Late drama as own goal earns Fulham first league win

A Kevin-inspired second half lifted the Cottage and turned a dour draw into victory

For the third time in four league games, Fulham have left it late to turn a game around and claim points from an unwanted position - and this time, they even got the win! A wet afternoon at Craven Cottage saw Marco Silva’s side rise above a poor start to claw themselves back into a game, and with a helping hand from super-sub and transfer record Kevin forced Leeds into conceding a late-own goal to earn our first three points of the season. It wasn’t the prettiest way to win a match, but the victory was a reminder that football rewards those who persist through the hardships of a difficult match.

First Half

Difficult is a generous descriptor for Fulham, in truth. Insipid would be the better word to describe Fulham’s opening half, a tedious, tepid passage of play that saw Fulham meander around the pitch waiting for someone else to spring the game into life. We’ve had dry spells before but it was particularly arid today, failing to register a single shot in the entire 45 and struggling to generate incisive - or even accurate - passes. You could be kind and blame the internationals for the lethargy but the Premier League has been stacked with such players and it was a deeply underwhelming opening at home to a newly-promoted side.

Leeds certainly weren’t interested in being the underdog today, and actually offered the only real chances in the half. Their midfield bolstered the team: Longstaff’s physical industriousness, Ampadu’s resilient pressing and Stach’s box-to-box versatility, let them shut down our possession and launch their own attacks, through smart lofted through-balls and nippy movement from wingers Okafor and Aaronson. They might have scored, too - a cross from Aaronson was put directly at Leno by Calvert-Lewin, and later Darlow’s long-ball free-kick was knocked down by the striker, drifting through a wayward defence and thundered onto the crossbar by Longstaff. Though the finishing was poor, their muscle was taking them into the box and asking questions of Leno - a worrying sign for the game.

Second Half

They started the second half the same way, bustling their way into the box and getting the ball into striking positions. Stach and Aaronson combined well on one leftward attack but the latter saw his low shot repelled again by a diving Leno. A sudden downpour seemingly matched Fulham’s mood and life in the game, as another Longstaff pass carved its way through - Okafor took Calvert-Lewin’s flick well but a well-timed slide from Tete shunted the ball away from goal.

However, Fulham were at least starting to purr on the ball. Muniz, a peripheral figure for much of the match, took his own physicality to Struijk, winning a free kick in a dangerous position; Wilson, ever the showman, took the opportunity to strike a powerful effort over the wall, requiring Darlow to make a diving save to palm it away. With Fulham finally growing into the match it was the time for substitutes, and Silva duly obliged - Traore’s pace and Smith-Rowe for Wilson and a subdued King. Farke made his own moments later - but curiously replaced Calvert-Lewin and Okafor, two players that had offered aerial threat and pace, for Nmecha and Harrison, inferior replacements that weakened Leeds’ presence in attack. This was a curious move - Okafor had literally duelled Tete into the box before his substitution - and with hindsight feels important in tipping the game towards Fulham.

We were finally maintaining our attacking threat on the goal. Traore had the pace and physicality to put Gudmundsson under pressure and getting on the ball in deep positions on the right forced Leeds’ midfield to sit deeper to reduce the pressure - freeing our players to move into advanced positions in the process. One such knockdown was collected by the winger, played back to an unmarked Berge and crossed in for Muniz, who could only steer his header into Darlow’s hands. Andersen, seeing the long ball route open up, played another - Bogle’s poor touch let Muniz wrestle the ball off him, setting up Smith-Rowe to surge into the box along the exposed left flank. Again, Darlow’s touch did enough to keep it out, albeit with some help from the post.

Though Leeds weren’t completely out of the game - long balls were still proving useful for the visitors and Andersen’s head was needed to keep a Struijk effort away from Leno - their energy was starting to deplete. James was introduced to inject some much-needed speed - a fast start saw Berge pick up a booking for felling one of his bolts from midfield, but he was withdrawn injured before too long, and Gnonto couldn’t sustain the same impact. It was the man that had arrived in opposite colours that instead changed the game - Fulham’s £34.6 million man, Kevin.

Playing on the left, the wizardry of the Brazilian immediately took Fulham’s play hurtling down the wing, delivering crosses into the box and linking up Sessegnon to enjoy his own attacking abilities. This forced Leeds to deploy James, initially given license to attack, into a fixed wing-back role to try and slow the rapid substitute. They were panicked, and for good reason - Kevin was the star of the closing period, generating multiple chances and unpiecing Leeds’ previously composed defensive structures.

One cross was dinked in by Kevin, headed on by Sess, and narrowly miscued by an open Lukic, floating wide as Darlow could only watch. Another, travela-ed fiercely across the box after blasting beyond Bogle, was headed over by Traore, probably surprised to even received the ball from such an angle. He forced Leeds to retreat and shut down their final third, having set alight the final stages of the game.

