Fulham have the Look of survivors
COMETH the hour, cometh the Ademola Lookman. After 60 minutes of struggling to beat a Sheffield United side that came here to defend, Fulham won their must-win match.
Lookman — the winger on loan from RB Leipzig — drilled the ball between the legs of keeper Aaron Ramsdale and, suddenly, Fulham are within t ouching distance of Newcastle.
Toon boss Steve Bruce reacted to Scott Parker’s confident talk of surviving by reminding him that Fulham had won only once in their last 14 matches. Now they’ve won twice in three games.
Maybe now Bruce will admit he’s starting to get nervous. The gap was ten points, then six, then three, if Newcastle cannot avoid defeat by Manchester United at Old Trafford today.
Sadly for Chris Wilder, whose side surprised and entertained us l ast season, it l ooks l i ke t he Premier League badges on their sleeves will soon be replaced by EFL ones.
Many fans feel the race against relegation is between Fulham and Newcastle. It is up to the Premier League’s bottom side to drag themselves back into the debate.
When out of possession — and they went without the ball for long periods — Wilder’s Blades formed a compact back five.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek was seeing plenty of the ball in the No10 position but with so many bodies blocking his route to goal Fulham struggled to get into the box.
They started trying their luck from distance instead. One low drive from Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa zipped narrowly wide, before Loftus-Cheek fired a hitand-hope shot over.
After half an hour the statistics said the visitors — a side made up of all British and Irish players — had not managed a single shot.
With zero service, strikers Billy Sharp and Oli McBurnie had spent the game standing by the halfway line watching Fulham keep the ball. Wilder made a tweak, telling Ethan Ampadu — the 20-year-old Wales international on loan from Chelsea — to move from defence into midfield.
His side started seeing more of the ball but still didn’t manage a shot in the first half, which ended with Loftus- Cheek meeting a corner and heading over.
The vi s i t o r s had not e ven managed a touch of the ball in the Fulham box in the opening 45 minutes. If this was a relegation cup final, United were fortunate that it remained 0-0.
Parker walked towards the tunnel speaking to referee Martin Atkinson. He felt Wilder’s side had spent the half kicking his players, and yet the game’s only booking had gone to Anguissa.
Neither manager made a change a t hal f - t i me a nd t he match followed a similar theme. Fulham tried their best to find a way through, and United tried their best to stop them. Yet within five minutes of the restart, defender Chris Basham had to be replaced after picking up a problem. Ampadu returned to the right of the back three as a result.
In the 53rd minute Loftus-Cheek and his long limbs danced their way through the defence. He got his shot away, but George Baldock got back to clear on the line.
In the 55th minute we saw a rare thing — a touch in the opposition box by United. Sharp couldn’t keep his header down and the offside flag was raised anyway.
After an hour, the deadlock was broken, and it went to the team that had been knocking on the door. Joachim Andersen drove a l ong ball i nto Lookman, who barged his way beyond Ampadu to drill a shot between the legs of Ramsdale.
Wilder’s men would have to start pushing further up the pitch and they had their first shot on target in the 65th minute.
Enda Stevens tried to copy Lookman in nutmegging Alphonse Areola, but Fulham’s keeper kept his legs closed, much to Parker’s relief. Areola then made a great late block to save the day.