Harry Wilson’s taste for the spectacular continues to decorate Fulham’s season. In added time, the Welshman’s free-kick whipped towards Bart Verbruggen, whose failure to keep the ball out completed a regrettable afternoon for goalkeepers. Fulham had snatched an unlikely win.
When these teams fought out a draw on August’s opening day, Brighton rued missed chances and Fulham took theirs. The song remains the same. Fabian Hürzeler’s team reprised the mistakes that have kept them landlocked in mid-table.
“Sometimes football is brutal and the better team loses,” said Brighton’s manager. “We controlled the things we could control. Regarding the performance, it was one of the best we have played.”
For Fulham, Samuel Chukwueze continued to show his usefulness off the bench, his cool finish levelling out a Yasin Ayari strike with Bernd Leno, the Fulham goalkeeper, at fault. “Harsh for them to lose the game,” said Marco Silva of Brighton. He lavished praise on Wilson. “He’s been incredible for us. I am repeating every week that he is in the best moment of his career.”
Until he tired and was subbed off, the Brighton midfielder Carlos Baleba, vastly improved for his time with Cameroon in Morocco, was the best player on show. Brighton fans have also been reassured by the return of Pascal Gross, the veteran lining up closest to Danny Welbeck. Brighton’s hard and high press had Fulham scrabbling for room from the early stages.
Wilson’s stabbed pass for Raúl Jiménez gave Verbruggen his first save to make, the goalkeeper narrowing the angle, but it was Brighton who broke the deadlock. Leno was far less proficient at his near post; Ayari’s shot lacked venom, but still sneaked past an outstretched palm.
Brighton had their lead just when Fulham had finally begun to find openings. “A goal can affect everything that you are doing well,” said Silva. The visitors might have scored a quick second when Lewis Dunk’s meaningful punt found Kaoru Mitoma in space. The first touch was gossamer, the second offered redemption to Leno, though he could only deflect the ball to Ferdi Kadioglu, whose header was scraped away by Timothy Castagne.
Leno flapping at a scuffed Baleba shot was another bad look, though his teammates were also struggling. Brighton were disappointed with only a one-goal lead at the break. Baleba had dominated the central areas, always first to loose balls, next making driving runs forward once the ball came into his possession.
Those few in the Riverside Stand’s executive facilities back in their seats in time for the second half will have caught a familiar direction of travel. Dunk twice had headed chances, Mitoma again fluffed a chance to lay up Welbeck; Baleba continued to dominate.
Silva threw on Ryan Sessegnon and Chukwueze in search of spark. A Brighton second still looked likelier. Welbeck led the line expertly, with it requiring a bookable Sander Berge foul to stop a barreling solo run. The striker also laid up Ayari for another long-ranger. This one flew over.
And yet: the losses in concentration that pockmark Brighton’s season came to pass, Joachim Andersen’s long ball found Chukwueze and his arrowing finish raised the roof of the Johnny Haynes Stand. “Sometimes, errors happen,” said a rueful Hürzeler.
A bigger roar followed when Welbeck’s counterpunch goal was ruled out by the video assistant referee’s slide rule, offside given. “It depends on when they stop it,” said Hürzeler, dismissive of the technology’s protocols. “For me, it’s subjective.”
Welbeck forced another Leno save with a powerful header before Baleba departed. There are doubts in Brighton’s £100m-rated jewel’s ability to last 90 minutes. James Milner, approaching Gareth Barry’s Premier League appearance record, 40 this month, arrived.
He could not prevent the Fulham win that came via Wilson’s moment of inspiration after Josh King, Fulham’s far more youthful sub, had won a free-kick. Wilson, scorer against Liverpool and Chelsea and four goals already in 2026, is out of contract this summer, a potential January target for other clubs, but is in the hearts of Fulham fans. “We are in the fight, we are trying to keep him,” said Silva, though he offered “nothing concrete”.
Barely believable for Brighton, left shaking their heads at another game to get away.
