Ful force without Mitrovic
ALEK DRAWS A BLANK BUT SILVA’S BOYS STILL GOLDEN
THE records keep mounting up for Fulham – as their charge back to the Premier League shows no sign of slowing.
Marco Silva’s runaway leaders were never in trouble against a poor Blackburn side who were two goals behind after 35 minutes and whose promotion challenge is in real danger of fizzling out.
The Cottagers have now netted 84 Championship goals – and need just 16 to break Reading’s record of 99 when they went up in 2005/06 and hit the century mark.
And who would back against them, with 12 games left? Aleksandar Mitrovic, already the Championship’s record scorer with 34 goals from his 31 games this term, didn’t find the net. Instead, it was Neeskens Kebano (scoring, below) and Harry Wilson that grabbed the goals.
Rovers must be sick of the sight of Fulham – they were walloped 7-0 at home by the Cottagers in November.
But boss Silva said: “We’re not here to break records. We don’t look at that. I didn’t even know that statistic. We have a clear aim, to get promotion, and the rest of it will come. Everyone is talking about Mitrovic and the amount of goals he scores. But if you take the goals from Mitrovic away, we are the second or third best attack in this league.”
Fulham, who have now won nine of their last 11 league games, were at Rovers from the off and soon ahead.
Neco Williams’ shot was spilled by Rovers keeper Thomas Kaminski – and Kebano pounced to stab in the rebound (left).
The hosts doubled their lead when Tosin Adarabioyo’s fine ball evaded Harry Pickering, Wilson burst away, and dinked his shot
NEE BOTHER
over Kaminski. “We want seven!” sang the crowd.
But Rovers fought back and Sam Gallagher had a goal disallowed, and then Fulham keeper Marek Rodak had to save at the feet of Ryan Giles.
Fulham were an inch away from a third goal near the end, when Wiiliams broke from his own box, chipped Kaminski from 45 yards – only to see the ball come back off the bar.
Rovers boss Tony Mowbray said: “We suffered from the mistakes we made. Thomas has to hold his hands up for both goals – but he has been fantastic for us this year.”
FULHAM: Rodak 7; Williams 8 (Tete 84), Adarabioyo 7, Ream 7, Robinson 7; Reed 7, Seri 7 (Chalobah 77); Wilson 7, Carvalho 7, Kebano 7 (Decordova Reid 84); Mitrovic 7. Subs not used: Gazzaniga, Hector, Cavaleiro, Muniz. BLACKBURN: Kaminski 5; Lenihan 6, Van Hecke 6, Wharton 6; Zeefuik 6 (Rankin-costello 18, 6), Travis 6, Johnson 6, Pickering 5; Giles 6, Dolan 6 (Rothwell 65, 6), Khadra 5 (Gallagher 46, 6). Subs not used: Pears, Davenport, Hedges, Buckley. MAN OF THE MATCH: Neco Williams. Liverpool loanee set up the first goal, never stopped - and almost scored from 45 yards. REFEREE: David Webb 7.