Fulham FC suffered a serious dent to their promotion aspirations after an embarrassing 3-0 home loss to Hull City FC.
This was the Cottagers second loss at home in Craven Cottage leaving them still on 23 points down in 8th place. Fulham manager Scott Parker made two changes to his starting XI bringing in goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli and Stefan Johanson. The new additions, however, didn’t have a positive impact on the Outlook of the game for the home side.
The match was barely minutes before Fulham suffered their first setback when left-back Joe Bryan had to be substituted following a back injury. That early change seemed to affect the team negatively as they never got going throughout the match.
It wasn’t long before the West Londoners went behind when Hull City striker Josh bowler finished off a rebound of a Fulham Defender to give the visitors a 1-0 lead in the 10th minute.
Despite the shock start, Fulham recovered and settled into the game. The home side created a few chances which didn’t trouble the Hull City goalkeeper too much. The best of them was a speculative shot by striker Aleksandar Mitrovic which was saved by the opposition goalkeeper. Fulham continued to control possession but were unable to carve out clear cut goal chances.
The tigers inflicted more pain on the home side in the 57th minute when Hull City forward Jarrod Bowen finished off a flowing counter-attack move to give the visitors a surprising 2-0 lead. The goal seemed to demoralize Fulham as they still struggled to breach the Hull City defence. It wasn’t long before the home side conceded a third goal.
Another counter-attacking move saw Bowen’s strike punched by Bettinelli fall kindly for substitute Tom Eaves to slot home easily and gave the visitors a deserved away victory. This was the visitors’ third consecutive victory. The win pushed Hull City up to 11th on the league table one point behind Fulham.
This fourth League defeat of the season for Fulham has left Scott Parker feeling the pressure. His team will have to do better next weekend when they travel to Saint Andrew’s to face Birmingham City FC
Fulham are priced at 2.20 to secure a decisive win over Birmingham City, a win for Birmingham is available at 3.36.
Written by: Ayotunde Omolayole
