LOOKMAN LEFT TO PAY PENALTY FOR LATE MISS
ADEMOLA LOOKMAN was heartbroken after blowing a golden opportunity to earn Fulham a point in a dramatic finish at the London Stadium.
The Cottagers only fell behind in the first minute of stoppage time when Tomas Soucek fired West Ham ahead.
But Said Benrahma then fouled Tom Cairney on the stroke of full-time to give Lookman the chance to level matters from the spot.
The youngster, incredibly, tried to beat Lukasz Fabianski with a Panenka spot-kick but scuffed the effort and the Hammers keeper almost had time to walk back to the centre of his goal and collect it.
Poor Lookman wanted the ground to open up. Not that it bothered West Ham, who didn’t half get away with it.
They had started like a train and were unlucky not to be at least a goal up, if not two or three, in the opening seven minutes and it looked like it would be a formality.
Aaron Cresswell’s shot was well blocked by Ola Aina and, when the ball fell to Arthur Masuaku, his effort required Fulham keeper Alphonse Areola to make a decent save.
Areola then reacted smartly to tip Jarrod Bowen’s wellstruck volley over his bar after it had taken a slight deflection off Aleksandar Mitrovic.
And a minute after that, Sebastien Haller rose superbly but his header hit the bar.
Fulham must have wondered what was hitting them but, credit to Scott Parker’s men, they weathered the early storm.
And it wasn’t until shortly before the half-hour mark that they could have been in trouble again, although this time Cresswell’s deep cross was met with a poor header from Bowen. By now, Fulham were knocking the ball around with zip, buoyed by West Ham’s failure to score and that win against West Brom on Monday.
They were even on top of the possession stats by the time referee Robert Jones blew his whistle for half-time, although they had failed to create any clear-cut chances.
West Ham were quickly on the front foot again at the start of the second half and Areola pulled off another fingertip save, this time getting the faintest of touches to Cresswell’s free-kick.
Bowen’s shot from the resulting corner struck Tosin Adarabioyo and left Areola stranded, but thankfully for the visitors the deflection was strong enough to send it just wide of a post.
Fulham then carved out a couple of openings but Lookman’s free-kick was comfortable for Fabianski and so, too, was Bobby De CordovaReid’s low drive.
Much of their good work stemmed from Andre-frank Anguissa but his efforts were in vain when Benrahma laid the ball to Soucek and he slotted it home before Lookman’s late disaster.