefer it if they were in the bottom three it does make the rivalry more intense with us both looking like chasing for a play-off place, but I still find myself looking at the bottom of the Premier League and hoping that the Premier League are going to lose a London club this season.