Parker provides small hope after season to forget
FINALLY, the wise elders of Fulham have something, a straw to clutch at when they go over the mess of this season. It has been awful, as they well know, but now they can at least avoid the sheer horror of comparisons to Derby County.
For a time, that looked like it might be the final indignity of this brief visit to the Premier League, that Fulham would somehow log fewer than the three points in away fixtures Derby managed 11 years ago.
A horrible record to have, that one. Really grubby. But for Fulham the scare has passed, with this win jumping them from two points through 17 away games to five from 18. A small win in the scheme of a relegation season, but plenty of face saved, courtesy of Aleksandar Mitrovic’s penalty eight minutes into the second half.
With it, Scott Parker can maybe feel rather more comfortable about his application to be the next permanent manager.
Parker had a tough start with five straight losses, but with back-to-back wins against Everton and Bournemouth, he can rightly point to progress being made, particularly in coaxing successive clean sheets from a defence that previously was not fit for purpose.
In doing so, he seems to have united and energised a fan base that reached breaking point in the massive anticlimax of this season.
‘Seven or eight weeks ago I spoke about how distanced the fans were from the team and I wanted to bring them closer and they have been first class,’ Parker said.
‘That is really pleasing for me. Hopefully they have had a couple of good weekends.’
‘Winning is a habit and next year we have to win as many as we can in the Championship. This is a league we want to be back in and these wins give us a stepping stone to that target.’
For Eddie Howe, there was more head scratching on the occasion of his 500th game in management. His side have followed an odd pattern this season and just as a corner appeared to be turned in the thrashing of Brighton last weekend, they went and tripped on their laces again. This one looked bad for Bournemouth even before kickoff. Adam Smith was injured while warming up, starting a chain of reshuffles at right back. Junior Stanislas was drafted in from the bench to fill the spot, before he left the pitch on 23 minutes after hurting his right knee. On came Jack Simpson and Steve Cook shuffled over to fullback, leaving four centre-halves in Howe’s backline. It never looked balanced, but still it was Bournemouth who had the best of the early chances. Callum Wilson, Josh King and Ryan Fraser all had excellent opportunities but were either wasteful in their finishing or denied by Fulham’s goalkeeper Sergio Rico, the most impressive player on the pitch. Fulham’s winner came after Mitrovic was clumsily brought down by Simpson. He sent Artur Boruc the wrong way with his kick. Howe said: ‘We created a lot and and didn’t score. After being so clinical last week, it is hard to figure out.’