Brentford v Fulham Saturday 12 December 2015 Craven Cottage Kick-off: 3pm
The season so far
It has been another turbulent season for Fulham, who sacked their manager Kit Symons on 8 November 24 hours after a 5-2 defeat at home to Birmingham City. They are five matches without a win, and were beaten 3-0 at Nottingham Forest at the City Ground last Saturday. Their home form has been mixed; out of nine matches they have won three, lost three and drawn three. They have two victories away from home, at Bristol City and Rotherham United.
New coach Stuart Gray’s first priority is to work on their defence. The back four have been porous in recent weeks, with their last clean sheet coming in the 0-0 draw at Middlesbrough in October. They have conceded 17 goals in the last eight games.
Previous manager Kit Symons signed 12 players in the summer transfer window, as he bid to mould his own side after taking over as manager in September 2014. Andy Longergan (Bolton); Ben Pringle (Rotherham United); Tom Cairney (Blackburn Rovers); Jazz Richards (Swansea City); Jame O’Hara (Blackpool); Andrew Dawber (Accrington Stanley); Sakari Mattila (Aalesund); Tim Ream (Bolton Wanderers); Ryan Fredericks (Fulham); Ian Pino Soler (Almeria); Richard Stearman (Wolverhampton Wanderers) and Isaac Pearce (Bristol Rovers). Symons also signed on loan Luke Garbutt (Everton), Joe Lewis (Cardiff City), and James Husband (Middlesbrough).
Fulham’s search for a new permanent manager continues with the transfer window open in three weeks’ time. Their top league goalscorer so far this season is Ross McCormack, with ten, two ahead of 19-year-old Moussa Dembélé. Both of whom will be attracting interest in January.
The Gaffer
Stuart Gray takes charge of his first Fulham match tomorrow after being appointed Senior Coach this week. The 55-year-old was manager of Sheffield Wednesday from November 2013 until this summer. Gray will be assisted by former Southampton manager Steve Wigley, who is in charge of Fulham’s Academy. Peter Grant, who had been in caretaker charge for the previous two matches, will revert back to his role as Under-21s manager.
After a playing career with Nottingham Forest, Barnsley, Aston Villa and Southampton, Gray managed the South Coast club in 2001 before spells with Northampton Town. He has also been caretaker with Aston Villa, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Burnley and Portsmouth.
The officials
Match Referee: David Coote
Assistant Referees: Stephen Finch and Richard Kendall
Fourth Official: James Linington
Ticket news
Our allocation for the game is now sold out. You can hear live match commentary of the entire match on Bees Player from 2.30pm on Saturday, with commentator Mark Burridge.