page_title: Fulham F.C.
section_title: 1949–1970: First Division Cottagers
hierarchical_section_title: Fulham F.C. / History / 1949–1970: First Division Cottagers
caption_attribution_description: English: Fulham FC in 1958 with Johnny Haynes, as player number four from left in the front line.
context_page_description: Fulham Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Fulham, London. Following the 2019-2020 season, they were promoted to the English Premier League, the highest level of the English football league system. Founded in 1879, they are London's oldest football club playing professionally.
  The club has spent 27 seasons in English football's top division, the majority of which have come in two periods during the 1960s and 2000s. The latter period was associated with former chairman Mohamed Al-Fayed, after the club had climbed up from the fourth tier in the 1990s. Fulham have reached two major finals: in 1975 they lost 2–0 against West Ham United in the FA Cup Final as a Second Division team, and in 2010 they played Atlético Madrid in the UEFA Europa League Final, losing 2–1 after extra time.
  Fulham's main rivalries are with fellow West London clubs Chelsea, Queens Park Rangers and Brentford. The club adopted a white shirt and black socks as its kit in 1903, which has been used ever since.
context_section_description: Promotion to the top tier of English football saw the club perform poorly, finishing 17th in their first year and 18th in their second. In only their third season of First Division football, Fulham finished rock bottom of the 22-team league in the 1951–52 season, winning only eight of 42 games. On 20 May 1951, Fulham played one of their first ever games in North America in an exhibition match against Celtic at Delorimier Stadium in Montreal in front of 29,000 spectators.
  Possibly the single most influential character in Fulham's history is Johnny Haynes. "Mr. Fulham" or "The Maestro," as Haynes later came to be known, signed for The Cottagers as a schoolboy in 1950, making his first team debut on Boxing Day against Southampton at Craven Cottage in the 1951/52 relegation season. Haynes played for another 18 years, notching 657 appearances (along with many other club records too), his last appearance for Fulham coming on 17 January 1970. He is often considered as the greatest player in Fulham history, and never played for another team in Britain. He gained 56 caps for England (22 as captain), with many being earned while playing for Fulham in the Second Division. Haynes was injured in a car accident in Blackpool in 1962, but by his own admissions never regained the fitness or form to play for England again, missing out on England's victory in the FIFA World Cup 1966 for which he would have stood a chance of being selected. The Stevenage Road Stand was renamed in his honour after his death in a car crash in 2005.
  Fulham reached the 1957-58 FA Cup semi-finals, the best cup run of Haynes' career and nearest he came to a major trophy win playing in England. They were eliminated in a replay by the remnants of Manchester United's Busby Babes team that had been decimated in the Munich air disaster the month before. United were the first top division team Fulham played in that cup run.  Fulham won promotion back to the First Division in the following season by finishing second to Sheffield Wednesday. Also joining Fulham in 1958 was Graham Leggat, who went on to score 134 goals in 277 appearances, (making him the club's fifth all-time top scorer). In the 1959–60 season, they achieved tenth position in the First Division, which until finishing ninth in the 2003–04 season was their highest-ever league position. This accompanied another appearance in the last four of the FA Cup in 1962.
  By this time, the club were regularly playing in front of 30,000 plus crowds at Craven Cottage, despite struggling in the League.
  The club experienced several close escapes from relegation, none more so than in 1965–66. On the morning of 26 February 1966, Fulham were bottom with just 15 points from 29 matches. The last 13 games saw Fulham win nine and draw two to reach safety. Eventually, however, the club suffered relegation in the 1967–68 season, having won just ten out of their 42 games. Even that, however, was not as catastrophic as the calamity of next season. Winning only seven in 42, the club were again relegated to the Third Division. (Note that this is not the same as the Third Division South, as the regional Third Divisions had been removed with the 1959 creation of the Fourth Division).
caption: Fulham FC in 1958 with Johnny Haynes, player number four from left in the front line.
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