Tighly packed schedule of Fulham FC doesn’t seem to bother Scott Parker’s team. Only four days after beating QPR comfortably at home, they took on Derby City in their two game home stand. Seemingly full of energy, the home team controlled the game from the kick-off to the final whistle and added a third win in a row with determined fashion. With the win, Fulham climbed third in the Championship table, five points behind leaders Leeds and four points from automatic promotion spot held by WBA with one game in hand.
In the previous game against QPR, Fulham had a rough and slow start, and they gave the control to the opposition rather easily. QPR then exploited the flanks and created quite a bit of great chances – luckily for Fulham they only converted one. Fulham boss Scott Parker was not happy with his team’s work rate after the 2-1 win, all of those issues were long gone against Derby.
What we’ve learnt so far in Fulham home games, is that don’s miss the beginning of the show. Last time it took only three minutes for the first goal and now it was all of seven, before Bobby Reid tipped the home team 1-0 up from a brilliant cross by previous game’s hero Aboubakar Kamara. The first half was then finished off by the league’s leading goal-scorer, straight out from suspension, Alexandar Mitrovic, who nodded in the corner sent by Ivan Cavaleiro. Fulham utterly dominated the half, giving Derby only 35% of the possession and allowing no shots on goal, while barraging Derby goal for five times.
Somewhat pulling back for the second half, Fulham still kept the possession but was seemingly more careful with their offensive efforts. Derby was disarmed with high pressure and confident tackling, and the visitors didn’t manage to threaten the Fulham goal even once. A rare no-saves-needed clean sheet for Fulham keeper Marek Rodak. Fulham added one more to make it 3-0 on the 89th minute, with Mitrovic releasing Tom Cairney to 1-on-1 with the goalkeeper and the Scot didn’t miss.
After three wins Fulham will face a stern test on Friday night against Swansea in Wales. The Welsh side is two points behind Fulham and sits at 5th in the Championship.
