I love a Fulham away day and woke up on Saturday full of excitement and anticipation that we could extend our winning run of games at Craven Cottage to six.
It was an early start, with a train from Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington, spending some quality time with friends Neil Barnes and his daughters Charlotte and Sarah and then it was a short tube journey to Putney Bridge, some lunch and a few drinks before a 10-minute walk to Craven Cottage.
Nigel Pearson sprung somewhat of a surprise in selecting Jay Dasilva as a right wing-back after his cameo role last weekend in the FA Cup defeat to the same opponents and he also opted to start Zak Vyner in the centre of the back three, deciding against playing Rob Atkinson, who I thought looked somewhere near to his best last week.
There was no surprise in Antoine Semenyo and Andi Weimann coming back in at the expense of Chris Martin and Nahki Wells.
It was a lively start from both sides. Aleksander Mitrovic had an early header that was wide and at the other end, Antoine Semenyo set the tone for his own individual performance with an early left-footed shot which was well held by Fulham keeper Marek Rodak.
Minutes later the City frontman opened the scoring with a great counter-attacking move. Max O’Leary found Alex Scott with quick distribution and he advanced to the halfway line before playing a ball out to Semenyo on the left.
Antoine still had some way to go and brought the ball inside on his right foot before shifting it quickly to his left, bamboozling Tom Cairney before firing a piledriver of a left-foot shot past Rodak at his near post from an acute angle just outside of the six-yard box.
It was a really open game and there were decent chances for first Mitrovic with a header and then a shot from Neeskens Kebano and perhaps it was little surprise that Fulham equalised but it was a poor goal to concede.
Harry Wilson was afforded too much space by Cam Pring and his deep cross wasn’t closed down, Mitrovic was clever in his nudge of Vyner and his header found the bottom corner of the net.
Zak has to do better, as a fan I know the type of striker Mitrovic is and Zak has to be more physical. Yes, it can be argued that he was nudged under the ball but that’s what the big Serbian does.
Fulham had further chances from Kebano, Wilson and Mitrovic before that man Semenyo set the away end into raptures with another quality finish.
A defensive deflection reached Antoine on the halfway line and he turned the Fulham defender Tim Ream before holding off Harrison Reed and driving at pace and then firing an unstoppable right footed shot from the edge of the area, with the ball hitting both posts before nestling in the net.
It was a great strike and I believe showed that Antoine can play down the middle. Those two finishes should give him the confidence to know he can do it against the very best in this league.
I was still celebrating that goal and dreaming of not only three points but also a pay day, having put a wager on Semenyo scoring first and City winning 2-1 when Kebano equalised. Callum O’Dowda lost the ball and from a deep cross this time Tomas Kalas was the man outjumped and outmuscled by Mitrovic and Kebano has the simple task of nodding the ball over the line.
It was a straightforward header but watching it back, Vyner didn’t make it difficult for Kebano. It wasn’t a challenge of a man throwing everything at it to keep the ball out of the net.
Minutes later Fulham took the lead with Fabio Carvalho racing away from Andy King and Han-Noah Massengo and firing a curling shot from the edge of the box having again not been closed down.
The euphoria of taking the lead had well and truly gone and five minutes later it was game over when following the concession of a corner Mitrovic rose majestically to head in from the penalty spot.
Unbelievably the leagues top scorer was being marked by Callum O’Dowda and Alex Scott, not two players who you would back to win headers. Just how does that happen?
How did we not have a plan to mark Mitrovic at set pieces and if we did who the hell came up a plan of putting O’Dowda and Scott on him, was it Blackadder’s Baldrick? After all actor Tony Robinson is a well-known red. Not the best of cunning plans it has to be said.
We just needed to get to half-time and re-group but couldn’t even do that and Mitrovic scored his 27th of the season, notching his hat trick after being afforded way too much space in the box by Cam Pring and sending a curling shot high into Max O’Leary’s net.
I sat somewhat dazed at the break; we’d actually been okay going forward but found ourselves 5-2 down at the break having left twice. Mitrovic had scored three times but it felt like he didn’t need to do too much to do so, of course the top-quality players make it look easy. Fulham had demolished Reading away 7-0 during the week and I honestly feared for the second half.
Surely there would be a change in personnel and shape? The midfield was non-existent and centrally at the back we’d been poor but no, no changes at the break.
However, after just four second-half minutes changes were made with Dasilva and Massengo off for Chris Martin and Rob Atkinson. I’d love Nigel Pearson to explain the thinking behind the four minutes and why it hadn’t been done right from the start of that second period?
I would have expected them to talk during the interval about the changes needed and have plans in place straight away. Some may say it was allowing the players to right the wrongs but why, we were 5-2 down.
There was yet more poor defending that allowed Fulham to get their sixth albeit it was also a lovely piece of skill from Kebano, that beat O’Dowda all ends up before his smashed the ball into the net.
Fulham had opportunities to extend their lead with Kebano inexplicably slicing a shot from within the six-yard box after Vyner has missed the ball but thankfully it didn’t get any worse. To their credit City did keep going and Andi Weimann and Rob Atkinson had chances to reduce the deficit.
City’s season won’t be defined by what we do against Fulham or Bournemouth and it showed as Nigel so often likes to say just where we are at, with the gulf in class huge but we have to be more streetwise and defend so much better than we did.
Next week is a huge game against Cardiff City and I would expect changes, with hopefully Matty James fit and Atkinson coming in.
It’s the wide defensive wing-backs that cause me the greatest concern and if we are going to be able to make any transfers in this window, which seems more and more unlikely, they are the areas I would concentrate on.
Our 3 Peaps In a Podcast Bonus show ratings this week were: Max O’Leary 5, Tomas Kalas 5, Zak Vyner 4, Cameron Pring 4, Jay Dasilva 4, Callum O’Dowda 4, Alex Scott 5, Andy King 4, Han Noah Massengo 4, Andi Weimann 5, Antoine Semenyo 8 *MotM – the only real shining light.
In truth I deliberated about most of them and the majority apart from Antoine could easily have been a point less. A team average of 4.73 for the game.
As for Nige it was a 4; Jay Dasilva was a gamble which wasn’t necessarily wrong, but I think Vyner over Atkinson was the wrong choice. Playing only two in midfield was the wrong set-up and you have to question what was said to the players in terms of marking Mitrovic. The current team average for the season is 5.81 with an expected performance rating of 6.
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