Premier League Match report - West Bromwich Albion 2- 1 Fulham
West Bromwich Albion continued their excellent run in the season and beat Fulham 2-1 at home to move into top four of the league table. It was a much deserved win by the baggies as they came from behind to overtake the Cottagers.
West Brom conceded that goal in fortunate manner, when a quick shot from one of their former players Zoltan Gera deflected off the post, but bounced off keeper Scott Carson and crossed the line.
Youssuf Mulumbu scored his first goal of the season and levelled the game. It was Marc- Antoine Fortune who gave West Brom the lead just before the break following some good work from Jerome Thomas.
The defeat for Fulham means that they are still looking for their first away win of the season, and in fact the record goes back all the way to the opening day of last season. However Fulham manager, Mark Hughes was not at all
happy after the result and termed both Baggies’ goals as off side.
West Brom though continued to march on, and for the manager Roberto Di Matteo it has been the best start to a Premier League season. The win also made it 3 wins in last 5 home games for West Brom.
Before the match there was clear blue sky, but as soon as the match kicked off it started pouring down heavily. The fans were put to silence for a while when Gera knocked in the first goal from distance - just nine minutes into
the game.
West Brom keeper Scott Carson actually did well to try and tip it over, but it bounced off the cross bar and went in taking a touch off Carson.
Fulham had a great chance to double their lead just minutes later, when Gonzalo Jara made a huge error and gave away a careless back pass. Diomansy Kamara latched onto it but his shot clipped the post and bounced out.
It was still the away side that continued to dominate, as West Brom looked left and right to get their game in order. Baggies finally got going after withstanding a passage of immense pressure, and finally it was all level when
Chris Brunt took the ball from midfield and made an excellent run towards the Fulham box. A clever and cheeky cut back inside the box found Mulumbu, who made no mistake in getting it past Mark Schwarzer.
After West Brom’s goal, the match did slow down. Fulham knew that they were away from home and could not go out in attack all the time. While, early in the match West Brom were given enough evidence that if they left the backline
thin, Fulham had every intention of making full use of it. That is how the first half ended and to some degree both teams looked satisfied with the score line. The half seemed to be heading for a close, when Fortune got the all important goal. There was much
controversy about whether Fortune was offside or not, but the Baggies did not care and took the lead just before the break.
Fortune did look a tad off side but according to the complex law, it was believed that he was in second phase. Whatever that means, but Chris Brunt after a tremendous run laid it off for the front man who calmly slotted it in.
Mark Hughes reacted by sending on Andy Johnson with 30 minutes left in the game, and the former Everton man almost got an equaliser. But his shot was just inches wide and the score remained 2-1 for West Brom.
In the end it was a hands on deck effort for the home side, as Fulham threw everything but the kitchen sink at them. Nevertheless, the Baggies managed to keep the Cottagers out and moved into the top 4 till Sunday at least.
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