Fulham continued their march towards the Championship title, as they brushed aside a resurgent Rovers side who proved to be no match for Marco Silva’s Whites.
After Rovers returned to winning ways in their last outing, which was the 1-0 home victory over promotion rivals, Queens Park Rangers, last Saturday, Tony Mowbray made two changes for this game down near the banks of the Thames, as Deyovaisio Zeefuik and Ryan Giles came in, with Ryan Nyambe – who was injured vs QPR – and Sam Gallagher both withdrawn – with the forward available from the bench. Alongside Gallagher on the bench, was Joe Rothwell who was returning from an injured foot.
With the anticipation building inside Craven Cottage and with a sold-out away end that housed 1,600 Rovers fans, both sides soon emerged from the tunnel to a roar of encouragement from both sets of supporters. As the pre-match rituals were done, including a minute’s applause in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, it was Rovers who got the game underway after the whistle from referee, David Webb. Tony Mowbray and Rovers were looking to shock Fulham and be only the fourth side to get the better of Marco Silva’s side at Craven Cottage, this season, after Reading, Sheffield United and Huddersfield Town.
Although the expectation was for Fulham to dominate the proceedings, the first opportunity of the game came Rovers’ way, as Ryan Giles took matters into his own hand to show his class by bursting forward from his own half and trying his luck from range, but his effort lacked the accuracy required to trouble Marek Rodák.
After just 17 minutes, Rovers were dealt a blow as Deyovaisio Zeefuik was unable to continue after picking up an injury and he was soon replaced by Joe Rankin-Costello in Rovers’ first change.
Bad went to worse for Rovers, just eight minutes later as Fulham inevitably wiped off Rovers’ clean-sheet. Neeskens Kebano was in the right place, at the right time to poke home Thomas Kaminski’s parry, which came from Neco Williams’ powerful outside of the boot effort. As Jan Paul van Hecke and Harry Pickering both went for the same loose ball with former Rovers, Harrison Reed, the Dutchman’s attempt to not concede a corner ultimately gave Fulham the ball back, as the defender also managed to play everybody onside as he came back late, having ran off the field. The ball was played into the on-loan Liverpool man, who picked the ball up inside the right-hand channel and drilled an effort towards goal, but despite the Belgian’s best efforts in trying to kill the ball from its spin, Kebano was the quickest to react in the box, as he got ahead of Darragh Lenihan and slotted the ball home for the game’s opener at 1-0.
A minute later, from the restart, Reda Khadra looked to level the scoring again, but saw his effort from an angle smothered by Rodák.
Fulham weren’t looking to take their foot off the pedal as many inside Craven Cottage were hoping for a repeat of the 7-0 mauling that took place at Ewood Park in November. Aleksandar Mitrović looked to increase his goal tally for the season to 35 in the 34th minute, but Kaminski was on-hand to make sure Rovers’ blushes were spared.
Moments after Kaminski saved the effort, Rovers looked to get forward but were halted by the whistle of David Webb, as Tyrhyrs Dolan’s assault on the Fulham backline was deemed illegal, with the official interpreting that the young forward had dived in order to get his side back into the game, despite clearly being tripped by the retreating Kebano. As a result, Dolan became the first player to pick up a booking.
From the free-kick, Fulham made their way forward and managed to double their lead through former Liverpool winger, Harry Wilson who increased his own tally for the season to nine league goals. Rodák played the ball out to another former Rovers, in Tosin Adarabioyo who had all the time in the world to move into midfield and pick out the inverted run of Harry Wilson, who latched onto Adarabioyo’s fantastic defence-splitting pass. The Welshman needed no second invitation, as he coolly took the pass into his stride and chipped Kaminski for 2-0, without even needed to kill the ball and steady himself.
As the break loomed, although David Webb signalled for four minutes of added time to be added, neither side really tested their opposing number in order to entice the crowd into any excitement, as the first period was soon ended with Fulham, two goals to the good.
Marco Silva would have been delighted with how his side had stifled their opponents in the first period, restricting Rovers to long-range attempts, as the visitors failed to register a shot on target in the first period. The home side were looking to continue their fine charge towards the league title, and Silva would have no doubt encouraged his side to continue what they were doing ahead of the second-half.
Tony Mowbray, on the other hand, would have looked for a different approach towards the second-half in order to get his side more involved in the play. The Rovers manager would have been trying to balance his threadbare squad between trying to salvage something from this tie, and trying not to push his squad past their limit.
