Fulham (Home) 01.12.2024

When the team was announced, it was a shock to find out there was no Dominic Solanke, who survived his knock against Roma, but was under the weather and there was also a surprise on the bench as Sergio Reguilon appeared in a Spurs squad for the first time in living memory.

Spurs pressing was keeping Fulham in their own defensive third for most of the first five minutes and brought a great chance within 50 seconds of the kick-off, when Bassey played a pass along the 18 yard line straight to Timo Werner.  He played a first-time pass to his right to Son, whose low shot was kept out by Leno’s leg.  It was an opportunity that could have changed the way the game ended up going.

In the sixth minute, Robinson broke down the left and Yves Bissouma went to challenge him, making contact and the Fulham full-back diving into the box.  It was outside the box, so a free-kick that was headed behind for a corner, which did not produce a chance.  A loose pass upfield was picked off and allowed the Cottagers to break, with Iwobi taking it deep into the Tottenham half, before looking for Jiminez in space to his right but Ben Davies was in the way and defused the danger.

While the rain fell down, Radu Dragusin was looking for long passes forward to find Johnson and Son while Fulham concentrated their attacks down their left, with Nelson one of the many ex-Gooners in the side who were heartily booed every time they touched the ball.  16 minutes in, Fraser Forster came to Tottenham’s rescue when Iwobi lifted the ball over the back-line and Jiminez was onto it, but his first touch was poor and his second was a boot in the chest of the Spurs keeper as Fraser had knocked the ball away.  There was plenty of to and fro, with Spurs having the next chance three minutes later as Sarr did well not to make contact with Jiminez as he ran into the Tottenham box, allowing Udogie to rob the striker, Bissouma stretched to play it to Sarr and he played it right to Porro, who looked for Johnson down the line.  Robinson was quick to cut out the ball, but his back-pass was mis-hit and Son latched onto it inside the box, taking it past Leno, but then he under-hit a pass behind to Brennan and the keeper managed to recover to claim it.

Fulham were winning a lot of corners and failing to score from one all season so far, you had a feeling that they might break their duck against us, but when 20th minute one came in, Spurs threw bodies in front of a couple of shots and when Berge looked as though he might have a chance, Ben bundled the ball behind for another corner that Sarr headed away.  Dragusin knocked a ball up to Son, who headed back for Porro to have a shot that took a deflection, although it looked as if it was going wide anyway and when the corner was played in, it was cleared to him and his shot on hi weaker foot went well wide.  Pedro was very involved in this stage of the game and a cross aimed at Werner at the far post was just touched out for a corner by Tete.

The Fulham fans showed their anger at the officials not allowing Bassey to re-enter the pitch when the play was directly in front of him.  The referee didn’t get much right, but in this case he was spot on.  Shortly after, when Jiminez had booted the ball away when Dragusin held him off to get the goal-kick, there were two balls on the pitch and Porro had to leave the ball (which was still in play) to kick the other one off !!  Then Tete went down on the edge of his own box and Fulham played on, until an attack broke down, when he stopped for the Cottagers’ full-back to get treatment, which he didn’t need and the game continued with a dropped ball to Fulham with Tete not having to leave the field ! 

When they moved forward, it was Tete who crossed to find Jiminez getting in behind Dragusin and in front of Porro to volley into the ground from six yards out.  Forster had been on his line and that gave him the time to watch the ball and dive right to slap the ball away.  From that, the keeper came for the corner, but got nowhere near it and fortunately it drifted wide at the far post.  Spurs built from the goal-kick and Porro was put into the box near the dead-ball line in space, firing in a low ball into the six-yard box which was blocked and Sarr won a corner as the ball went out to the right wing.  Pedro stayed down as, having played the ball, he slipped on the wet turf and did the splits, so may have tweaked his groin in doing so.  Spurs came close from the corner, with Maddison’s ball in powerfully headed at goal by Radu and it was going in just under the bar until Leno pushed it over the top. 

Ben was in the right place to block a Jiminez cross when Forster had passed the ball out wide of Bissouma and he slipped giving Nelson the chance to pick it up.  They came even closer four minutes before half-time when the ball was moved from left to right and Iwobi was in acres of space, but with Davies closing in on him, hit a shot that Forster got fingertips to to divert the ball onto the bar.  Then Ben threw a great block to stop a Nelson shot and Timo was alert at the far post to knock the ball away.  When their next move broke down on the edge of the Spurs area, Radu played a ball forward for Son to run onto from inside his own half.  Bassey couldn’t keep up with him and looked as though he was going to pull the Spurs captain, but Son held the ball up and swept it left to Werner.  He had space to run into, but Fulham got players back and by the time he tried to drive across the edge of the box, there were five of them, with Lukic taking his legs.  They protested against the award of a free-kick, but the referee allowed them their dissent and when Maddison lined it up, he hit it under the wall as it jumped and it took a touch off a foot that diverted the ball onto the post and out for a corner.  Without that Spurs would have been ahead in the second minute of added time.

There was just enough time left for the referee to allow Tete to steal about 15 yards at a throw-in when he has been so particular where Spurs took one early in the game.  When the game restarted after the break, Fulham won another of many corners when Nelson’s left-wing cross was headed down at goal at the far post and Forster managed to get close to his post and save it with his knee.  He was called on again as Spurs were under the cosh a bit in the first ten minutes of the half.  Nelson crossed again and Bissouma got a head on it, but glanced it beyond the far post where Iwobi was loitering and he swivelled to hook a shot at goal that Fraser instinctively threw his right arm at to keep it out.

