Nottingham Forest 0-1 Fulham
Fulham's 1-0 victory over Nottingham Forest was, as Marco Silva admitted, not the best game of football to watch but it extended his handpicked team's unbeaten run in the Premier League. Watched by a home crowd exceeding 30,000, Forest concentrated on stifling the creative play of Emile Smith Rowe, Adama Traore and Alex Iwobi but did stage the occasional breakaway.
Many fans will have good memories of Ola Aina's 2020-21 loan period with the London club when he played alongside Ademola Lookman, Josh Maja and Joachim Andersen and won the BBC Goal of the Month award. He has also specialised in the long throw and last Saturday playing for Forest he directed one such projectile towards Taiwo Awoniyi, whose spectacular bicycle kick just cleared the bar.
Midway through first half a shorter but equally well directed throw led to a Chris Wood tap-in. However the ball had reached Wood via Murillo's head and the assistant referee rightly flagged for offside (confirmed by VAR). Shortly afterwards a neat exchange of passes culminated in Fulham's first shot on target when Raul Jimenez rather half-heartedly latched onto Iwobi's cross.
Still smarting at the disallowed goal Nuno Espirito Santo and the home fans felt doubly aggrieved when two of their players were felled in the same penalty area incident and Mr Smith saw nothing amiss. Neither Andersen nor Calvin Bassey had gone beyond normal contact.
Video assistant referee
Video assistance was needed straight after the interval when Andreas Pereira collapsed in pain following a heavy tackle from Murillo. Referee Josh Smith awarded a penalty after a lengthy consideration that included a trip to the pitch side monitor. VAR's John Brooks had spotted Murillo's boot catching Pereira's leg.
The Brazilian did not have the satisfaction of taking the resultant penalty kick as Jimenez was keen to score in a third consecutive match and to complete his half-century of Premier League goals. Unlike the incident when Aleks Mitrovic and Abou Kamara engaged in a similar squabble the kick was successfully executed though Marco Silva was less than pleased at Jimenez's departure from protocol.
A slip by Adama Traore gave the home side the chance to equalise. Bassey saved the day by his tackle on Anthony Elanga, who then fell over the defender's leg. Once again Brooks's judgment pleased Fulham and annoyed Forest, who wanted a penalty. The home side had very few shots at goal: Callum Hodson-Odoi came reasonably close while Jota Silva's long-range punt had no hope of beating Bernd Leno.
Late in the game Kenny Tete made a bold advance on goal only to be bundled over by Murillo. It would have been a very soft penalty and the officials were probably relieved to disallow it. They were impartial of course but they won't have convinced the Forest fans.
Brian Clough homage
Before the match the crowd paid a moving homage to former Forest manager Brian Clough, who died twenty years ago.
Fulham supporters of a certain age will recall that in 1975 we beat Clough's Forest on the way to the FA Cup Final but it took three replays to do so. Barry Lloyd, who wore the number 10 shirt in one of those ties, has recently passed away. When Barry arrived at the Cottage he had three disadvantages to overcome: he was an ex-Chelsea player, he was a makeweight in a transfer and his new club were experiencing one the worst seasons in their history.
Neither he nor the new manager Bill Dodgin Jr could save Fulham from plunging into the third tier but then things changed. Dodgin appointed him captain and Barry's self-belief (he reckoned the team played better without Johnny Haynes) helped to earn the club a swift promotion.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
