Hammers leave it late to nail wasteful Fulham

HAMMER Danny Ings scored a dramatic injury-time goal to ensure West Ham took home a point against a wasteful Fulham, reports Vlad Andrejevic from Craven Cottage.

Fulham went ahead midway through the first half through Raul Jiminez who stole in front of his defender to tap in Emile Smith Rowe’s ball across the box. The Cottagers looked the more threatening as the game wore on but were unable to extend their lead before Ings punished their wastefulness with a clinical finish with less than a minute of added time left to play.

It was a get-out-of-jail-free card for the Hammers as Fulham were far the better team, nullifying their attacking threat and creating a plethora of dangerous moments for themselves, but the visitors showed resilience to get something from the game.

The home side however were left to rue their missed chances, with Adama Traore particularly guilty of squandering good goalscoring opportunities.

It was a scrappy start to the contest in the west London sunshine, with both teams struggling to get a foothold in the game. It suddenly sparked into life in the 15^th minute when Traore had a decent penalty shout turned away.

He intercepted Max Kilman’s clearance and bore down on the visitor’s goal, however as he shaped to shoot, Kilman recovered and did enough to put him off, though not enough to concede a penalty, much to the annoyance of Fulham manager Marco Silva who was booked for his protests.

This decision seemed to focus Fulham as they piled on the pressure, with Alex Iwobi and Smith Rowe, who was the main feature of the matchday programme following his good start in Fulham’s colours, at the forefront of the Cottagers good play.

The former Arsenal players, of whom there are now four at Fulham including captain Bernd Leno and deadline-day signing Reiss Nelson, linked up well down the left-hand side and looked threatening with every attack.

It was Iwobi who created the next golden opportunity for Traore, sending in a perfectly floated cross towards the forward whose header went agonisingly wide.

A minute later Fulham finally made the breakthrough, this time through Smith Rowe’s creativity. He beat the offside trap to collect a ball in behind which he just kept in play before sliding a pass through the defender’s legs into the path of Jiminez to slot home.

Neither side mustered any further chances of note in the first half, with Fulham looking the more comfortable in possession. Julian Lopetegui, who had surprisingly left Lucas Paqueta out of the starting line-up decided to bring him on after the break along with summer signing Crysencio Summerville.

The Hammers had struggled to get hold of any meaningful possession and play the ball into their forward players, but the substitutes improved the away side and finally forced Leno into his first real piece of action in the 60^th minute.

Mohamed Kudus, who had been largely anonymous in the game, found a bit of space on the right-hand side and whipped the ball into his captain Jarrod Bowen. The England international took a great touch before finding his shot well smothered by the onrushing Leno.

It looked like West Ham would turn the tide; however, it was Fulham who created the clearer opportunities from there on in. Smith Rowe came close to finding a goal himself, latching onto a loose ball in the box and firing a volley into the back of his teammate from a promising position.

He came off to a standing ovation for Tom Cairney, who only minutes later sent in a wonderful cross into the back post to find Traore, who once again inexplicably missed the target.

It looked like Fulham would close out the game, but a long throwing found Bowen at the bye-line, his cutback finding late substitute Ings in the middle. The veteran striker took one touch away from the defenders before squeezing in a shot at Leno’s near post in front of the away fans.