Just before Fulham got the second period underway, Rovers made their second change of the game, as Sam Gallagher replaced Reda Khadra at the break. Marco Silva’s outfit were looking to dent the aspirations of one of their promotion rivals and put themselves 11 points clear of their nearest rivals, Huddersfield Town, who moved into second-place with a 3-0 win, over Peterborough United on Friday.
Two minutes after the restart, Fabio Carvalho tried to extend his side’s lead, but his shot from just inside the area deflected wide of the mark, after hitting Darragh Lenihan and then the post before going behind for a corner, which Rovers dealt with.
On the hour, Jean Michaël Seri looked to assist Aleksandar Mitrović from a corner, but the Serbian’s nod at the back-post failed to sneak in and only nestled into the side-netting.
In the 64th minute, Neco Williams was booked for dissent after he kicked the ball away, after fouling Dolan.
Rovers thought they had earnt a route back into the game in the 65th minute, when Sam Gallagher poked home from a spill by Rodák, but a ridiculously tardy offside flag denied the travelling fans something to celebrate. A free-kick by Ryan Giles saw Bradley Johnson’s initial effort parried by the Slovak, into the feet of Gallagher who tucked home from yards away, but despite already celebrating and taking the ball back to the centre-circle, Mr. Webb brought the play back for a free-kick.
Rovers’ final change of the game came in the 66th minute, as Joe Rothwell replaced Tyrhys Dolan.
With 73 minutes gone, Rovers tried to rally back into the game, as Giles tried to find Gallagher with a whipped cross, but Rodák was again on-hand to clear the danger.
Two minutes later, the Rodák vs Giles match continued, as the on-loan Wolverhampton Wanderers man this time tried to find his own way through the Slovak, after picking up a lovely cross-field switch from Scott Wharton, but the goalkeeper stood firm to deny the loanee.
In the 79th minute, Harry Wilson continued to be a nuisance to Rovers’ defence as he turned on a sixpence and fired a shot that narrowly veered past the upright.
Following break in play, Fulham made their first change of the game as Nathaniel Chalobah replaced Jean Michaël Seri.
With 80 minutes gone, Tim Ream was soon booked for a late challenge on Joe Rothwell.
Harry Wilson tried to replicate his effort from earlier, but saw the same outcome as the ball, this time, ended up further away from goal as his previous effort did.
As Rovers pushed forward in-search of a route back into the tie, Fulham proved deadly on the break, as Neco Williams nearly won the league’s goal of the season competition in the 83rd minute, with an audacious attempt from just inside the Rovers half. As the ball crossed halfway, the Welshman saw that Thomas Kaminski was off his line and tried to unthinkable chip, but thankfully for the Belgian, the crossbar came to his aid and saved his blushes.
In the 85th minute, Fulham made their final changes as Bobby De Cordova-Reid and Kenny Tete replaced Neeskens Kebano and Neco Williams.
Two minutes later, Darragh Lenihan was booked for infringing upon Carvalho.
As the 90th minute ticked over, Fulham were awarded a free-kick from an inviting position after Bradley Johnson tripped Carvalho, but Thomas Kaminski was able to, rather unconvincingly, save the attempt from Harry Wilson, despite conceding a corner which Rovers soon cleared.
Despite four minutes of added time again being called for, Rovers looked to have been ran ragged by Marco Silva’s outfit and provided very little in the way of threat to the Fulham goal. Although their defence stood firm to deny Fulham any late additions to their goal-difference tally, the hosts didn’t really threaten in the final moments as they had done throughout the majority of the second-half, as Fulham walked away comfortable 2-0 victors.
Although this was never a game anyone expected to gain three points in, the supporters can arguably be let down by the fact Rovers ended the game with only one shot on target. Despite knowing first-hand the quality that Fulham are able to bring to a football match in this division, no fan would have been ridiculed for wanted more from their team, as the display on show was no encouraging, whatsoever, particularly after last week’s last-gasp victory.
Rovers are still in the hunt for a playoff spot, despite the poor display, as they sit 4th in the division with 57 points from 35 games played, with a positive goal-difference of +10.
Next up for Rovers, are three home games on the bounce, as Tony Mowbray looked to steer his side back on the right track, despite being the worst attacking team in the division, since the turn of the calendar year. On Tuesday 8th March, Rovers attempt to host Millwall for a second-time this season, as the previously snowed-off fixture is rearranged for a 7:45pm kick-off. After that tie, Bristol City come to town on Saturday 12th March at 3pm, where Nigel Pearson and Tony Mowbray go head-to-head once again, before Wayne Rooney’s Derby County make the trip north on Tuesday 15th March, for the 7:45pm start.
