Fulham 0-1 Manchester United
What a letdown it proved, Fulham v Manchester United, the final match of the weekend's Premier League programme. Officially it kicked off at 7pm but as a spectacle it was a non-event.
The Whites, whose home record this season has been patchy at best, made a positive start last Sunday. The Alex Iwobi/Timothee Robinson combination moved into action and Alex twice tested the visiting keeper Andre Onana. Emile Smith Rowe again showed his courage but could not break through. Raoul Jimenez wasted a brace of chances.
Midway through the first half Fulham appeared to relax as if they had already done enough to show their superiority. United finally offered a threat when Sander Berge was penalised for grappling near the penalty area, but the free kick was easily gathered by Bernd Leno.
It was a relief when the first period ended and both sets of fans could hail the guest of honour, the wonderful Edwin van der Sar.
After the break the visitors had another tempting free kick. Bruno Fernandes cunningly sent the ball under the leaping defenders but just missed the target. It was still a tepid contest with the first corner coming as late as the 70th minute.
Adama Traore, who had replaced the injured Harry Wilson, coped well with the roughhouse tactics of Manuel Ugarte but squandered an opening set up for him by Smith Rowe.
Fulham supporters knew what might happen, a goal against the run of play. In the 78th minute Berge's clearance landed at the feet of Lisandro Martinez, who slammed it back from a distance. Leno would surely have saved had it not taken a deflection off Sasa Lukic.
Now the Whites showed urgency. Andreas Pereira, entering the match in the 83rd minute, placed a corner perfectly for Joachim Andersen to head past Onana only for Toby Collyer, another late substitute, somehow to head the ball clear.
The rest of the excitement was saved till the closing stages. Timothy Castagne gave Rodrigo Muniz an opportunity to outshine Jimenez but (as the old gag went) he lost his head and kicked it over the bar – just as the Mexican had done in his previous outing against Leicester.
Amad Diallo and Kobbie Mainou looked to have doubled United's lead but VAR spotted an offside. It was bad enough that the visitors snatched three points. 2-0 would have led to questions in Parliament.
The TNT Sports commentators struggled to find a Man of the Match, eventually opting for Martinez, who had notched United's only valid attempt on target. Fulham supporters chose the ever-dependable Calvin Bassey for their champion.
Needless to say the Match of the Day 2 pundits were only concerned with Man Utd. Everyone agreed it was a game to forget.
A DVD blast from the past
DVDs may be obsolescent but I'm hanging on to most of my favourites including one particular boxset that has this blurb:
Over the past few seasons one club in the Premier League has had more success than most against the Division's most formidable opponents Manchester United and that team is Fulham Football Club. This seemingly invincible foe has been vanquished three times in recent memory and the full 90 minutes of each victory can be seen in this commemorative boxset."
The matches comprise a 3-1 victory at Old Trafford (25 October 2003) and two home wins 2-0 (21 March 2009) and 3-0 (19 December 2009). If that last date looks familiar it is because commentators constantly remind us that it marked Fulham's last PL home win over Man Utd.
Now we can appreciate how Ozymandias felt when the cracks started appearing in his giant statue.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
