We take on Fulham in the Premier League on Saturday - and it's now 116 years since the Cottagers first travelled to N17 for league points.
Vivian secures first league points - 1909
Fulham’s first ever visit to our famous old White Hart Lane in the Football League was over Easter back in 1909. The celebrated amateur forward Vivian Woodward scored the only goal that afternoon in a Second Division encounter in front of 22,000 fans. We gained promotion at the first attempt by virtue of a superior goal average over third-placed West Bromwich Albion.
Ernie the first
Ernie Coquet was the first (of many) players to feature for both clubs in the Football/Premier League. The Tyneside-born full back had joined us from Reading during March, 1908 and featured in our opening Football League fixture later that year. He had started out with Seaham White Star and played for Gateshead Town prior to a two-year spell with Sunderland. He failed to make a league appearance at Roker Park and came south to Reading in 1907. His time with us yielded six Southern League appearances, eight in the FA Cup – scoring once – plus 76 in the Football League. He had a stint with Burslem Port Vale before signing for Fulham during January, 1913, making 47 League appearances prior to the Great War. He continued to play during the hostilities and ended his career with a stint at North Eastern League club Leadgate Park.
First meeting in the Premier League
The Premier League era began in 1992/93 - almost 10 years later, we faced Fulham for the first time in the competition on 15 December, 2001. We ran out 4-0 winners at the Lane thanks to goals from Les Ferdinand - more on that below - Darren Anderton, Simon Davies and Sergei Rebrov. That match represented the first time we'd faced Fulham in the top flight since 1967 - a gap of 34 years.
From first to 10,000th!
Les Ferdinand's opener against Fulham in that meeting in 2001 proved to be a champagne moment for one of the great strikers of the modern era - it was the Premier League's 10,000th goal! It was quite a week for 'Sir Les', who scored a hat-trick against Bolton in the League Cup three days earlier. Les was handed £10,000 to donate to a charity of his choice for his landmark goal. There was another landmark that day as well - Teddy Sheringham's 700th league appearance.
Back to firsts - the start of something special...
Gareth Bale's first goal for us came against Fulham in the Premier League at Craven Cottage on 1 September, 2007. It was a trademark clinical finish from Bale - 18 at the time - after running onto Robbie Keane’s pass. However, it would be mixed feelings for the superstar in the making. His goal put us 3-1 up on the hour mark after earlier goals from Younes Kaboul and Dimitar Berbatov, but the Cottagers hit back through an own goal and a late leveller from Diomansy Kamara for 3-3. Bale went on to score 71 goals in 237 appearances for us over two spells, 2007-2013 and 2020/21.