Fabulous Fulham roared to a 4-2 victory at Barnsley
FULHAM boss Slavisa Jokanovic is after more of the same when Norwich come to town on Tuesday as his side ended a run of six Championship games without a victory in some considerable style against ten-man Barnsley at Oakwell.
The Cottagers twice came from behind to secure a welldeserved win on a day when the Tykes capitulated in the second period, with midfielder Josh Scowen being shown a straight red card.
And Cottagers boss Jokanovic was clearly relieved to have put such a miserable run behind him.
He said: “Undoubtedly it was a bad September for us, but here it was good to find a way to score some goals. We have a strong team here and we need to stick together.
“The two Barnsley goals were disappointing ones, but by the end of the game we’ve shown great ambition and good character.
“We had a lot of good possession and we are determined not to play a long-ball game, but we still need to be much more solid in some moments.
“It’s been a nice afternoon for us and our supporters here, and maybe that luck was with us. We’ve not had a lot of luck in recent games, but that is a part of football and you do need it.
“The players need to take this on to Tuesday’s match now.”
It was a cracking end-to-end first period at a sun-drenched Oakwell, one which ended with the teams sharing four goals.
The Tykes struck early on with Marley Watkins lashing past David Button after meeting Sam Morsy’s through-ball.
The Cottagers levelled in the 37th minute with their first goal at Oakwell since 1982 as Lucas Piazon converted a Scott Malone cross.
The hosts were soon back in front, however, when Sam Winnall latched onto a Morsy through-ball before firing in off the inside of the post.
However, Fulham evened it up again within a minute as Sone Aluko ran on to meet Stefan Johansen’s flick before slotting comfortably past Adam Davies.
The visitors struck again just 35 seconds after the restart. And it was a fortuitous one this time, with Malone’s cross sailing over Davies and into the far corner.
In the 65th minute it was 4-2, with Chris Martin planting home a free header from yet another Malone cross to register his first goal for Fulham.
The frustration clearly got to Scowen two minutes later as he saw red following a lunging tackle on former England schemer Scott Parker.
After Fulham missed late chances to go further clear, disappointed Tykes boss Paul Heckingbottom said: “We gave away some terrible goals. If you give away four goals in that manner then you’re not giving yourself a chance.
“This is an unforgiving division, as I’ve already said many times this season.
“We didn’t keep the ball long enough, we weren’t composed, and we let Fulham have far too much possession. We just gave ourselves far too much to do once we’d conceded so early after half-time.
“Fulham are a good side, despite what their recent results might indicate. They flood the central areas and they made it difficult.
“We couldn’t cope with that at times, and in the end it has cost us.”