WHAT A BEAUTIFUL COTTAGE...

I got my University degree in October but being honest I've been talking about going to the UK to see a Premier League match after my graduation for at least 2 years.
Right after I received the confirmation for my dissertation and the communication of my positive outcome my girlfriend and I started looking for a future match worth the price and the travel.
Moreover it appeared as the perfect occasion for a 7 days trip to London, in particular since my favourite english club is Fulham FC :) 
It seemed perfect so we started researching on the net both a great match and a cheap flight in the same week, I can assure it's not as easy as it may seem.
At the beginning we found interesting and convenient Fulham-Sunderland on November the18th
but soon I realized that unfortunately it was on the same day of a match I had to play in an important stadium here in Italy (I'll soon write about that too).
Right then we tried to check the match of October the 20th, the one against Aston Villa, one of the most ancient and important English teams.
Everything seemed perfect, cheap flights, great timing; we booked everything on the net, the hotel, the flight and also the match tickets, that we received by mail in a week time.
It appears to be due to say that 3 weeks before the match there were no tickets left, and it was just a
  match between two teams in the middle of the table!
The elation at my arrive in London was over the top, I couldn't wait to see the match and maybe understand why the british soccer seems to be considered so much different from our Serie A.
We didn't plan any schedule for the match day to be free to do whatever we pleased, since we had time until 3 in the afternoon we decided to go and have a look to Stamford Bridge in the morning, it's the home of the Chelsea Football Team just a couple tube station away from the Fulham's stadium.
Even if we had already visited this stadium in a previous occasion it newly affected us for its size and position, it's so well included in such a quiet city district.
After a rapid tour around the stadium and in the store we directed ourselves to the closest Subway to get what we needed for lunch, we already decided to eat outside the Cottage before the match.

It was time to go to the tube station and make that short way to get to Putney Bridge, the closest  station to Craven Cottage.
While we were on the wagon we soon realized that it was filled in families directed to Cottage like us.
Arrived at Putney bridge we went through Bishop's park, a beautiful park where a lot of kids were having fun playing soccer in FFC's shirts and imitating their idols.
And guess who we met right around the corner?Martin Jol, Fulham's coach, who was talking with some supporters!

I was shocked!I would have never believed in something like this! We had just some Burger King vouchers with us but we immediately decided to use them to get some autographs!
In an hour time since we met Mr. Jol we saw the arrival of Richardson, Rodallega, Berbatov, Petric, Diarra, Karagounis (whit whom I had a understanding look as I said "Forza Inter"), captain Hangeland, etc..
They all have been very kind to the small group of supporters who was waiting for them and of whom I immediately became part of.
In the meantime between the great amount of people arriving to the Cottage we saw a small group of Villans arrived from Birmingham for the occasion.
Once encountred the players we had to go and have a look at the store, here I bought a graduation present for myself, the official away kit t-shirt with my name, the number of my gratuation grade and of course the premier league patches!

Then the time was up to enter in the cottage, every steward was very kind, the asked us if we needed information or help to find our seats.
Inside the stadium it was forbidden to drink alcohol or smoke, these restrictions made it a perfect place for families and kids.
During the Pre-match training Stockdale e Schwarzer (the goalkeepers) came first into view, after a couple shots Stockdale took off his sweater and geve it to a little boy who was looking astonished at him, it was likely the best day of his life :)
The match has been pretty animated. Berbatov seemed inspired and made the match hard for the Villans while it has been Chris Baird the one that made the difference on the the second half scoring  the goal that gave the victory to the Whites.
During the whole encounter the Fulham's supporters screamed their “C'mon Fulham", for us very funny has been the comment "You s**t hahahaaha!" shouted out loud every time Gouzan, the opponent goalkeeper, sent the ball back.

Getting back to the hotel, in a full tube station we also heard some Aston Villa's supporters singing
“I wanna go home, I wanna go home, London is s**t, I wanna go home".
This also was part of the show.
What a nice day, and what a beautiful Cottage...