Fulham wasted no time in sending out an ominous warning to the rest of the First Division as they outclassed Birmingham City in their own backyard to make it two wins from two in English football for Jean Tigana.
This might have been the televised meeting of the two pre-season promotion favourites but it was a night to forget for Blues and their usually reliable defender Darren Purse. The centre half’s first mistake came in the very first minute when he dived in to challenge Barry Hayles and ended up presenting the ball to John Collins ten yards from goal. The experienced Scot needed no second invitation to slot home his first goal for Fulham – to give the Cottagers a dream start just forty seconds in.
The Whites made it two inside the half hour – and again Purse was at fault. This time, the Blues centre back was looking to find his fellow centre back but got his crossfield pass all wrong. French forward Saha, so impressive on his Fulham debut against Crewe on Saturday, showed his sharpness by racing away from the remnants of the Blues defence and burying an emphatic finish past a helpless Ian Bennett. Things got even worse for the hosts when their big money summer signing from Fulham, Geoff Horsfield, was stretchered off six minutes later.
Blues did get a goal back when Horsfield’s replacement Marcelo made a nuisance of himself and teed up Danny Sonner but any hopes of a home comeback were swiftly extinguished when a quick free-kick from Sean Davis, curled into the corner with Bennett still seeking to arrange his wall, restored Fulham’s two-goal advantage. It was the least the Londoners deserved and a shell-shocked Trevor Francis hailed ‘the best by any away team here since I’ve been manager’. The Blues boss waxed lyrical about the poise of Collins and Lee Clark in the midfield, insisting they should still be playing in the top flight, and on this evidence they soon will be again.
Fulham’s first league victory at St. Andrew’s since 1979 might have been more comfortable still had Bennett not made outstanding saves to thwart Hayles, Clark and Luis Boa Morte in the second. The visitors weren’t so much holding on for the final whistle as aiming to exploit any tiredness on the part of their opponents – and you could tell an awful lot from the way Tigana and his number two Christian Damiano shared contented smiles as they saluted the travelling fans following this significant statement of intent.
BIRMINGHAM CITY (3-5-2): Bennett; Purse, Holdsworth, Johnson; Eaden, Grainger, Hughes (Williams 69), Sonner, Lazaridis (Johnson 45); Horsfield (Marcelo 36), Ndlovu. Subs (not used): Poole, Gill.
BOOKED: Grainger,
GOAL: Sonner (38).
FULHAM (4-4-2): Taylor; Finnan, Brevett, Melville, Coleman; Davis, J. Collins, Goldabek, Clark; Saha (Boa Morte 65), Hayles. Subs (not used): Hahnemann, Symons, W. Collins.
BOOKED: Coleman, Boa Morte.
GOAL: J. Collins (1), Saha (31), Davis 45).
REFEREE: Neale Barry (Yorkshire).
ATTENDANCE: 21,659.
