On This Day in 2012, the American Set a New Premier League Benchmark for Fulham
The hat-trick against Newcastle on January 21, 2012, had felt like a watershed moment, but Clint Dempsey wasn't finished writing history. He rarely was.
February brought further evidence of a player operating at the very peak of his powers. A composed finish in the 1-1 draw at West Brom on February 1 took his Premier League tally to 10 for the season—double figures for the first time in his Fulham career. Nine days later, against Stoke, the goals were coming in stranger ways: a 28th-minute shot cannoned back off the crossbar, clipped goalkeeper Thomas Sørensen on the way down, and crept over the line. Technically an own goal, but everyone at Craven Cottage knew whose effort had done the damage. Then came Wolverhampton, and Dempsey was back to his most ruthless, with two goals in a 5-0 rout that left the Midlanders shell-shocked and Fulham purring.
Off the pitch, the conversation was turning to his future. On March 8, the day before his 29th birthday, manager Martin Jol confirmed that the club had opened talks over a new three-year contract. It was an unmistakable signal of intent from a club that understood, perhaps better than anyone, what they had in their midst. Then, on March 31, Dempsey scored and assisted in a 2-1 victory over Norwich, a performance that served as the perfect dress rehearsal for what was to come.
By the time Fulham made the trip north to the Reebok Stadium on April 7, they were a side in rude health. Bolton, their opponents, were anything but.
Owen Coyle's team had given their supporters genuine cause for optimism in recent weeks. Three consecutive Premier League wins, their first such run since 2006, had lifted them two places and one point above the relegation zone, and Coyle had been rewarded with the Manager of the Month award for March. Their home form had been particularly encouraging: just one defeat in their last six at the Reebok. With Fulham sitting comfortably in mid-table and missing their Russian striker, Pavel Pogrebnyak, through injury, Bolton had every reason to believe a fourth straight win was within reach. The infamous Manager of the Month curse, however, had other ideas.
Danny Murphy was also absent for Fulham, but Jol had solutions. Alex Kacaniklic, a 20-year-old Swede with Liverpool roots, earned his first start on the left. More significantly, Dempsey was deployed centrally rather than from a wider position to compensate for Pogrebnyak's absence—a tactical tweak that would prove devastating for Bolton.
Fulham had the better of the early exchanges, though Bolton showed flashes of their recent form. Ryo Miyaichi, impressive throughout the first period, shot over from 12 yards after connecting with a Martin Petrov cross. Damien Duff tested Bolton goalkeeper Adam Bogdan twice from range, his first flying wide, the second charged down, and when the ball ricocheted toward Dempsey, the American spun and fired only to see the flag correctly raised for offside. The goal was coming, though. Everyone inside the Reebok could feel it.
It arrived on the half-hour. David Ngog was penalized for a foul on Mahamadou Diarra roughly 30 yards from goal, and Dempsey stepped up with the kind of self-assurance that only comes from scoring twenty-odd times in a season. The free-kick was magnificent, bending, swerving, struck with real venom from a central position, and though Bogdan stretched high to his left and got a hand to it, he could only watch it nestle into the net. One-nil. 13 Premier League goals for the season, drawing level with Louis Saha's long-standing club record.
Bolton pressed for an equalizer but was undone by their own defensive sloppiness in first-half stoppage time. Duff, who had tormented left-back Marcos Alonso all afternoon with a masterclass in direct wing play, whipped a cross in from the right. Dempsey, arriving unmarked six yards out, met it with a clean, powerful header. Bogdan had no chance. Jol was charitable in his assessment afterward. "Dempsey was allowed to run unmarked for a free header," Coyle admitted ruefully, but the truth was simpler: leaving a player of Dempsey's quality unchecked in the box is an invitation for disaster. Bolton's defenders had accepted that invitation without hesitation.
The home side trudged off to boos at the interval, two goals down and with nothing to show for their earlier promise.
Coyle threw on Kevin Davies, Chris Eagles and Ivan Klasnic in search of a lifeline, but Fulham, liberated by their lead and buoyed by Duff's continued dominance, were always more menacing on the counter. Bogdan made two excellent saves to deny Duff in the second half, and Dempsey fired wide when a hat-trick beckoned, but a third Fulham goal arrived regardless. With 10 minutes remaining, John Arne Riise drove forward and crossed low into the area. Diarra, sliding in, steered the ball home from eight yards for his first goal in Fulham colors. Three-nil. Bolton were booed off again at the final whistle.
For Dempsey, the numbers were staggering. 14 and 15 Premier League goals for the season and 21 in all competitions across 40 appearances. Saha's record, which was held for eight years, was not merely equaled but surpassed. And crucially, as Jol was quick to point out, most of those goals had come from wide positions rather than through the middle, making the return all the more remarkable.
"When you consider he has scored most of his goals operating from a wide position," Jol said, "his success is amazing."
For Fulham, the victory had a mathematical significance too. 40 points on the board meant the safety mark had been passed, and Jol was already looking ahead with the ambition of a manager who felt his side had underachieved. "We don't need to be looking over our shoulders," he said. "The objective between now and the end of the season has to be to create a winning mentality and get as many points as possible."
For Bolton, the picture was considerably grimmer. Their three-game winning run had been built on belief and determination in equal measure, but this performance exposed the fragility beneath the surface. Facing Newcastle away on the following Monday, with relegation looming and confidence shattered, Coyle would need to find answers quickly.
For Dempsey, meanwhile, the record books had been rewritten again. And with five games still remaining, there was every reason to believe he wasn't done yet.