After Fulham had squandered three successive penalty kicks (Aleks Mitrovic, Ademola Lookman and Ivan Cavaleiro) my editor emailed me to ask:
‘Who will step up next time?’
In recent years the club has tended to assign this task to a striker – Aleksandar Mitrovic, Ross McCormack or (less productively) Chris Martin.
Before them it was a defender or midfielder, someone who might not score many goals in open play but had a high success rate with a dead ball. There is probably a player like that in the present team, but the defenders are new signings, still establishing themselves, whilst the strikers have proved problematic.
I found it hard to respond to my editor’s query and I certainly would not have suggested Ivan Cavaleiro after his unfortunate skid-kick against Everton.
For an answer we only needed to wait 38 minutes of Monday’s match at Leicester. Bobby DeCordova clashed with Christian Fuchs just inside the area and after checking his TV screen the referee Simon Hooper awarded Fulham a penalty. It was Ivan who stepped forward and calmly placed the ball beyond Kaspar Schmeichel’s left hand. The demon had been vanquished.
Goal ahead
It may have helped Cavaleiro’s state of mind that Fulham were already a goal ahead and looking superior to their well reputed hosts. Eight minutes before the penalty Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa (who seems to improve each match) had released Lookman to score an unchallenged goal, which should banish all further talk of that miss against West Ham.
The Whites thoroughly deserved their 2-0 half-time lead, Leicester having threatened only in the early stages. For once it was not Fulham that faced a tongue-lashing in the interval. Brendan Rodgers’s team showed far more purpose thereafter but were held at bay until the 83rd minute when Jamie Vardy made a goal for substitute Harvey Barnes.
For the first time in the match, Fulham supporters felt uneasy especially with Schmeichel joining the hunt for an equaliser. Yet this could have worked in our favour. Mitrovic, who had come on four minutes after the goal, had the opportunity of taking the ball forward and shooting into the empty goal. Sadly, his speed and his confidence are not yet fully restored. Never mind – no fan will carp about a 2-1 away win at Leicester.
Ademola Lookman had celebrated his goal by waving high the Senegal jersey of Papa Bouba Diop, who had died the day before the match at the age of 42.
Papa signed for Fulham in 2004 and it is almost exactly 16 years since his rocket-propelled equaliser against Manchester United. That and his consolation goal against Chelsea will live on in the memory of those supporters fortunate enough to have witnessed them.
Lookman’s goal and the subsequent celebration, together with Cavaleiro’s successful penalty, reflect very well on the players, their manager Scott Parker and indeed the whole Fulham set-up.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
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