Defeat at Craven Cottage

Two late goals consigned us to defeat against Fulham at Craven Cottage on Sunday afternoon.

After a lacklustre first half performance, we were much the better side for long spells of the second half until we were hit by two late strikes from the home team, substitutes Ricardo Muniz and former Spur Ryan Sessegnon netting in the final 12 minutes to snatch the win for the Cottagers.

Lucas Bergvall had strong penalty claims turned down with the score at 1-0 but we couldn’t find a way back into the contest on the banks of the River Thames.

The opening half was low on chances for both sides and it was no surprise the game was goalless at the break. Andreas Pereira fizzed an angled drive a couple of yards wide in the fourth minute while some lovely skill from Mathys Tel saw him skip past Timothy Castagne and Joachim Andresen to the byline but his ball across the six-yard box just evaded Dominic Solanke with 21 minutes gone.

The hosts had a glorious chance on 34 minutes when Ben Davies – making his 350th Spurs appearance – stuck out a leg to block Alex Iwobi’s cross which probably wasn’t going to trouble Guglielmo Vicario too much but instead, the defender’s clearance fell nicely for Castagne however his weak shot was straight at our goalkeeper, before Archie Gray blocked an Iwobi shot five minutes before the break as Fulham finished the half the stronger.

We made a double change at the interval with Heung-Min Son and Bergvall replacing Brennan Johnson and Yves Bissouma and we started the second period in brighter fashion, creating an early chance with a flowing move which ended with Solanke heading Bergvall’s cross wide.

On the hour mark, Bergvall had a shot blocked from Tel’s lay-off as we continued to play the better football in the second period, with Tel then delivering a cross which Davies headed straight at Bernd Leno five minutes later before our best chance of the game in the 69th minute. Tel cut inside onto his left foot and hit a curling effort which Leno parried away at full-stretch, James Maddison chested the rebound in to Solanke who stuck out a leg, but he could only send the ball over the bar from eight yards out.

Both sides have good records for scoring late goals this season and Fulham went close in the 76th minute after Vicario had dived to punch away a cross, the ball landing at Willian’s feet and his right-foot curler drifted just wide of the far post. Two minutes later though, the home side did find the target when Pereira touched off to Muniz in the area and he sent a low shot just inside the post.

We had a couple of attacking opportunities in the closing stages, one which saw strong penalty claims waved away after Bergvall went down under a challenge from Calvin Bassey, but instead it was Fulham with the next crucial goal two minutes from time. Sessegnon had only been on the pitch for a minute when he latched onto a long clearance from Leno and tussled with Davies, on the edge of the area, winning the fight for the ball and then hitting a fine right-footed curler past Vicario. Solanke was denied a stoppage time goal by a low out-stretched hand from Leno and that was the last action of another disappointing afternoon in the Premier League.

Match data

Goals: Fulham – Muniz 78, Sessegnon 88.

Referee: Andy Madley.

Venue: Craven Cottage.

Weather: Sunny intervals, gentle breeze, nine degrees.

Attendance: 27,182.