Throughout the first half of Thursday's Europa League tie with AS Roma, Fulham was clearly the better side. The Cottagers controlled possession and took a halftime lead thanks to Diomansy Kamara penalty in the 15th minute. Unfortunately, the second half was a disaster for Fulham and the Cottagers fell to the Romans 2-1 and leave themselves with some major work to try and qualify for the knockout stage of this competition.

When Fulham signed Damien Duff just over a month ago, I was a bit skeptical of it. I was not sure if Duff could regain the magic that made him one of the more feared left wingers in the Premier League. My skepticism in Duff is now officially over as the Irishman scored a cracker of a goal in the 79th minute to help earn the Cottagers a hard fought 2-1 come from behind win over Everton at Craven Cottage.

Taking a trip to eastern Russia for a Europa League match is not an easy chore for any English club. Despite a two-goal advantage heading into Thursday's match with Amkar Perm, there were still some nervy supporters hoping that the Cottagers could put behind Sunday's loss to Chelsea and right the ship in Russia. Fortunately, the Cottagers were able to withstand the Russians on this day and despite losing the match 1-0, the Whites advanced to the group stage with a 3-2 aggregate win to advance.

For the first time since 2002, Craven Cottage played host to a European match. Despite the rain and lousy conditions, Fulham put smiles on the faces of its' home supporters with a big second half en route to a 3-0 win over FK Vetra and an aggregate score of 6-0 to advance to the play-off knockout round of the inaugural Europa League competition.

Fulham's first was forray into Europe started succesfully on Thursday night with a convincing 3-0 drubbing of Lithuanian outfit FC Vetra in the first leg of their third round qualifying match of the Europa League.

It is now the middle of April and as a Fulham supporter this is usually not a good time of the year. In fact the past two seasons have been spent by many a Fulham supporter during the months of April and May biting every last nail and analyzing the table every which way trying to come up with a way for the Cottagers to be able to avoid the drop.

Fortunately, this season is a much different one and instead of worrying about relegation we can focus on a realistic shot of earning a UEFA Cup spot for the 2009-2010 season after yet another brilliant performance on Sunday at the City of Manchester Stadium as the Whites used a splendid second half to route hosts Manchester City 3-1 and move up to 8th in table, one point behind West Ham for the final European spot.

That Sucked!!! That was the text I sent to my cousin Matt who lives in Iowa City seconds after Yossi Benayoun scored deep into stoppage time to give Liverpool the win 1-0 over Fulham on Saturday at Craven Cottage. It did not just suck because Fulham lost but it sucked because I firmly believe that the Cottagers deserved a point in what I thought was a well played match between two top ten teams in the Premier League.

I will be the first person to admit that I was wrong in my recent claims on this blog that Fulham had no chance against Manchester United this weekend or any weekend.

After Saturday's decisive 2-0 win over the European champions I will gladly eat my words and enjoy a beer or two tonight in honor of this memorable victory that cements Fulham's position inside the top ten with just two months remaining in the season.

Fulham finally won on the road my fellow Fulham supporters. It was long overdue, but it came and it came at a time when the Cottagers needed it the most. Fulham has come close on a number of different occasions this season but came up short. On Saturday at the Reebok against Bolton not only did Fulham win the match, they dominated it in every facet of the game.

Fulham got Saturday's Third Round FA Cup tie at Hillsborough underway but it was the home side that should have taken the lead after just two minutes of play. Fredrik Stoor, making his first start for the Whites, was dispossessed by Boden on the left hand side of the area. The midfielder skipped to the byline and crossed to Jermaine Johnson who forced Schwarzer into a fine save with a low drive from 12 yards.

Wednesday were left to rue their missed opportunity when Andy Johnson latched onto Danny Murphy's superb through ball to give Fulham the lead after 10 minutes of play. After a good phase of patient build up play Murphy sent a perfectly weighted through ball into the area. Johnson spun his marker before firing a right footed shot past keeper Grant from eight yards to give Fulham the lead.

Fulham's lead lasted ten minutes before Tommy Spurr brought the game level with a stunning left footed strike from 35 yards. Schwarzer had no chance as the ball flew into the top left hand corner of the net. Hillsborough erupted.

On the day Fulham unveiled a Johnny Haynes Statue outside of Craven Cottage many supporters were hoping that the team would find some inspiration. As it turns out, neither team showed much of anything.

The match was not dull because it lacked goals, but it was dull because outside of a few Sunderland shots on goal, the match really did not have much energy from either team.

Kieran Richardson's freekick came the closest to breaking the deadlock in the second half when the ball hit the right post, then the left before being pushed out for a Sunderland corner.

Don't let Saturday's 1-0 loss to Blackburn get you down my fellow Fulham supporters. After four matches we have six points and sit 11th in the Premier League table. Losses to Hull and the aforementioned Blackburn are ones that the Cottagers perhaps should have won, but instead of focusing on the bad, we should be focusing on the many positives we have seen in the first four matches of Fulham's campaign.

Last season it took Fulham seven matches to amass six points. This season it took only three. If that is not a clear enough indicator that things are going to be different at Fulham this season there are many other pieces of evidence to give supporters belief that last season's near escape from relegation is a thing of the past.