An abject season in which relegation was inevitable, almost from the word go, seems like a strange place to find an enduring memory, so perhaps that’s why this one doesn’t get the recognition it deserves.
Fulham haven’t been back in the Premier League since they lost more games, conceded more goals and had the worst goal difference of any team in the 2013/14 edition of the competition. It was a season where Martin Jol, Rene Meulensteen and Felix Magath all had a go at managing the Cottagers, and where Ray Wilkins and Alan Curbishley were also brought in to wait in the wings, seemingly in case of an extra collapse.
A 6-0 defeat away to Hull City was a particular low: all six goals were conceded in the second half, and Tom Huddlestone – who hadn’t scored in two-and-a-half years – actually celebrated by having his hair cut on the side of the pitch, after he pledged not to get it cut until he scored again.
It’s little wonder that a club which left itself in such a mess couldn’t bounce back from the Championship and is still languishing there four years later. But Fulham did play their part in one of the most remarkable weekends in football’s modern history, one that took place that very season.
It was October and the campaign was still young – the eighth round of fixtures was taking place – and although the Cottagers were already struggling after winning just two of their first seven games, they travelled the relatively short distance to the south of the capital to face Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on a Monday night on the back of a thoroughly entertaining Premier League weekend. Fulham were hoping to get their year back on track and drag themselves out of a potential relegation battle.
There was only one 0-0 draw in that round of games (perhaps predictably, Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion shared those points), and Jack Wilshere finished off a thrillingly intricate Arsenal move, scoring a goal everyone remembers. BBC’s Match of the Day voted it goal of the season and it remains probably the high water mark of the Arsenal midfielder’s career.
But, depending on your taste, it wasn’t even the best goal of the weekend. And Aaron Ramsey would tell you that it wasn’t even the only wondergoal of the game.
Those goals, too, shared a weekend with three of the most memorable goals in recent times. Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s backheeled volley against Bastia in France’s Ligue 1 and Stephanie Roche’s famous wonderstrike in Ireland’s Women’s National League were both scored on the same day.
Roche’s goal even shot her to fleeting international fame and won her a spot on the Puskas award shortlist, while Ibrahimovic’s goal didn’t make it off the long-list. Wilshere’s goal wasn’t even nominated at all. Roche’s strike came second, narrowly losing out to James Rodriguez’s volley for Colombia against Uruguay in the 2014 World Cup.
But all that was decided months later. In the Premier League’s eighth matchday, there was still one final game to play – Palace Fulham – and one final goal for the Puskas list.
Like most of Fulham’s season, things did not start well. After just seven minutes, Adrian Mariappa had put Palace ahead, and Fulham looked like they were about to sink to yet another defeat, this time in what looked like it could be a crunch relegation fixture.
But, unlike the rest of Fulham’s season, things suddenly turned themselves around.
When Sascha Riether saw Pajtim Kasami’s hand go up as the Swiss international made perhaps the most urgent and direct run of Fulham’s entire season, he sent what was really only a hopeful ball down the line. And when Kasami controlled it, there wasn’t any danger, either. How could there be? Kasami found himself on the edge of the box, in what would normally be a crossing position, but with no teammates in the box to aim for. He also had three defenders between him and any reasonable out-ball. After the pass, the run, and the control, Fulham had hit a dead end.
But there was still one option left open to him: he could try the sort of volley that only Marco van Basten had ever pulled off. So, not really an option then.
This wasn’t a glorious Netherlands generation managed by the legendary Rinus Michels playing in the final of the European Championships at the home of their bitter rivals West Germany. This was a Fulham side who would go on to lose each of their next six games, conceding 16 goals in the process and scoring just three. But this was a weekend of wondergoals, not logic. And for one night only, Kasami would play Van Basten to Fulham’s Holland, ripping apart Crystal Palace, scoring spectacular goals and winning 4-1. After that, though, they’d turn into a pumpkin and revert to type.
Like Wilshere’s goal, Kasami’s strike came just before the 20 minute mark, but unlike Arsenal’s, it wasn’t a team effort at all. It wasn’t intricately worked, and there was never a point when it became obvious that he’d score. It was just a piece of individual magic that not even three defenders and a goalkeeper could do anything about. They couldn’t have done anything about it even if they’d expected it.
But, also like Wilshere’s goal, it was only part of the story. It was a goal which overshadowed everything else, including a victory that Fulham should have been able to build upon to attempt a scramble to safety. It also overshadowed three more goals. One, in particular, from Steve Sidwell – the goal which finally put Fulham ahead just before half-time – which was a sensational strike in its own right, and worthy of much more praise than it got.
But neither of those strikes could stop the rot that had set into the club. Fulham were relegated to the Championship with a whimper, in the end, and still have yet to return. A similar story can be told of Wilshere, as injuries have laid waste to a talent that should have been leading Arsenal and England to glories.
That one weekend seemed to spawn a glut of defining moments for Wilshere, Arsenal and Fulham, and moments which perhaps weren’t reflective of what was to come in the future. But for one glorious weekend, football was treated to moments of magic on a scale rarely seem in such concentration and intensity – and regardless of what came next, that deserves to be remembered.