“Nothing.” That was the summary of what Scott Parker thought he could learn from the league table after watching his Fulham side claim their first victory of the season.
The pure clean air of 17th place now circulates around his players but Parker was not in the mood for jubilation or even to express much in the way of relief. A comfortable win over West Brom was the chance instead to reinforce the message Parker has been set on since the beginning – a fight against relegation will be tough for Fulham; but if they are willing to learn from their mistakes, they have a chance.
“I think I’ve been pretty level this season and I’ve tried to relay that to the team‚” Parker said. “We are going to have a lot of bumps in the road and I’m not afraid to say that. But I’ve got a really good team there and a group open to understanding.
“There’s going to be hard points, but each week the boys put hands up to mistakes and are willing to learn and to get better.”
Goals from Bobby Decordova-Reid and Ola Aina decided this contest in a five-minute burst around the half hour mark. Much of the rest of the match was essentially stodgy and to be fair to a hangdog Slaven Bilic, who seemed to take defeat pretty hard, his team were relatively well-matched opponents for that time. But in the decisive moments Fulham had the strength, the confidence and – most clearly – the plan to make a difference.
The visitors might have taken the lead in just the second minute had Grady Diangana done better with a Matheus Pereira cross.
Less than 60 seconds later and a delivery from the other side deceived Fulham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola in the air and bounced back out off the inside of his left-hand post. Early fleeting moments that later proved fateful.
After a quarter of stalemate, Fulham opened the scoring with a sweeping move. It began with a lofted one-two in the Fulham midfield, the ball played to André-Frank Zambo Anguissa who spread play out left to Antonee Robinson. The left-back, signed from Wigan this summer, lifted his cross to the obvious target, Aleksandar Mitrovic, at the back post. The Serb duly won his header, playing back across goal to Decordova-Reid who got the requisite power in his jump to nod the ball past Sam Johnstone.
It was a great goal and showed off some of the attributes that have been largely concealed in this Fulham side so far this season. Their second, arriving just four minutes later, was all about individual ability and that of Robinson’s counterpart on the opposite flank Aina. Another summer transfer – none of Fulham’s back five were on their books last season – the former Chelsea man and current Torino loanee had shown a willingness to get forward throughout. This time, when the ball bobbled past his marker 30 yards from goal, Aina was off. He found Decordova-Reid with the pass who quickly shuffled the ball to Mitrovic. Once again the No 9 did his job well, holding off his man and teeing up Aina to drive a perfect left-foot shot inside the far post.
West Brom had a chance to hit back with eight minutes remaining of the half, after Anguissa gave up the ball under pressure from Conor Gallagher. Karlan Grant, who scored his first goal for the club at Brighton last week, was the beneficiary of the turnover and had time and space to pick his spot up against Areola. The £15m signing got it all wrong, however, and his lofted shot flew well wide.
“I am very frustrated because we were looking forward to this game for a reason‚“said Bilic.
“The last couple of games gave us confidence, shape and belief. We were improving, basically growing, but after tonight … We can’t rely on quality, we have to dig in and work hard. If we don’t do that we have no chance.”
