Fulham own goal breaks Huddersfield’s EPL duck
HUDDERSFIELD: Timothy FosuMensah’s firsthalf own goal gave Huddersfield a 10 home win against Fulham and its first Premier League victory of the season yesterday.
FosuMensah headed into his own net, under pressure from Town’s Christopher Schindler, as Huddersfield halted an eightgame home run without a topflight goal and moved above Fulham and Cardiff at the foot of the table.
It was Socceroo Aaron Mooy’s 100th appearance for the Terriers, and manager David Wagner was also able to celebrate on the night of his third anniversary in charge with a moraleboosting victory.
He did not realise the goal had gone down as a FosuMensah own goal until after the match, but was not too interested.
‘‘I don’t care who scored it or how we performed footballwise because I think everybody knows we are able to play better,’’ he said on Sky Sports.
‘‘Everyone has seen the pressure was on for both teams and how our players fought, their spirit and attitude. I think they left everything on the grass.’’
For Wagner, the only thing that mattered was picking up a first win of the season.
‘‘This is huge for us,’’ he said. ‘‘For sure, this is one of the most important wins which we have had in the last three years.’’
The home team’s fans had witnessed a winless league run stretching back to April — 14 league games in total — and the win shifted attention to Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic.
It was Fulham’s fifth successive league defeat and his side’s own run without a league win was extended to eight matches.
Huddersfield almost halted its barren spell in spectacular fashion when Philip Billing’s 27m thunderbolt struck the crossbar in the 15th minute.
Steve Mounie headed Mooy’s cross tamely over soon after and Alex Pritchard’s brilliant effort from outside the area was expertly clawed away by Fulham goalkeeper Sergio Rico.
But Huddersfield’s agonising wait for a goal at John Smith’s Stadium was finally over in the 29th minute, making it 659 minutes in total.
Chris Lowe crossed deep from the left and German centrehalf Schindler saw his header deflect into the net off FosuMensah.
It was the 29th goal conceded this season by Fulham, which did not manage a single effort on target before the break, such was Huddersfield’s whirlwind firsthalf performance.
Jokanovic sent on Kevin McDonald and Cyrus Christie for Luciano Vietto and FosuMensah at the interval and the Londoners began the second half with more intent.
Christie’s cutback was cleared behind by Hogg and Mooy headed away the corner as Fulham began to make a fist of it.
Schindler blocked Aleksandar Mitrovic’s shot and Andre Schurrle’s effort was ruled out for an offside decision in the 74th minute.
Schurrle shot off target again but Town was not to be denied as the first topflight meeting between the sides since 1952 ended in its favour.
‘‘We are without power, we are without intensity, especially the first 45 minutes,’’ a beleaguered Jokanovic told Sky.
‘‘At the end, we didn’t find enough quality, enough pace for the goal.’’ — BPA/Reuters