Murray makes point to rescue Brighton
When a team are 2-0 down at home and have suffered the psychological blow of missing a penalty, it helps to have a Glenn Murray on your side.
Behind after 61 minutes to goals by Andre Schurrle and Aleksandar Mitrovic, Brighton were rescued by a brace from the ageless Murray.
The second was a nerveless spotkick seven minutes from time, showing Pascal Gross, whose earlier effort had been saved, how it should be done.
“There was more pressure on the second penalty than the first,” Brighton manager Chris Hughton said. “To put it away so emphatically speaks volumes for him. There are reasons why Glenn is still going strong at 34 and most of it is his desire.”
Slavisa Jokanovic, the Fulham head coach, took what positives he could. “We have mixed sensations,” he said. “At the end we must be satisfied with a first away point, and a first hour when we showed personality and waited for our chances. But in the end we made some sloppy mistakes and paid an expensive price. Room exists ahead of us for improvement.”
Brighton looked more threatening in the frenetic early stages, but Fulham had given warning of what was to come after 15 minutes when a rare attack ended with Mitrovic heading over when scoring looked easier.
Brighton, though, passed up an even better chance after 24 minutes. With Fulham waiting for an offside flag against Murray that never came, Anthony Knockaert ran on to his own pass and when he found Murray at the second attempt, the Brighton forward was tripped by Luciano Vietto. It was a certain penalty, but Marcus Bettinelli dived low to his right to palm Gross’s uncertain kick around a post.
It summed up Brighton’s inability to turn their superiority into goals, and Fulham rubbed that in when Jean Michael Seri lobbed over the defence for Schurrle to knock in two minutes before half-time.
Brighton came back, but Solly March blazed high when put clean through by Davy Propper and after 61 minutes it looked all over. Lewis Dunk’s back-pass was short and Mitrovic shot into an empty net after Mat Ryan had saved his first attempt.
However, six minutes later Knockaert intercepted a slack pass from Schurrle and surged forward to hit a diagonal pass to Murray, who swept the ball in off Bettinelli.
With six minutes left, Mitrovic inexplicably handled a dropping clearance in his own penalty area and Murray scored confidently from the spot. “Irrespective of the balance of the play, when you’re 2-0 down it’s a relief,” Hughton said. “Had we been more clinical it’s a game we could have won.”