Diomansy Kamara scored his first goal for Fulham following his £6m transfer from West Brom as Lawrie Sanchez’s side won their first pre-season friendly of the summer at Dagenham and Redbridge this evening.
The Senegalese international lashed home a powerful finish from the edge of the box just before the break after being found by Simon Davies. That strike, a minute before half-time, proved to be the only goal of the game but a strong Fulham side got a serious workout against John Still’s men.
Michael Brown flashed an early shot wide but the Football League newboys gave as good as they got. They almost took the lead when Dave Rainford sent a free header wide from Sam Saunders’ corner. Antti Niemi made a good save to keep out both a Jon Nurse drive and Saunders’ follow-up. At the other end, Ed Thompson made excellent saves from Franck Quedrue’s thunderous free-kick, Kamara and to prevent an own goal from Ross Smith.
Both sides significantly altered their line-ups for the second half. David Healy had a goal ruled out for offside and Fulham’s substitute keeper Tony Warner smothered a header from Ben Strevens. Collins John thought he had doubled the visitors’ advantage with a bullet header but Thompson made another magnificent save. His replacement Jack Morton tipped over a rising drive from Clint Dempsey as the Premier League side had to settle for a single-goal victory.
DAGENHAM AND REDBRIDGE: Thompson (Morton 65); Goodhind, Griffiths (Sloma 45), Uddin (Boardman 45), Smith (Huke 45); Saunders (Green 69), Southam (Taylor 45), Rainford (Lettejallow 77), Graham (Okuonghae 45); Nurse (Strevens 45), Moore (Patterson 45).
FULHAM: Niemi (Warner 45); Baird (Volz 45), Konchesky (Rosenior 45), Hughes (Bocanegra 45), Knight (Pearce 45); Brown (Diop 45), Davis (Smertin 45), Davies (Dempsey 45), Quedrue (Timlin 45); Kamara (Healy 45), McBride (John 45).
GOAL: Kamara (44).
REFEREE: Andy D’Urso (Essex).
