MITRO GLITCH It’s Ful stop for Alek as Serb hitman fails to hit the spot

THE battle of the Premier League’s Portuguese galleons ended as a tactical no surrender.

Wolves manager Bruno Lage and countryman Marco Silva will fight another day as the only thing that sank here was expectation.

Aleksandar Mitrovic saw his penalty saved by Wolves keeper Jose Sa and it will feel like a loss for Fulham boss Silva, especially as Mitrovic scored from the spot against Liverpool a week ago.

The big Serbian striker (right) last failed to nail a penalty in August of last year and would have felt more than confident when he stepped up to take this one in the 80th minute.

Wolves defender Rayan Ait-Nouri had tripped Bobby Decordova-Reid during a rare Fulham attack.

But Sa guessed right and was able to block Mitrovic’s only real threat of the game.

Tempers frayed during seven minutes of added time, one flare-up between Mitrovic and Wolves’ Morgan

Gibbs-White resulting in a head-tohead meeting and a yellow card for both.

Fulham, then, have still not won away to Wolves in the league since 1985, but Silva’s yo-yo-ing Premier League new boys can be satisfied with a start to the campaign that leaves them unbeaten with two points from two matches.

For Wolves, this was also a question of points squandered as they missed two gilt-edged chances in the opening three minutes.

There was a half-hour home debut for substitute Goncalo Guedes – their £27.5million signing from Valencia – but the striker was subdued by the excellent

Fulham captain Tim Ream. The Cottagers’ breezy start to the season – they scored twice in an opening day draw with Liverpool – had clearly put them in a carefree frame of mind.

Too carefree for Silva’s liking in the opening three minutes, though, by which time Wolves could well have been 2-0 ahead.

That they weren’t was down to goalkeeper Marek Rodak, who saved twice at the near post to deny Pedro Neto and then Hwang Hee-Chan as they bore down on goal from a position Fulham defender Kenny Tete had made notable by his absence.

But by the time Wolves skipped through for a third time, even Rodak’s calm nature had gone missing. This time, he flapped and fumbled in the face of Neto’s return.

But when the wideman squared the ball for Daniel Podence he somehow slotted wide from eight yards out.

Fulham’s first-half threat amounted to a slashing first-time volley high over the bar from Mitrovic and a header from a corner by Decordova-Reid.

A goalless first half after those early chances seemed to indicate a draining of energy in the sweltering conditions.

But it was poise that Morgan GibbsWhite lacked – rather than energy – when his well-timed run took him on to Ait-Nouri’s cross at the start of the second half. The midfielder stretched, but only succeeded in scooping the ball over from two yards.