A weak header by Jiminez was taken easily above his head by Forster and Spurs moved the ball out until James Maddison played a oose ball across the pitch (similar to Grealish’s last week that led to our fourth goal) and it allowed Robinson to move forward with it. His square ball just outside the 18 yard line was looking for Smith-Rowe and Iwobi on his right, but Bissouma did well to get a foot to it, even though he has almost over-run it and Maddison picked the ball up again.  The three sons – Son, Johnson and Maddison- then linked up to move to the ball over to the left wing and Werner chose not to go outside Tete, but stood a ball up from five yards inside the area toward the far post.  All the Fulham defenders had got dragged across to the left, leaving space behind Bassey for Brennan Johnson  to have time to volley high into the net from just inside the six-yard box.  It was a great bit of vision by Timo who looked up to see Brennan making his usual run and his right-foot volley gave Leno no chance.  It may not have been a lead we deserved, but it was one that the Spurs fans were grateful for.

Suddenly,  Fulham started to get niggly and Jiminez had a sly nibble at Maddison and then Lukic made a late, slide in on Bissouma that brought a yellow card.  Just a couple of minutes later, the referee allowed play to continue when Lukic took out Son from behind, but the move didn’t amount to anything when Johnson’s ball for Porro in the box ran through to Leno.  It was a really bad tackle coming so soon after a pretty bad one, but the referee failed to go back and book him again.  Having endangered an opponent, he then committed another foul before unsurprisingly he was substitute with Cairney coming on.

It ended up being a double whammy for Tottenham, as Lukic avoided the red card he deserved and then when Fulham got a goal from the substitute for the Serb, working the ball from right to left and Iwobi laying it back to Cairney who fired it across Forster with his left foot from just inside the area.  You couldn’t really say they didn’t deserve a goal, even though their finishing lack a clinical edge, so it was 1-1 and Werner went off to be replaced by Dejan Kulusevski, who had been waiting to come on before the goal. 

Maddison was brought down by Iwobi on the edge of the D to give Spurs a free-kick, which Fulham deployed a draught excluder behind the wall in case, Maddison went low again,  He went high and Diop got a head to it to conceded a corner, which Spurs wasted.  Having twice had the ball nicked off him, Cairney them put in a horror tackle on Kulusevski, going down the back of his calf with his studs.  Cairney argued that it shouldn’t have been a yellow card that the referee pulled out, putting his hands all over the official.  Kulusevski was lucky to escape serious injury and VAR took the ref over to the monitor. After a few watches of the video the ref cancelled the yellow and pulled out a red.  So, Cairney was right after all, it should never have been a yellow card.  Cairney then took an age to go off amid scenes as disgraceful as the tackle itself.  A full on coaching session was allowed by the referee, who barely had a grip on the game, but lost all control as Fulham took advantage of his lax attitude.

Spurs brought on Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall for Pape Matar Sarr and James Maddison, with Bergvall almost getting on the end of Son’s cross from the left, but Bassey got there just before him.  Ryan Sessegnon made a return to the turf at the THS as a Fulham sub and the first thing he did was pull Pedro back to concede a free-kick and when Spurs worked it to the left, Destiny thought Gray was behind him halfway inside the Fulham half, but Archie had gone outside and in trying to recover, the Italian slipped and could only knock the ball for Harold Wilson to run forward with it.  He took it all the way to the dead-ball line before poking it across goal and away from Forster, but Radu was there, in front of goal to clear it away.  A corner in added time might have been fatal if the visitors had scored, but Fraser claimed in it in the air to snuff out any danger.

It was tough as Fulham wasted as much time as the referee allowed them (and that was far too much) and they stopped any progress with niggly fouls, one of which by Wilson left Archie hobbling just seven minutes after he came on in a more familiar midfield role.  Udogie and Son both chipped crosses to the near post that Leno grabbed before laying on the grass long enough to take root before the end of the match.

It was like Thursday night, where Fulham players spent a lot of time going down “injured”, with the worst example of shit-housery being Muniz telling Leno to go down injured when Cairney had eventually made his way off after the red card.  The weakness of the referee was amazing as he not only allowed this to happen, with Fulham knowing that he couldn’t make the goalkeeper go off but surely, if I could see it from 50 yards away, one of the officials must have seen the signal Muniz was making to Leno, which is ungentlemanly conduct at the very least.  There wasn’t really enough time to make use of our extra man and the delay in the restart allowed Silva to get information to his team, who all went over to the bench, about how to set up and if Jovic had been dismissed for his second bad foul of the day, then, again, the story of the match may have read very differently.

But, in truth, the draw was the right result again.  We started OK, but soon eased off on the press and Fulham had space to attack down their left, where there was little cover for Porro.  If it wasn’t for Dragusin, Davies and Forster, I dread to think what the score might have been.  We desperately missed Solanke up front, as without him and with Dejan on the bench, we were lacking an out ball from the defending we had to do, which put us under more pressure.  I like to think that the boos at full-time were for Fulham and the useless referee rather than for Spurs.  We didn’t pass well or play to our potential, but losing key players on the day of the match brought changes that didn’t help us and having played on Thursday, when Fulham had a week’s rest, meant we looked jaded.  Sonny wasn’t on top form with many of his flicks not coming off today and our passing was a bit under-hit all match which didn’t help us control possession, as it led to too many turnovers.  Something we need to cut out in the coming weeks.

Sid E. Netting

• Will Lankshear made his Premier League debut.
• First home draw in 28 matches with the last one being a 2-2 against Mancashter United 18 months before.
• Kenny Tete was making his 100th League appearance for Fulham.