Mitrovic strike is just gr-eight
RYAN Sessegnon and Aleksandar Mitrovic kept Fulham in the hunt for automatic promotion as Slavisa Jokanovic’s side swept aside league leaders Wolves.
Sessegnon opened the scoring from Mitrovic’s parried shot before half time, before the striker added a second with a stunning strike.
But despite a week that has seen his side pick up seven points against promotion rivals, Jokanovic was keen to stress that he is not glancing up the table just yet.
“I’m not looking at second place,” insisted the Fulham boss, whose side are still five points adrift of second-place Cardiff after notching thier eighth home win in a row and extending their unbeaten run to 12 games.
“I’m looking at the next game and another opportunity to fight for three points. Today will soon be history and there’ll be another important game. Where we’ll finish, I don’t know.”
On this evidence, however, few would bet against them going up. Fulham were excellent throughout and might have won by more.
The warning signs had been there for Wolves before Sessegnon broke the deadlock, most notably when Conor Coady was forced to clear off the line after Mitrovic lifted the ball over John Ruddy.
But the opening goal itself was largely self-inflicted. Ryan Bennett played a poor pass out of defence straight to Stefan Johansen, who fed Mitrovic. His shot forced a save from Ruddy, but the keeper palmed it right into the middle of the goal where no defender reacted as quickly as Sessegnon, who tapped home to continue his own fantastic form.
The teenager also scored the opener a week ago in another crucial home win over Aston Villa and has discovered a happy knack of being in the right place at the right time.
“Many times he arrives at the right moment, in the right position to score the goal,” said Jokanovic. “He has some sense of where the ball is going to arrive. And today he showed that again.
“We’ve tried working with him on that but there’s also something coming naturally. He’s a special kid and has special ability too.” It was no more than Fulham deserved but Wolves were surprisingly poor.
Helder Costa carried a threat sporadically on the break but made poor decisions and Ivan Cavaleiro forced Marcus Bettinelli into a couple of fine saves but striker Leo Bonatini was anonymous and they badly missed the suspended Ruben Neves.
Fulham wrapped up the points in style with 20 minutes left. Mitrovic first showed his strength to hold the ball up with his back to goal, before turning away from Coady and rifling the ball past Ruddy from 25 yards.
The visitors almost got one back five minutes from time but Diogo Jota spooned the ball over an open goal after good work from Benik Afobe.
It means it is now three games without a win for Wolves, their worst run of the season. And while manager Nuno Espirito Santo will not panic, he did admit his side need to get better all over the pitch.
“We need to improve in every aspect, not only offensively but in the defensive part of the pitch too, we are conceding goals too. So we’ll look at everything, as we always do,” he said.
“This week will be very good for us because we can fix the problems, and find solutions.”