Fulham keep cool in surge up to second
FULHAM sold this game as their shot at ‘Reademption’. And while they didn’t dole out the thrashing of Reading that would have atoned for last season’s play-off heartache, there was plenty of satisfaction.
The leapfrogging of Cardiff City into the automatic promotion places, for one thing, and the extension of their unbeaten league run to a 20th match, of which 16 have been wins.
Craven Cottage went wild when news of Jack Grealish’s late winner for Aston Villa against Cardiff filtered through. ‘The Whites are going up,’ they sang as thousands of cardboard clackers clacked. Thanks to that, and Stefan Johansen’s first-half winner here, Fulham lead Cardiff by a point.
They have hunted the Welsh side relentlessly and have emerged from the pack with perfect timing to steal in front with the finish line in sight.
Cardiff have a game in hand, at Derby on April 24, but that will be far from easy and there’s no telling what psychological effect that eroded lead, which stood at seven points at the start of the month, will have.
Avoiding the lottery of the play- offs would be Fulham’s true redemption for last year, when Reading beat them 2-1 on aggregate in the semi-finals.
This was far from a vintage display, however, and Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic continued to toe the party line.
‘The situation is not under our control, it will depend on Cardiff,’ he said. ‘We achieved our first target, we must be ready for the next step.’
Fulham started sluggishly and could easily have fallen behind when Jon Dadi Bodvarsson stepped around keeper Marcus Bettinelli, only for Tim Ream to hack off the line.
Reading boss Paul Clement said: ‘We didn’t make things easy for them. I was pleased with our shape and we didn’t allow them time on the ball.’
But, on 25 minutes, everything clicked for the hosts like a switch being flicked. Ryan Sessegnon combined neatly with Matt Targett, who lifted a delightful ball past the Reading defence and into the path of Johansen, who could not miss his eighth goal of the season.
Aleksandar Mitrovic, the Championship’s player of the month for March and the missing piece in Fulham’s jigsaw this season, had four chances of varying degrees of difficulty between then and half-time.
After the break, their possession count topped 70 per cent as they searched for a second.
Mitrovic teed up Johansen but his earlier composure deserted him, and he was denied again after Targett’s cut-back.
However, it mattered little and, when Bacuna was shown a straight red for an ugly tackle on Sessegnon in added time, Reading’s failure was complete. For Fulham, the fun might just be getting started.