MITRO SHATTERS SICKLY BLUEBIRDS
STEVE Morison hailed his Cardiff City players as they went down fighting against Marco Silva’s Championship leaders.
Aleksandar Mitrovic extended his record as the league’s top goalscorer with his 34th of the campaign and that proved enough to claim the points for Fulham.
Cardiff’s squad had been hit with a stomach bug in the build-up to the match and boss Morrison said: “It was one of the toughest 24 hours I’ve had as a manager. It was an absolute nightmare.
“It started yesterday (Friday) after training and the team changed three of four times up until 1.20pm.
“But with all of that going on, to perform like we did shows how tight we are as a group. I couldn’t be prouder of my players, I thought we were fantastic.”
Silva’s side were not at their best in a sluggish first half, but did not need to be against limited opposition who have now won just one of their past five matches.
Harry Wilson returned to face his former club and it was the Wales midfielder who produced the game’s first effort on goal in the 13th minute.
His snapshot was saved by goalkeeper Alex Smithies, who almost immediately turned from goal saver to goal creator.
His quickly-taken goal-kick was flicked on by Rubin Colwill, but James Collins could not find a way past the onrushing Marek Rodak in the away goal.
Fulham had a striker who only needed one opportunity.
Mitrovic gave Aden Flint the slip for the first time and was unmarked at the far post to head Wilson’s left-footed cross back across goal and past Smithies in the 41st minute.
Having failed to find their usual rhythm in the first half, the goal and half-time talk from Silva galvanised the league leaders.
They had a claim for a penalty waved away by referee Leigh Doughty seven minutes into the second half when Flint appeared to handle the ball after Wales pair Wilson and Neco Williams combined down the right.
Cardiff, to their credit, did not buckle under growing pressure but were limited to half-chances.
Captain Joe Ralls was their driving force and his burst not only led to a yellow card for Harrison Reed, but saw Tommy Doyle fire narrowly wide from the resulting free-kick.
The hosts rallied for an equaliser in the closing stages, but Joel Bagan headed wide before Flint fired over in stoppage time.
An eighth win in ten league games keeps the Cottagers nine points clear of Bournemouth in the race for the title and promotion to the Premier League.
Boss Silva said: “As we expected, it was a tough match. It is always hard to come here and play and we had to be resilient.
“Apart from one moment when we slept completely, we dealt really well with the situation.
“We had chances to kill the game early in the second half but we didn’t take them and that gave them (Cardiff) belief.
“But we continued until the end and deserved the three points.”