Fulham’s highway kickabout

Spare a thought for Fulham. As if a tough 17-hour bus trip to Germany to play Hamburg in a Europa League semi-final first-leg match on Thursday was not enough, they were held up in stationery traffic for over three hours after a huge accident en route. Undeterred, the squad held a short training session on the side of the road. "Of course it will be a little bit harder for us. It's not an ideal situation,” commented manager Roy Hodgson of the long journey. "It was 17 hours from leaving Motspur Park to arriving at the Hyatt Hotel in Hamburg. But three hours of that was standing kicking a ball about thanks to a traffic accident on the autobahn.” Fulham did not fly because of the airline chaos caused by the Iceland Volcano eruption.