Heroes & Villains – Fulham
Hero – Johnny Haynes
Haynes is Fulham’s most famous player. He is held in such high-regard by the club that they decided to name Archibald Leitch’s main stand after him.
He spent his entire career at Fulham, making 657 appearances and scored 157 goals. His first came a year before he made his senior team debut at Fulham, making six appearances on loan at non-league Wimbledon in 1951. Nine years later, Haynes would go on loan to Toronto City in Canada during the pre-season of 1961/62.
One of the most memorable things about Haynes was that he was the first player to earn £100 a week. This came about in 1961 after Jimmy Hill’s fight to get an abolition of the maximum wage which was £20 per week at the time.
Haynes won 56 caps for England over the course of his career and was selected for three World Cup squads. He captained England on 22 of those occasions and scored a total of 18 goals for his country.
He missed the 1962/63 season after being involved in a car crash in the summer of 1962. After the accident, Haynes was never really the same player. He had damaged his knee and broken bones in his feet and never played for England again.
In 1968, Fulham were relegated from the First Division and manager Bobby Robson was fired from his job. Haynes took charge of the club as Player-Manager for only 18 days the following season but never wanted to take on a role as manager on a full-time basis. The club were relegated down to the Third in that season.
Haynes played his last professional match for Fulham’s first-team on 17th January 1970 at the age of 35. He then moved out to South Africa and played a season at Durban City in the South African National Football League.
Villains – Chelsea
Fulham fans consider Chelsea to be their main rivals. The two didn’t play each other for sixteen years, due to Fulham dropping down to the lower leagues in the late 1980’s.
When Fulham were promoted to the Premier League in 2001, the first fixture that their fans looked for was the games against Chelsea. They also played each other in the 2002 FA Cup Semi Final, Chelsea edging out their West London neighbours by a goal to nil.
Fulham beat Chelsea at Craven Cottage on 19th March 2006, to record their first victory in the fixture for 26 years. A few fans from either side made their way onto the pitch and there a few scuffles between the two sets of fans. There were a few arrests but it was not on the same scale as the dark days of the 70’s and 80’s.
The victory in 2006 was the last time that Fulham beat Chelsea, drawing 7 and losing 12 of the last 19 matches between the two.
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