History of Fulham F.C.

During this period, businessman and politician Henry Norris was the club chairman and curiously he had an indirect role in the foundation of Fulham's local rivals Chelsea.

Fulham narrowly missed out on back-to-back promotions to the First Division, losing 1–0 to Derby County away on the last day of the 1982–83 season – although the match was abandoned after 88 minutes due to a pitch invasion.

The intervention of the Football League and the emergence of a consortium fronted by ex-player Jimmy Hill allowed the club to stay in business as a re-structured Fulham FC (1987) Ltd.

In the same year, the club took part in the longest penalty decider recorded to that time – it needed 28 spot kicks to sort out a winner between them and Aldershot in a Freight Rover Trophy match.

This was somewhat ironic, as the club's then chairman Jimmy Hill had successfully argued that goals scored should decide positions of teams tied on points at the Football League's 1992 AGM.

After an argument over team selection, Wilkins left the club in May 1998 to hand over the full managerial duties to Keegan, who steered the club to a spectacular promotion the next season, winning 101 points out of a possible 138, after splashing £1.1 million to sign Paul Peschisolido from West Bromwich Albion who was top scorer and captained by Chris Coleman, then the most expensive footballer outside the top two divisions of the English league.

During this season, club captain and subsequent manager Chris Coleman was involved in a car crash which put him out of action for well over a year and eventually ended his playing career after he failed to make a sufficient recovery.

But an awful run of results, culminating in a 4–0 home defeat by Blackburn Rovers led him to be sacked before the season came to an end with relegation desperately near.

This result consigned them to the foot of the table and left them as the season's favourites for early relegation contenders with the bookies, but then recovered well and were riding as high as eighth at one point in December 2006.

During the January transfer window, Coleman added Russian midfielder Alexey Smertin, American winger Clint Dempsey and fellow countryman Simon Davies to the squad, and captured exciting loan signing Vincenzo Montella.

On 10 April 2007, following defeats at the hands of Manchester City (3–1) and Everton (4–1), Fulham terminated the contracts of Chris Coleman and Steve Kean with immediate effect, while Northern Ireland manager Lawrie Sanchez and Les Reed were put in charge on an interim basis.

January signing Clint Dempsey took the game by the scruff of the neck in the 68th minute, combining neatly with English right-back Liam Rosenior to earn Sanchez his first victory and ensure safety for the West Londoners.

Despite a return of just 4 points from a possible 15, Sanchez had retained Fulham's top-flight status and was rewarded for his efforts with a permanent contract, subsequently resigning as Northern Ireland manager on Friday 11 May 2007.

The majority of Sanchez's purchases, however, were players from the Northern Ireland set-up, including Steven Davis, David Healy, Aaron Hughes and Chris Baird.

In their third fixture of the season, at home to Gareth Southgate's Middlesbrough, striker and club captain Brian McBride was seriously injured in the process of opening the scoring, before Tony Warner's mistake allowed 'Boro back into the game.

Fulham's misery and Sanchez's fury was compounded when Healy's injury time strike was incorrectly ruled out by the linesman, despite clearly crossing the goal-line.

Both games showcased the good and bad aspects of Fulham's play under Sanchez – incisive attacking football undone by continued poor defending.

Though the former Wimbledon defender oversaw a second win of the campaign at home to Reading, he was dismissed on 21 December 2007, after a defeat by Newcastle United, with Fulham in the relegation zone.

The squad's spine was strengthened with the signings of Brede Hangeland, Leon Andreasen, Eddie Johnson, Erik Nevland and veteran former Liverpool striker, Jari Litmanen.

Canadian captain and right-back Paul Stalteri and Finland's Toni Kallio were also signed on loan from Tottenham and Young Boys, respectively.

A drab 3–1 home defeat at the hands of Roy Keane's Sunderland side left Hodgson on the verge of tears in the post-match press conference and many pundits writing off Fulham's survival chances.

Fans contended that although Hodgson's side were markedly improved defensively, and retained possession much better than under either Coleman or Sanchez, with aesthetically pleasing football, a lack of firepower up front and the failure to settle on a first-choice XI had hurt the team and caused vital points to be dropped.

Despite the negative press, Hodgson continued to believe survival was attainable and rallied his team to win four of their remaining five games and secure their Premier League position for the 2008–09 season.

McBride and Erik Nevland struck to lift Fulham out of the relegation zone for the first time in months and leave survival in the club's own hands.

Barring a seven-goal margin win by Reading, a Fulham victory against a Portsmouth side looking ahead to their first FA Cup Final appearance in 69 years would guarantee survival.

Kamara, however, earned Fulham a free-kick with 76 minutes played, and Bullard's delivery found Danny Murphy, who headed home the decisive goal, sparking manic celebrations from the travelling fans.

They also beat Leicester City in the League Cup, but it was a nervy affair for Fulham, who won 3–2 after being 2–1 down with seven minutes to play, Danny Murphy scoring the winner in stoppage time.

This saw them cement their place in mid-table, where they still remain at ninth position in the third week of March 2009, a month in which they have had mixed results, losing 1–2 to lowly ranked Blackburn and 0–1 to Hull City, but sensationally prevailing 2–0 on 21 March 2009 at Craven Cottage against Premier League defending champions and 2008–09 leaders Manchester United, who had two players, Paul Scholes and Wayne Rooney, sent off.

The following season saw Fulham achieve arguably its greatest success reaching the 2009-10 Europa League Final losing to Atlético Madrid 2–1 after extra time.

In his first full season as manager, Parker led the club straight back to the Premier League after defeating Brentford 2–1 in the 2020 Championship play-off final.

A minute's silence for Jim Langley
Fulham (White) playing Portsmouth (Blue) in front of Fulham fans in the Hammersmith End.
Fulham playing in light blue against Bolton Wanderers in the FA Cup 2005.