Fulham 4 Wolverhampton 4: Quick Thoughts

Fulham went with an unchanged starting lineup. Curiously, there was no traditional striker on the bench to backup Chris Martin.

For Wolves the most interesting part of their lineup was that 19 year old Harry Burgoyne was starting in goal. Fulham players had to be licking their chops when they learned they were going up against such a young, inexperienced goal keeper.

Fulham dominated the first 20 minutes in possession, shots, corners, and just about everything else you could think of. Of course this meant that Wolves were able to score on a corner to take a 1-0 lead in the 21st minute.

Fulham were able to equalize after a quick counter when Stefan Johansen knocked in a shot (with his right foot no less) a Ryan Fredericks cross.

Things got even better for Fulham in the 39th minute when Sone Aluko was able to keep a ball alive by the corner flag, and then rolled it out for Fredericks who crossed it into the box where Floyd Ayite was able to head it into the goal.

Chris Martin won a free kick near one of the corner flags in the 43rd minute. Stefan Johansen took the free kick even though it made more sense for a right footer to whip it in. The Norwegian midfielder had a plan though. He played a ball to the top of the box where Tom Cairney was waiting to volley a shot into the net and give Fulham a 3-1 lead.

The half ended with Fulham leading 3-1, and it was quite deserved.

Wolves came out in the second half with more attacking intention, but after the first ten minutes the game settled back in to the more familiar form that it had in the first half. Lambert decided to mix things up at about the hour mark by replacing a holding mid with a striker as Jón Dadi Bödvarsson replaced Romain Saiss.

The young Wolves keeper managed to keep his club in the game as he made a double save first from a Cairney shot and then on the Aluko rebound. Moments later Nouha Dicko was lucky not to be sent off after a bad tackle on Johansen.

Dicko was one of the Wolves players who were able to capitalize on some poor defending by Tim Ream to get one of their goals back in the 65th minute. The goal woke up Wolves who seemed determined to push for a third. Slavisa Jokanovic countered that by pulling off Sone Aluko for Scott Parker in the 72nd minute.

Parker couldn’t help as Malone was beaten on a through ball as Wolves made it 3-3 in the 73rd minute. The game became very end to end with no one coming particularly close to scoring for the next 10 minutes. In the 87th minute Wolves made a double change with Jack Price replacing Conor Coady and João Teixeira replacing Hélder Costa.

After the subs Wolves pressed even harder to get a fourth winning a series of corners and finally scoring in the 90th minute to make it 4-3. Set piece defending and Tim Ream continued to be Fulham’s downfall on the evening.

Tim Ream was replaced by Neeskans Kebano in stoppage time in the hope that Fulham could salvage a point. Wolves were able to clear a free kick for a corner, but after the corner Fulham were able to score with Floyd Ayite heading in a ball on a short corner after it was kept alive by Kevin McDonald and Scott Malone.