Aiming for the automatic promotion from the Championship, Fulham is closing in on the top dogs in the league.
On Saturday, Scott Parker’s men faced struggling Huddersfield at home and took the pitch by a storm. The visitors were still trying to find their bearings and were dumbfounded by Fulham’s lightning start. The home team scored three goals in the pace of 31 minutes to start the game. More remarkably those three goals came with three shots on goal – and the only shots they took in that 90 minutes of play. Huddersfield might feel a bit hard done by the early goals and they instantly answered, scoring twice and making it a one-goal-game to finish the first half.
It’s been somewhat of an issue for Fulham not to be able to finish off the game when they are in command. They started the game fantastically causing constant havoc in the visitors’ end of the pitch, managing to score three goals. That however, wasn’t to last.
The manager Scott Parker saw his team take the foot off the pedal and allow Huddersfield to climb into it. The visitors, fighting for their survival in the Championship on 18th place, took advantage of Fulham’s flamboyant and lackluster performance and scored two before the first half was done. After giving up control of the game, Fulham couldn’t get it back and had to go into a defensive mode with the visitors pushing for the equalizer. Goaltender Marek Rodak had to take on plenty of chances and it was the Slovakian, who is to be thanked for the three points for the home team.
Huddersfield effort didn’t translate into any points, but they went down fighting with the final score line of 3-2. Aleksandar Mitrovic got the game winner, after being absent for some three weeks with injury. Bobby Reid and Tom Cairney added the two first ones and Emile Smith Rowe and Steve Mounie gave Huddersfield the lifeline. Fulham is still suffering from inconsistencies within the single match not to mention between the fixtures. Scott Parker needs to find the consistency, favorably at the top end of the spectrum, in order to make a real push for automatic promotion.