A gentle sigh of relief when Fulham dispatched Ipswich; followed by a groan as I caught the end of the only Championship game beamed live in Africa on the day.
Sadly, Newcastle couldn’t do us a favour at Sheffield Wednesday.
It is far from over for Fulham, even though the Wednesday looked pretty tasty at home. Two tough games over Easter and if we can win those surely anything is possible in that last game of the season at Hillsborough.
These are likely to be bruising games. In this, I think powerful players like Scott Malone will be the key.
That mix of speed, skill and flair and a core of iron. One of the few games shown live here was the win at Brentford. I was impressed by the way he thundered down the wing on that night.
You could swear that he could have run over one-or- two of the Brentford players without noticing. What a contrast to the meek surrender at Griffin Park the season before.
The fans call Malone fast and frightening and it’s not surprising given his background. He was born in Rowley Regis – in the steely heart of the industrial Black Country – not too far from where I grew up.
In these rough, tough, towns you learn to look after yourself very quickly.
More than that Malone has come up hard way, starting with an apprenticeship at his home town club of Wolverhampton Wanderers. He never played a game for them despite years of grafting away on the training ground – that must toughen you up for a start. Then the boot camps of British football: Southend and Burton Albion, on loan, Millwall and Cardiff City.
When Malone was swapped for Jazz Richards in pre-season I read some rubbish on line (written by Cardiff fans) saying something along the lines that it was fair exchange as both clubs had ended up with a poor player. This is one reason why I hate all this online trash talk.
How all those online haters must have felt when Malone passed the second against Ipswich so sweetly into the bottom corner of the net? A touch of class, as well as the strength of steel, will come in very handy if the dream stretches to Wembley.
And how great to see Marcus Bettinelli back between the posts; his one-handed reflex save in the second half led to Johansen grabbing the third on Saturday; former Fulham ‘keeper Tony Macedo, now 79 and living just down the road from me in Johannesburg, would have been proud.
It must have been hard for Bettinelli on the bench for the last couple of years. But he didn’t give up and turned down bigger clubs in a situation where no one could have blamed him for going. I think can be a great Premier League goalkeeper yet.
Who knows? In the next couple of weeks another reflex Bettinelli save could make him the talk of Fulham fans for generations - like Macedo of Johannesburg.
Chris Bishop is the managing editor of Forbes Africa and follows Fulham from South Africa. You can follow him here: @ChrisBishopZA
