- Ask Steven
A Fulham omen
I'm a Fulham supporter and - to cheer me up after looking at the current league table - my Dad told me they regularly flirted with relegation in the 1960s but never went down. What's the story? asked Mark Cowton
Well, it's nearly true! Under their former striker Bedford Jezzard, Fulham finished tenth in the First (top) Division in 1959-60, their highest-ever position until they were ninth in 2003-04.
After that, though, they struggled for a few seasons. Managed by Jezzard and then Vic Buckingham, they were often dicing with the drop but escaped.
Fulham's most notable Houdini act was in 1965-66, when they were well adrift at the bottom of the table at the end of February, with just 15 points from 29 (of 42) games.
But a series of victories, many against leading teams, saw them escape again.
It couldn't last, though, and in 1967-68 Fulham did eventually fall into the Second Division - and the following year they did even worse, plummeting into the Third.
They did not return to the top flight - by then called the Premier League - until 2001-02, after topping the second-tier table in 2000-01 with an impressive 101 points.
