Is Fulham's terrible away report something of days gone by? - Cottagers Confidential

After last Sunday's victory over Tottenham, you can sense a change in course from Martin Jol which could mean a promising future. Have Fulham ultimately turned that challenging corner? That part that's proved sharp and so difficult lately that we've been nothing lacking laughing stocks when from Craven Cottage. That place that's proven therefore eerily hard to understand that providing a point back once again to The West London, seemingly wherever we have gone, was seen as a job rather than a failure. That unremitting part that has created a between mid-table mediocrity and upper-echelon beauty. For Fulham have now been horrible overseas for the very best section of six years. Bitter disappointment has been invariably brought by travails outside of SW6 to a faithful who have earned far, far better. But on Sunday, once we beat Tottenham Hotspur 1-0, there clearly was an unusual perfection to the performance. A German effectiveness in the event that you will - and not just in the arms of Sascha Riether. We'd a - an plan - to contain Spurs, a top-four group of the greatest credentials and pedigree. We coped with their overwhelming speed with unnerving ease, notwithstanding our aging right back line. Gareth Bale, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Kyle Naughton - they caused us no problems at all. Bale was quietened by a combination of working tactical enforcement and some good-old-fashioned grit and determination while Assou-Ekotto and Naughton could not use their blistering speed to any kind of useful effect. And while our method of containment was working a delicacy, there was a little, yet still noticeable, sense of experience to just how we setup. We were not afraid to drive Tottenham, safe in the knowledge that their weary eleven might falter at any moment. Bryan Ruiz was important, Dimitar Berbatov characteristically sublime. I was asked, once, if Berbatov was a luxury we couldn't afford far from the Cottage and my retort was easy and plain - he is a luxury we can not afford to abandon. Yes, a part of our game is dedicated to holding him, dedicated to his design, nevertheless when you're on the rear foot, perhaps washing up stress, what is better than having a new player that will change a on its head in one wonderful, quick second? Nothing. When we lauded Bobby Zamora for the part he used to play within our escapades outside of Fulham, were we lauding him due to his technical brilliance? His essential goals? Rarely. He was the last man; the man who could offer our defence an opportunity to breathe and re-shape. But with Berbatov, there's that inevitable section of threat and Martin Jol has finally found ways to use him for what he's worth. And it's a credit to us that people took this in the right path, beyond our former, 'a pull can do ' style of play. Because Fulham, since the away team, put up completely against Spurs last Sunday. The balance was pinpoint, the delivery faultless. And if Jol may continue steadily to shape the team with such success, our away morning blues may be beyond us. But, as with everything Fulham, we can only hope it will be that easy.