Zamora manages to turn it around

Fulham 2 Birmingham City 1:FABIO CAPELLO left Craven Cottage before the end of this match but he may still have been near enough to catch the cries of "Bobby for England". He may even have joined in because, even before firing a spectacular last-minute winner for Fulham, Bobby Zamora had turned in another exemplary demonstration of the target-man role.

Only a few months after fans were questioning his worthiness of a place in the Fulham team, Zamora has emerged as a contender for the position in the England squad that has hitherto been occupied by Emile Heskey or Peter Crouch.

“If (Capello) is looking for that type of forward, then Bobby Zamora is as good as anyone I’ve seen,” said Birmingham’s manager, Alex McLeish, after watching the 29-year-old torment his team.

“He was the difference between the two teams.”

Fulham had begun sluggishly and their right-back Chris Baird soon suffered a nightmare, heading Lee Bowyer’s cross into his own goal to put Birmingham in front after three minutes.

Conceding for the first time in more than five hours of Premier League action woke Fulham up. Baird almost created an equaliser in the 10th minute when he chipped a pass to Simon Davies but Joe Hart saved well. Damien Duff then sent a long-range shot just wide and Brede Hangeland headed over from a corner.

In the second half Fulham cranked up the pressure and their equaliser, in the 59th minute, was as deserved as it was spectacular. Duff cut inside from the right and swapped passes with Zoltan Gera before firing a ferocious shot past Hart from the edge of the area.

Fulham could not breach the Birmingham defence until Stephen Carr felled Gera on the edge of the box and Zamora curled a sweet free-kick past Hart for his 15th goal of the season, his highest top-flight tally.

“He’s performing like a true target-playing centre-forward who brings his team-mates into the game and holds the ball up very well but of course, because he’s got lots of skill too, he’s also going to get a lot of goals,” said Roy Hodgson.

“I’m sure that at every ground Fabio Capello goes to fans sing the name of a player from their club. I’m also sure that he’ll have gone away from here thinking that Fulham have a very good player.”

Guardian Service