Category: Reports

The feedback on this event as reflected in the comments in the Guest Book and the actual sentiments in the St James Room was excellent. Ray stood up and entertained us for an hour with stories of his career from West Ham to Fulham to Oxford United to Liverpool to Crystal Palace to playing for the Republic of Ireland . The Irish contingent in our club were especially interested to hear tales of their great days under Jack Charlton.

Ray Houghton played 129 games for us in the superb side of Malcolm Macdonald. Ray paid credit to Malcolm but also to coach Ray Harford who said to this Ray that with the system of wide players drawn inside of O’Driscoll and him, Ray Lewington the holding midfielder and Robert Wilson pushing up the pitch we at Fulham were the first to play the diamond system.

Having spoken for an hour and it was now 4 o’clock Ray would be entitled to say his goodbyes and leave which I had to do to catch a train but as I left he was chatting away to guests across the table. It was a memorable occasion and I am sure our new members as well as the older ones appreciate the intimacy, fine food food and wine, exceptional venue in which we can savour the company of a genuine Fulham legend, nice guy and intelligent and humorous observer of the football world.

We welcomed Graham Brooker and Peter Smith as new members.

DR

One of the things I have found as Chairman is how a guest who may not have legend status is engaging and informative. I found this with Terry Angus and at our last lunch John Fraser. He is not a household Fulham name but he loves our club, is a humble and pleasant man and gave us great insight into George Cohen, Alan Mullery, Johnny Haynes and Bobby Moore. He brought along his 1975 Cup Final medal and gold Asprey cufflinks that each player in the final was given by director Eric Miller. He told us the story of how the shinpads were forgotten on Cup Final day, and how there was a court case over shoe sponsorship on the morning of the Cup Final. For those not present at that final John Fraser gave a typically dogged performance as he shored up the right flank.

After, David Daly gave us a positive take on the club going into the new season. We have acquired the BBC training ground next to Motspur Park; the plans for the new stand are very exciting and the club is anxious for them to happen as soon as possible; and we are in the market for Premiership quality players. Selection of these is determined by the Head Coach, chief scout Brian Talbot and the analytics department.

Finally we welcomed three new members : Christie Browne, Alex Shooter and Keith Graves.

Thanks to Bob Howes for inviting John Fraser and to Alan Smith for conducting the Q&A so well.

DR