It’s drastic plastic as Fulham flag

PLASTIC pollution is one of the biggest threats to the planet’s environment – and that’s just at the football.

According to eco-warriors, the top five pollutants clogging up our oceans are single-use bags, bottles, straws, food wrappers and synthetic ropes.

But on night like this, you can add plastic flags they give away at matches to the contaminants giving dolphins and turtles rough nights.

Fulham left plastic flags (above) on thousands of seats so fans could greet their players with a mosaic of black and white when they emerged from the tunnel at Craven Cottage.

Others were armed with those cardboard clappers which make more noise than a pair of hands, but nobody takes them home.

Nice ideas, shame about the sustainability.

Craven Cottage has always been one of the country’s most atmospheric grounds and, unlike certain clubs not a million stops up the District Line, there are not many ‘plastic’ fans on the database.

They don’t need synthetic flags to crank up the volume in the Hammersmith end – they just need standard-bearers for the cause: Haynes, Hill, Cohen, Best, Marsh.

But Fulham got off to the worst possible start and there weren’t many bin-liners on a stick fluttering in the 11th minute.

When keeper Bernd Leno (below) escorted Luis Diaz’s deflected shot inside his near post, Fulham could have been forgiven for raising one of those white plastic flags in surrender.

Under Marco Silva, however, they are a decent side – energetic, enterprising, good to watch. And they hit back in some style.

This should not be the last time they knock at Wembley’s door.