Fulham 0-1 West Ham
An unfortunate own goal by Harrison Reed decided the London derby and meant the Cottagers couldn’t gain any ground on the other teams chasing European football.
The loss now means that Fulham has not scored any points in four games and has been winless since mid-February. It’s a run of results that has been undoing all the hard work achieved in the first half of the season.
Fulham started off the brighter of the two teams, controlling possession but ultimately, were unable to create any real chances.
The key moment came in the 23rd minute when Jarrod Bowen picked up a loose ball and jinked his way to the byline, before rifling a low cross across the box. Reed couldn’t do much about it as it deflected off his ankle and past Bernd Leno.
It was a contentious goal, as moments before, Vladimír Coufal could easily have been penalised for handball.
After this, West Ham were more than happy to sit back and absorb what little pressure that Fulham could muster.
Willian had a handful of runs that cut through West Ham’s midfield – but ultimately were easily dealt with by the Hammer’s defence.
Fulham had 78 per cent possession at the end of the first half but had no shots on target. The lack of an attacking threat upfront will be worrying for Marco Silva, who will be without the services of their talisman, Aleksandar Mitrovic, who is serving an eight-game suspension.
Silva, who himself is serving a two-match touchline ban and could only watch from the stands, made a couple of changes in the second half by bringing on Tom Cairney and Manor Solomon.
Fulham came out in the second half with more impetus, but much like the first half, they couldn’t find the right final ball or cross.
There was a bright spot in this lacklustre performance, with Tosin Adarabioyo putting in an assured performance, keeping West Ham’s Michail Antonio largely quiet throughout the game.
The game looked to slowly peter out, however, there was a grandstand last 10 minutes of the game.
It saw Andreas Pereira with a chance to level after being played through on goal by Morais, but Fabianski was quick to palm the ball away from the Fulham midfielder.
Tosin also had a strong chance, connecting on a cross, but once again, it was comfortably into Fabianski’s arms.
And Leno kept Fulham in the game in stoppage time, after Maxwell Cornet was fed through on goal with a one on one which was easily saved by the German.
Fulham travel to Goodison Park to face Everton on Saturday and will be hoping that some of their attackers pack their shooting boots.
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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