Whites bag three points ahead of international break

Fulham 3-1 Sheffield United

Last Saturday afternoon saw Sheffield United visit a sunny Craven Cottage.

Few would have begrudged Marco Silva making wholesale changes to the Fulham team that performed so pitifully against Chelsea, but he showed mercy. Bobby DeCordova-Reid, Carlos Vinicius and Alex Iwobi were the only replacements in the starting line-up. While Tim Ream was able to complete 300 appearances, a staggering achievement in an era of constant change at the club.

Fulham did look more purposeful this time as they tore into United. Willian, so disappointing on Monday, was in much sharper form, making chances as well as testing the keeper Wes Foderingham, but no goals resulted. The visitors rallied somewhat, and the game lost its momentum.

Awkward fall

In the 23rd minute, United’s captain Chris Basham fell awkwardly and broke his leg. Tim Ream, closest to the accident, stayed with Basham up to and after assistance arrived. It took nearly a quarter of an hour for the medical team safely to stretcher the unfortunate player off the pitch, to sympathetic applause from the whole crowd. All Fulham fans will join their Sheffield United counterparts in wishing Chris Basham a complete recovery from his injury.

Fortunately, these rare mischances are always disturbing. When play resumed there was little of note apart from a lovely pass from Willian that should have been converted by Pereira. The latter atoned for his miss after the interval. Set free by Vinicius he laid on a glorious chance that Bobby DeCordova-Reid stylishly put beyond the keeper’s reach.

United now had to show more positivity, and Oli McBirnie came close before his colleagues contrived a fortuitous equaliser. Issa Diop, attempting to clear, lost possession and fell to the ground. In the subsequent attack, Antonee Robinson deflected Yosser Larouci’s centre past Bernd Leno. Home fans were unhappy that the visitors had ignored Diop’s injury but if the situation had been reversed, they would certainly have urged Fulham to play on. Fortunately, Issa was able to continue.

Here comes Tom

Tom Cairney’s entry always gives hope and in the 76th minute shortly after taking the field he supplied the winning goal. It was a strange looping shot that rebounded into the net off the underside of the crossbar and the back of the keeper’s head. In added time, Willian’s much more impressive strike completed the victory.

This welcome result moved Fulham closer to the comfort of mid-table. The team will not play another Premier League match until Monday 23 October, giving Marco Silva more time to sort out his front line.

Worth the price of admission?

Unbelievably, the next home match in the League is not until 4 November. The visitors then will be Manchester United and a Riverside ticket will cost as much as £160, which with additional time works out at nearly £2 a minute. Will the quality of the football match the price?

A full-page article in last weekend’s Independent put it bluntly “Fulham fans don’t deserve to have their wallets emptied”. Sam Cunningham unfavourably compared the present regime with Mohammed Al Fayed whilst acknowledging how the latter undermined his brilliant manager Jean Tigana.

Much worse, in my view, was Al Fayed’s attempt to dupe the fans into believing that he was about to modernise Craven Cottage when he was really negotiating with developers who wanted the site for luxury flats. Cunningham refers to Tony Banks’s recently released book The Great Adventure, which throws more light on the subject.