Fulham are running out of lives. This was a devastating defeat, inflicted at the very end of a game in which they never quite did enough. The number of chances to escape relegation are dwindling rapidly and, having hauled their way back into contention earlier in the spring, they have picked the worst possible time to offset much of that good work by equalling their worst losing run of the season.
A fourth consecutive reverse was guaranteed in thrilling fashion by Adama Traoré in the second minute of added time. If the goal was unexpected for its timing then its quality of conception and execution were both startling, too, given the drudgery of what had previously passed. Wolves did not stand out here but felt they had their just deserts: Willian José had seen what looked a legitimate opener ruled out shortly before half-time by a ludicrous application of VAR and until those final seconds it seemed their sense of injustice would rankle all the way home.
Instead they could celebrate a first win in six. The game had rarely opened up until a relatively helter-skelter closing spell in which Fulham, their urgency growing, threw men forward. Wolves were finding gaps of their own and found the critical sliver of space when their substitute, Fabio Silva, flipped a smart first-time pass through the inside-right channel for Traoré to run through. The finish, hammered past Alphonse Areola with tremendous force from an angle, was emphatic and gave Traoré his first Premier League goal since December 2019.
Given the threat he poses, even on relatively quiet nights like this, that barren 48-game run seemed jarring. “Adama can produce amazing scenes,” said Nuno Espírito Santo, his manager. “His talent, his speed, his style, the way he works: he deserves moments like this because he works for them.” Had Traoré not intervened, Nuno’s conversation might not have strayed beyond the injustice served up by video technology. When José thundered in an excellent header from Daniel Podence’s chipped cross, the centre-forward appeared to have broken the 11-game drought he has endured since joining from Real Sociedad in January.
There was no reason to suspect otherwise unless you were in control of Stockley Park’s soul-sapping selection of lines and graphs. They were pulled up to discern Podence had strayed offside, apparently by the width of half a shoulder, before delivering. It seemed unclear even after several replays and once again the question rears up: is this the sport we really want? Nuno thought not.
“It’s not the spirit of the game so I hope that us in football can find a solution,” he said. “When stadiums are full again it’s going to be hard to explain to thousands and thousands of people that one hand is an offside.”
It was a reprieve for Fulham and looked likely to ensure they earned a point, although that may not have made too much difference in the scheme of things. Ruben Loftus-Cheek should have put them ahead shortly before the half-hour but flashed a header wide when unmarked 12 yards out. The provider was Antonee Robinson, who was perhaps the game’s best player from his perch as an advanced left wing-back and also teed up a half-chance that Aleksandar Mitrovic planted off target.
Fulham’s problem was that, even as they ratcheted up the late pressure, they lacked anyone with similar attacking gumption. Ademola Lookman, sidelined with a hamstring injury, was badly missed.
“We’re deflated, we’re hurt,” said Scott Parker, some of whose players appeared close to tears at full time. “You can see the scenes at the end, how desperate this team are to be successful. I asked the team to leave everything on the pitch and tonight we did that. Sometimes when you get put to the canvas the real character of someone is to get back up, and we’re going to need to do that.”
The Fiver: sign up and get our daily football email.
They are, and given visits to Arsenal and Chelsea come next they will have to find hope the difficult way while praying Newcastle waste their games in hand. For all that balls bobbled around the Wolves box they rarely worked Rui Patrício; the visitors, for their part, created little but José could have scored in the second minute and Traoré dragged wide from a serviceable position after that.
“My team did everything tonight, nullified a very good team and tried their hardest to win the game,” Parker said. “This team will come back fighting.” The sense is that it will take quite something, though, for them to recover from Traoré’s knockout blow.
from Football | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3s30wyo
via IFTTT
No Comment