It was his last brilliant act that proved decisive. Playing a one-two with Sessegnon, he took a smart touch away from Longstaff and curled a strong effort towards goal, dipping under the crossbar - Darlow again had to dive, tipping it just over for a corner. With Leeds’ concentration broken, Lukic swung the corner in. Struijk, surging towards the path of the ball, jumped ahead of Cairney and missed it entirely. It instead planted squarely on an unfocused Gudmundsson’s head, looping beyond a sprawling Darlow beside the vacant right post. A painful own goal for Leeds, visible from the frustration etched on their players’ faces, but a reminder that the game isn’t over until the final whistle blows, and nothing is earnt in football until that happens.

We Need To Talk About Kevin

Let’s talk about the star man. Iwobi having such a miserable afternoon probably adds to the thrill Kevin provided but it’s remarkable how much easier football is when you have pace and a little quality as an attacking option. What was once sterile became vivacious almost as soon as Kevin arrived onto the scene. It’s early, of course, but the man has the ability to play with both feet, the speed to beat a full-back without needing an obvious head-start and the vision to link-up with teammates (whom presumably he’s been with for no more than a few days!) With Chukwueze hopefully available in the next game Fulham have a lot to look forward to in attack now, something which should also send a message to the starting players today.

Whilst it wasn’t our strongest game for much of the attack, I don’t think they were completely abysmal. Muniz, though sloppy in front of goal, did demonstrate why he starts games through his combativeness, winning important duels with defenders across the game. Smith-Rowe was slick off the bench and could easily have scored his chance on another day. Wilson can produce a moment of magic from any set-piece and King will have learnt a lot from a physical midfield situation in the game.

Berge and Lukic were a little sluggish to begin with and probably needed a little longer from the internationals - both are key midfielders for their national sides, after all - but grew into the game and were important pieces of the play in the closing stage as we hunted for a goal. I really liked the work the full-backs did - Tete had his hands full with Okafor but fought valiantly, keeping up with the winger and eventually seeing him off to join up with the attack, and Sessegnon continues to work hard filling in for Robinson. The long-throw option has developed nicely as well! Andersen had his strongest game today though - he led the team at the back, making several critical interceptions and moving the ball effectively to cultivate effective possession. As always, Leno did the job he needed to when asked, and has his first clean sheet of the season as reward.

Heartbreak for Leeds?

His counterpart, Karl Darlow, might consider himself unfortunate to have missed out on his own one today. Several excellent saves decorated the second-half and only freak conditions saw him finally beaten. It points to a Leeds defence that is vastly improved from recent memories of the club in the top flight, where comical errors and amateurish antics were frequent across their outings. Whilst the backline is not quite as water-tight as the best top flight sides, huge strides have been made to sharpen up at the back, with a greater degree of care and thought put into how the team manage space, maintain composure and retrieve the ball. Gudmundsson was unlucky to be the man responsible for the own goal because he’d done fairly well up until that point, as had Joe Rodon in his dealings with Muniz.

Of course, a significant factor in this improvement is found further forward. Longstaff has proven a terrific signing for Leeds, taking the work he did under Eddie Howe at Newcastle and applying it around his new side. He was everywhere today, brushing Fulham players off the ball and funnelling it forward to Leeds’ attack, which along with Stach allowed Leeds the early advantage. Ampadu is developing nicely as well - now the Leeds captain, he was a leader of the midfield and really made it difficult for us to break Leeds down at the heart of their formation.

However, the team were not proficient enough with their attacking, which meant the scoreline read 0-0 when Leeds’ excellent midfield effort started to run out of energy. I do like Calvert-Lewin, who clearly makes good connections up-front for Leeds, but a player with his talent needs to put his shots to better use than we saw today, where the few efforts he had away from Bassey and Andersen were tame and ineffective. Aaronson was alright and does seem a hard-working player but I don’t think he has the quality or dynamism that a James or Gnonto has - Okafor demonstrated what you can get with a quicker option on the other wing. Still, they collectively failed to punish Fulham’s slow start, and didn’t have anything to save the game when Fulham’s luck struck them down.

We shouldn’t fall into the trap of putting the game’s result down entirely to fortune, though. Our defence did enough to keep Leeds away from opening the scoring, we used Silva’s attacking, possession-based philosophy to wrestle back control of the match and his substitutes - Kevin in particular - turned the screw at the end to put us in the position for our good luck to strike. Five points is a lot less ugly than two in three, and with the season starting to get into full flow approaching there’s plenty of reason for cheer at the Cottage today.