Lawrie Sanchez’s side have had a bad start to the 2007-08 season and they are looking for a win to jump a few positions up the table. Saturday the 15th of December they are facing a Newcastle side that seems to be on the on and up after a long period of miserable performances. The position on the table should speak for itself when it comes to which side should be the favourite before the game, though Allardyce himself has said that Fulham are a team better than their league position says. Without any doubt, the game will be interesting to follow for the fans, as both sides are seemingly in desperate need of another three points. Though for all but the same reasons. Allardyce’s lads to easen up on the pressure the press has heaped onto them over the past weeks. And Sanchez’s side are all-in for the points to start getting clear of the relegation positions rather than falling down into one. But then again…

In 1879 Fulham St Andrew’s Church Sunday School was founded by the worshippers at the C of E church on Star Road, West Kensington. The club went on to win the West London Amateur Cup in 1887 and, having shortened their name to its present day form in 1888, Fulham Football Club won the West London League in 1893 at their first attempt. They started to play their home games at their current ground, Craven Cottage in 1896, their first game there was against now defunct rivals Minerva F.C.

In late 1898 the club gained their professional status, the same year as they were admitted into the Southern League’s second division. And five years later in the 1902-03 season Fulham F.C. won promotion from the second division to the Southern League 1st Division, and in the same year the club players donned the first all-white club kit in the history of the club. Before joining the football league in 1907, they won the Southern League twice, in the 1905-06 season and the 1906-07 season.

In their first ever league game they lost 1-0 at home to Hull City, though the clubs first win came only a few days later against Derby County by a scoreline of 1-0. The club continued to impress in their first season, and ended up only three points short of promotion with a 4th place finish. However, this was the best season they would have in their twenty one year stay in the division. And after only winning 13 out of 42 games in the 1927-28 season, Fulham ended up relegated to the 3rd Division South, which was created in 1920. Though, a highlight for their first season in the league system was an away win of 8-3 against Luton Town in an FA Cup game. Fulham even went on to reach the semi-finals of that tournament, though only to end up being severely beaten 6-0 by Newcastle United, to this day still the record loss for an FA Cup semi-final game.

After finishing 5th, 7th and 9th out of the 22 teams in the 3rd Division South, Fulham eventually won the division in the 1931-32 season. Only to almost achieve a second consecutive promotion in their first season back in the 2nd Division, finishing 3rd behind Tottenham Hotspur and Stoke City. Though, it would end up taking the club quite a few more seasons before reaching the 1st Division of the Football League. Not before the 1948-49 season the fans would see their club finally making the step up to the top tier of English football. Though, their first stay there wouldn’t be one of greatness.

Their first two seasons in the top flight saw the club finish 17th and 18th in the then 22-team league. And in their third year Fulham would finish rock bottom of the league, winning only 8 out of their 42 games. In the upcoming seasons in the 2nd Division the club had some mediocre positions before bouncing back up into the 1st Division again in the 1958-59 season where they would stay for 9 consecutive years. Their first season back in the 1st Division saw them finish 10th, which would until the 2003-04 season be the highest ever league position of the club.

Over the coming seasons the club struggled in the league, but still manage to play regularly in front of a 30 000 plus crowd at Craven Cottage. Though the support the club got from its supporters was not enough to save the club from relegation in the 1967-68. However, the event that followed the next season was even more catastrophic for the club. Winning only 7 of 42 matches meant the club was set to face the 3rd Division once again.

Fulham would only stay in the 3rd Division for two seasons though, being promoted back to the 2nd Division as runners-up in the 1970-71 season where they would stay until the 1979-80 season. Though, in the mid-70s the club made it to the final after playing an impressive 11 games (including replays) to get to the final where they would face West Ham United. In the build up to the final, Tony Rees and The Cottagers released a single, “Viva el Fulham”, which was based on Manelo Escobar’s “Y viva España”. The song is still regularly played at Fulham games.

In the 1979-80 season Fulham were relegated once again to the 3rd Division. Though, over the next four years the club had managed to get a strong squad together, with players such as Ray Houghton and Paul Parker donning their kit. Fulham won promotion again to the Division 2 in the 1981-82 season and only narrowly missed out on getting promotion to the 1st Division the season after thanks to a loss away at to Derby County at the last day of the 1982-83 season. The side which had shown a massive amount of promise was gradually sold off and broken up as the club had debts to pay off, so it came to little surprise that Fulham took the trip back into the 3rd Division in the 1985-86 season. The club nearly even went out of business in 1987 and almost merged with QPR. It was only the intervention of ex-player Jimmy Hill that allowed the club to stay in business as a re-structured “Fulham FC 1987 Ltd.”

