Fulham 3 West Brom 0:FLIRTING WITH relegation is this Premier League season's great new game. With this easy win Fulham became the latest team to understand how three points can produce a six-position leap that replaces the dread of 19th place with the warmth of 13th position.
Mark Hughes’ selection for a contest he was desperate to win was hampered by the enforced absence of Andy Johnson, who was advised to rest a tight hamstring or risk a potential absence of up to five weeks if the muscle were aggravated.
With Bobby Zamora out until February, at least, and Moussa Dembele, the €5.8 million summer signing, still absent with an ankle problem, Fulham’s stock of front-line strikers began and finished with Diomansy Kamara and Clint Dempsey.
This pair started at the front of Hughes’s 4-4-2 formation and Kamara produced the opening moment of quality. The 30-year-old’s instant control, swivel and shot forced Scott Carson to dip down to beat the ball away.
What proceeded was a bright half of action that lit up the chilly evening and closed with a Simon Davies finish that Carson should have stopped.
Preceding this there had been a threat from Roberto Di Matteo’s troops but it was too sporadic. Peter Odemwingie worried David Stockdale with a cross from the right the goalkeeper had to parry.
The match was open but quality faded near goal. Davies volleyed wide, a Graham Dorrans long-range hit did not dip enough and when Brede Hangeland headed wide from a corner the sense was the game would remain goalless into the second half.
But then came Carson’s howler. The goalkeeper will not wish to see Davies’s goal too many times.
Etuhu passed to Davies who unleashed a sweet strike that came straight at Carson. West Brom’s goalkeeper should have pushed it away rather than into his goal.
Fulham deserved the lead and tripled the score within 20 minutes. Moments after Davis stepped up to swing in a corner from the left that had the visiting rearguard slumbering.
Hangeland and Dempsey each jumped to meet the delivery and the American striker collected a sixth league goal of the campaign to allow Fulham breathing space.
Then it was the Norwegian’s turn to send Di Matteo nuts as his side conceded a replica of the Dempsey goal.
From another Davies’ corner on the left Hangeland was left unchallenged to leap and finish beyond Carson.
Guardian Service
FULHAM: Stockdale, Pantsil, Hangeland, Hughes, Baird, Davies (Riise 82), Murphy, Etuhu, Duff, Dempsey (Eddie Johnson 87), Kamara (Gera 63). Subs not used: Etheridge, Salcido, Greening, Halliche.
WEST BROM: Carson, Hurst, Zuiverloon, Jara, Cech (Shorey 33), Dorrans, Mulumbu (Fortune 62), Brunt, Morrison (Cox 69), Thomas, Odemwingie. Subs not used: Myhill, Tchoyi, Miller, Meite.
Referee: Martin Atkinson(West Yorkshire)
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