COLUMNIST KEN BUCKLEY

From my seat: Fulham (A)

It was a lousy day for football, be it from the heavens or on the pitch. On seeing the team being the same as Wednesday night with a bench that only contained cover for the back five, it was apparent that we had little or no room for manouver depending on how the game was panning out. With the wind strong and blustety we kicked off facing it and it was soon apparent that this was to be a factor but it was more apparent that we were in hangover mode. The classic signs were there, passes misplaced or of the wrong weight, plus heavy first touches.

Then after 15 minutes AJ had to be replaced which meant changing the system to 4-5-1 and then taking some time to adjust to this. Fulham meanwhile where showing very little to trouble us except for a couple of poor shots wide.

We looked the more likely but move after move broke down due to poor touch. The only two chances of the half fell to Yak the first was a weak affair that the keeper picked up and just on the break after good work down the right Yak forced the keeper to parry the ball away. Yet none of this stopped the away following from giving tremendous support.

Half-time and there was no obvious option to freshen things up. We now had the wind but little changed; we huffed and puffed and put in effort but without any real purpose. With 20 minutes to go we were attacking well, Hibbert bombed on down the line but his cross was too close to the keeper who threw it to his fullback who moved it on to Davies who made ground down the line and put in a cross that seemed to evade both Yobo and Jags and McBride stooped to conquer. This goal summed up for me our mental tiredness as a lot of players were switched off in a situation that they normally deal with and mop up.

Our response was to replace Pienaar with Baines and send Lescott up as second striker. If these moves come off it's great but they rarely do and so was the case today. A set piece now seemed to be our best bet and from a corner, for once taken well, Yobo directed a free header over the bar. That about summed it up and on the final whistle the realization that three vital points had slipped away started to sink in.

Overall if you believe in jinx grounds then that would easily explain this defeat; however, I thought if the real Everton had turned up then no contest but the reality is that the real Everton couldn't turn up as injury to just two midfielders and two forwards left us with no options other than a bench consisting of two leftbacks, a right back, a keeper and an academy player.

When we qualify for a Euro competition next season, as I am sure we will, it will be down to what we can afford to strengthen the squad to cope with a long ardous league campaign as well as Euro nights and domestic cups. Today I thought this scenario caught up with us but now with only the league to concentrate on I just hope that players can be refreshed and got fit to see us through to get what we deserve.

Today it would be easy to slag off many a player but that would be futile because til season end they are all we have got and we also know when this bunch are fit and not mentally tired they can play very well. Today it would be better to use this game for the management and club to try to raise the money and sign the quality players that will give us the size of squad for the options that were painfully missing today to be available to freshen things up after hard mid-week games. Then the next step may be that bit nearer.

West Ham next, can manager, medics and players give us another Fiorentina night?. UP THE BLUES

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