Steed Malbranque made a match winning return for Fulham’s reserves who recorded their first win of the season over Leicester City this evening.
The French midfielder, who missed the start of the season after injuring his groin during pre-season training at the end of July, made the decisive goal with a brilliant pass for Ishmael Ehui and came through his outing unscathed, which gives him a chance of featuring for the first team at West Brom this weekend.
Malbranque was substituted after 65 minutes and told Fulham’s official website:
I feel good. A little bit tired maybe, but I was just very happy to play because it has been a very long time for me to be out. I felt no reaction to the injury, I’m just tired; but I think that is to be expected when you miss out on pre-season training and you haven’t played for so many weeks.
Basically it was a groin problem that gave me a lot of pain, but now it feels good which is the important thing. It wasn’t an easy game; I found it difficult physically, but I tried to do my best. I wouldn’t say I was altogether happy with my performance, but it’s also true that in every game I play I want to do more. But I was happy to be back, and importantly it’s a step towards making my comeback with the first team.”
FULHAM RESERVES: Crossley; Rosenior, Rehman, Watkins, Green (Milson 45); Buari, McDermott, McKinlay (Pratley 50), Malbranque (Doherty 65), Timlin; Ehui
