Free-scoring Fulham narrowly see off Stoke City in a scintillating five-goal thriller

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Fulham survived several scares dealt by fellow promotion hopefuls Stoke City as Marco Silva’s men emerged victorious in a dramatic five-goal thriller.

Starting immediately on the front foot, Josh Tymon zipped in a delightful ball to D’Margio Wright-Phillips who was in position to hit the ball past Marek Rodak on the volley to put his side 1-0 to the good after 40 seconds in only his second league start.

The grandson of Ian Wright scored his first professional goal of his career, and to his delight, the youngster celebrated in acrobatic style. It was an intelligent strike that Wright would have been proud to score himself.

The pace of the game was firmly set and it continued in that vein as Fulham responded moments later.

The Cottagers, who had scored 19 goals in their last three games, made an instant reply through Rodrigo Muniz to level the game at 1-1 after only two minutes.

The Fulham forward, who stood in for the unavailable Aleksander Mitrovic, struck his attempt on the turn to nestle the ball into the top-right corner beating Jack Bonham at full stretch.

A comical goal followed, much to the confusion of the travelling 800 Fulham fans at the opposite end of the pitch who did not realise they had gone ahead for almost five seconds after the ball went into the net.

Bobby Decordova-Reid broke free down the Fulham right, the 28-year-old was having a field day creating chances from that flank, before he knocked the ball inside to Fabio Carvalho who placed the ball in off the post to make it 2-1 at the interval.

Lewis Baker, making his first Potters start since joining the club on a free transfer from Chelsea a week ago, venomously rocketed the ball into almost the same piece of netting that Muniz did in the first half, levelling this exhilarating clash just before the hour-mark.

The matchwinner came 19 minutes from time as the Potters failed to clear their lines from a corner. Bonham hesitated to punch the ball away and had the crossbar to thank momentarily, however, he was then caught in no man’s land as the ball fell to the unmarked Decordova-Reid who volleyed the ball home from just inside the Stoke penalty box.

The Potters had plenty of chances throughout the game, however, Rodak in goal refused to be beaten. In the first half, Wright-Phillips twisted and turned through the Cottagers’ defence and pulled the ball back, unfortunately for his side neither Jacob Brown nor Baker could get onto the end of it.

In the second half, after the introduction of Jaden Philogene-Bidace, he gave Fulham a headache but could not beat the strong palms of Rodak.

Moments after coming on, he got through the visitors’ backline and almost saw an attempt roll in, but it agonisingly hit the post. Almost a minute later, the 19-year-old was in position again to have another effort but Rodak was equal to it.

Tymon also struck a venomous volley from range in the second half, but once again the Fulham shot-stopper was there to deny him.

Stoke will be impressed that all their January additions impressed on Saturday. Phil Jagielka and Taylor Harwood-Bellis are starting to form a solid partnership in defence, Baker ran the midfield and also got a goal to his name and Philogene-Bidace showed forward-thinking skill and intelligence during his late cameo, showcasing why he has arrived at the club from Aston Villa with rave reviews.

No Mitrovic, No Problem

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The big team news pre-match was that Fulham were without Mitrovic and Harry Wilson, two players who have made a sizable contribution to where they sit in the Championship table.

The Serbian, who netted a hat-trick in Fulham’s 6-2 away win at Bristol City, has scored 27 goals and provided seven assists just past the halfway point of the season.

Wilson’s creativity would have been an added bonus for Fulham with his 10 assists and eight goals which again would have given the Potters a real headache had they been in action.

The absence of Mitrovic and Wilson was not too much of a problem for Silva’s side as Muniz and Decordova-Reid stepped up to the plate by scoring attempts of their own.

Had the deadly duo played, would Fulham have won by more? Possibly as the visitors despatched 12 shots with only six being on target.

Fulham boss Marco Silva gave his thoughts on the exhilarating encounter.

“We had some very good moments of football, I think we deserved the three points.

“It was a balanced game and Stoke had big moments too. But we showed we have the character to be top of this league… which I like to see in our team.”

“Stoke are a quality team and are always hard to beat. We expected it to be a tough one and they scored after 45 seconds but we reacted well.”

The Portuguese manager also said that Wilson and Mitrovic missed the game against the Potters through ‘illness.’

Stoke City manager Michael O’Neill provided his assessment after a bitterly disappointing defeat.

“We were a bit hard done by. We deserved more. Fulham shaded it in the first half but in the second half we were the better side.

“But there were a lot of good performances. Our reaction to going behind was very good, Lewis [Baker] scored a brilliant goal and we had chances again.”

“We made a great start. It was a brilliant goal for the lad. D’Margio [Wright-Phillips] has come in and shown what he’s capable of.

“But to concede straight after was disappointing. Maybe we could have done more to stop him getting the shot off. For the second goal we’ve got to do better when the ball drops in the middle of the pitch. And for their third there was a subtle foul on our keeper Jack Bonham.”

O’Neill later added that prolific playmaker Nick Powell, who has been sidelined since October due to a fibula fracture, should be available ‘next week’ which will be a huge boost in the Potters’ promotion hopes.

Both sides now set sights on key upcoming fixtures. A tough week follows for Stoke as they face Coventry City on Tuesday night, a game which was postponed due to a COVID-19 outbreak in the Potters’ camp, before making the trip to Huddersfield Town on Friday.

Fulham host Blackpool in a week’s time as they hope to make further strides towards promotion back to the Premier League and take advantage of title challengers Bournemouth and Blackburn Rovers dropping precious points in recent weeks.

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