In 1992 the foundation of the Premier League saw the division Fulham was in at the time being renamed from the 3rd Division to the 2nd Division, and because of that there is a running joke amongst the Fulham F.C. supporters that at the end of the 1991-92 season, the fans started celebrating promotion before realising that all that had happened was that the FA had changed the numbers of the divisions. Though, the club went on to be relegated to the new 3rd Division at the end of a poor 1993-94 season, seeing the club in the very basement of the Football League.

After a 7th place in their first season at the bottom tier, the club hit their historical rock bottom in the 1995-96 season, finishing 17th out of 24 teams. However, in February the club appointed then-player Micky Adams as their new manager. And it was in the summer of that year that the Fulham revolution really took off. From his appointment there was an immediate upturn in form that lifted the side out of what little relegation danger there was present. And in the next season Micky Adams engineered a complete turnaround in his side’s form finishing second in the league, only missing out on first place due to the league dropping the old “goal difference” system in favour of a “goals scored” tally. While Fulham’s goal difference was one better than that of the champions Wigan Athletic, they scored twelve fewer goals. This ended up being somewhat ironic as the then chairman of the club, Jimmy Hill, had successfully argued that goals scored should decide places of teams tied on points while sitting on an FA panel.

Though brighter days were ahead for Fulham F.C. as millionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed purchased the club the summer of 1997 and fired Adams in the aftermath of a poor start to the season. In Adams’ place he installed a managerial ‘dream team’ of Ray Wilkins as First Team Manager and Kevin Keegan as Chief Operating Officer, proclaiming that the club would reach the Premiership within five years.

After an argument over the team selection, Ray Wilkins left the club in May 1998 and handed over the full managerial duties to Kevin Keegan, who steered the club to a spectacular promotion the next season, winning 101 points of a possible tally of 138. Though, Keegan would leave them to become the manager of the English National Team, leaving veteran player Paul Bracewell to be put in charge, only for him to be sacked in March 2000 as Fulham’s promising early season form dwindled away.

Frenchman Jean Tigana was put in charge and having signed a number of young starlets, including Louis Saha, he led Fulham to their third promotion in five seasons in the 2000-01 season. That promotion gave Fulham top flight status once more, for the first time since 1968. This had only taken four years since Al-Fayed took over, one year shorter than what he had proclaimed when he bought the club back in summer 1997. During the promotion season the club captain and subsequent manager, Chris Coleman, was involved in a car crash which eventually made him hang up his boots. Fulham’s run through the divisions saw many a player come and go, but the only player to play for the club in all four leagues of English professional football was Sean Davis, and he is to this day one of very few players that have ever played at all four levels with one team.

Fulham were widely tipped to take the Premiership by storm, with many pundits predicting the team could pull off a challenge for an UEFA Cup, or even a Champions League, position. Their first Premier League season was largely underwhelming, though the team had a couple of good games and some flashes of brilliance. The end product of the first season was a respectable 13th place finish. The following season saw Fulham dropping dangerously close to the relegation zone, and the Al-Fayed told manager Tigana that his contract would not be renewed at the end of the season. But an awful run of results, culminating in a 4-0 defeat against Blackburn Rovers led him to get the sack before the season came to a close with relegation desperately near.

Chris Coleman took charge for five games at the end of the 2002-03 season after Tigana had gotten the sack, and earned Fulham 10 points out of a possible 15, preserving a place in the Premier League for the next year. Coleman was given the manager’s job on a permanent basis in the summer of 2003 and despite the predictions that the inexperienced Coleman would lead Fulham to relegation, he managed to keep the club well clear of relegation, guiding them to their highest ever league position finishing 9th in his debut season as Fulham manager. This might have been greater had the club not come under significant financial pressure to sell Louis Saha to Manchester United, for which they received a club record £13 million. The final day of the season saw them win 2-0 away to Bolton - a third goal could have seen them jump the Trotters into eighth place.

Coleman made another impressive performance in the 2004-05 season, guiding Fulham to a secure 13th place finish. The 2005-06 season proved a tougher affair, but safety was once again mathematically assured with three games remaining of the season. In the 2006-07 season Fulham didn’t get off to a good start, losing their first match of the season 5-1 to Manchester United at Old Trafford. This result made them the bookies favourites for early relegation contenders, though they recovered and well and were riding as high as 8th place at one point in December 2006.

Many signings including Vincenzo Montella, Alexey Smertin, Simon Davies and Clint Dempsey were brought during January. Between Mid December and May however, Fulham only won a single game, a 2-1 victory over Newcastle United. In the same time period Fulham drew 9 games and lost 4. Additionally Fulham were knocked out of the FA Cup 4-0 by Tottenham Hotspur. On the 10th of April 2007, following defeats at the hands of Manchester City and Everton, Fulham Football Club terminated the contracts of Chris Coleman and Steve Kean with immediate effect, while Northern Ireland manager Lawrie Sanchez and Les Reed were put in temporary charge. The season ended with a 16th place, one point above the relegation zone.