Mark Hughes might just rue not bringing in a striker during the summer transfer window. A timely double from Moussa Dembele delivered a first three points for the new manager but any joy Fulham might have taken from coming from a goal down against an agricultural Wolves side will have been severely tempered by the news that Bobby Zamora will miss the next four months with a broken leg. The England striker was a surprise selection the day after signing a new four-year deal at Craven Cottage after suffering an ankle injury at Blackpool a fortnight ago, but his chances of making further inroads into Fabio Capello’s post-World Cup side have been dealt a massive blow after Karl Henry’s challenge from behind saw him collapse in agony.
The Cottage faithful were far from impressed by both the physicality of Wolves’ performance and the ineptitude of referee Phil Dowd, who compounded his failure to award plenty of potential penalties by continually interrupting Fulham’s attacks. For a while, it looked as if Wolves might continue their fine start to the season with a win, after full back Jelle van Damme fired home unattended at the far post. Brede Hangeland might have been fouled by Kevin Doyle in the build-up to the goal, but John Pantsil still should have cleared the danger rather than allowing the former Reading striker’s cross to travel right across the six-yard box. Pantsil endured another awful afternoon and Fulham looked a lot more secure once Chris Baird replaced him at half-time.
Hughes’ side were largely wasteful in front of goal, although Davies felt he could have two spot-kicks before the visitors took the lead. Zamora spooned a free-kick high into the Putney End a feat later matched by his skipper Danny Murphy and John Pantsil sent a speculative effort from the edge of the box just over the crossbar. Fulham’s lack of a like-for-like replacement for the injured Zamora was illustrated by the propensity of Dembele, who started on the left of midfield, to drop into deeper midfield areas usually occupied by Clint Dempsey. The American had a quiet afternoon and Hughes had a quartet of creative midfielders on the field when Zoltan Gera was sent on as Zamora’s replacement.
Some sterns words from Hughes during the interval added greater urgency to Fulham’s play and the home side were level shortly after the break. Wolves failed to properly clear a Stephen Kelly cross and Dembele rifled home from 15 yards out, although he was aided by a deflection that took the ball out of reach of former Fulham goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann. Fulham were largely in the ascendancy after that, although Mark Schwarzer did brilliantly to palm away a Doyle header, and spurned several opportunities to take the lead.
Gera showed incredible agility to turn a Hangeland header goalwards although his close-range overhead kick cleared the crossbar and Dembele drove a low shot into Hahnemann’s arms. Just before the hour mark, Murphy’s beautifully floated pass looked to have unlocked the visitors’ defence. Simon Davies scampered onto it, with terrific poise much like he had to score the equaliser here against Hamburg last year, but Dowd waved away the penalty appeals after the Welshman appeared to have been caught by Hahnemann.
Hughes threw on Eddie Johnson for the final seven minutes in a desperate attempt to find a winner but it seemed as though the Whites were destined for a fourth league draw in a row. However, Johnson drew a foul from Christophe Berra in the first of four additional minutes, and – after the Scottish centre back had received his second yellow card – Davies and Gera cleverly teed up Dembele, who drilled his shot underneath the wall and into the bottom corner from 23 yards. Fulham seemed to have suddenly discovered a happy knack of finding late goals and this one was certainly well received.
The Hammersmith End had earlier labelled Wolves ‘a disgrace to the Premiership’ and, as a friend asserted after the final whistle, it finished ‘2-1 to football’. Given Fulham’s clear lack of striking alternatives, though, you have to wonder just how long Mark Hughes will be left ruing Zamora’s absence.
FULHAM (4-4-1-1): Schwarzer; Pantsil (Baird 45), Kelly, Hughes, Hangeland; Etuhu, Murphy, Davies, Dembele; Dempsey (E. Johnson 83); Zamora (Gera 30). Subs (not used): Etheridge, Halliche, Greening, Riise.
BOOKED: Pantsil, Murphy, Hangeland.
GOALS: Dembele (49, 90).
WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS (4-4-2): Hahnemann; Ward, van Damme (Fletcher 45), Craddock, Berra; Mancienne, Henry, Foley, Jarvis; Ebanks-Blake (Guediora 85); Doyle (Jones 61). Subs (not used): Hennessey, Elokobi, Stearman, M. Bent.
BOOKED: Mancienne, Ward, Jarvis, Berra, Henry, Jones.
SENT OFF: Berra (90).
GOAL: van Damme (10).
REFEREE: Phil Dowd (Stoke-on-Trent).
ATTENDANCE: 25,280.
“The Hammersmith End had earlier labelled Wolves ‘a disgrace to the Premiership’ and, as a friend asserted after the final whistle, it finished ‘2-1 to football’”
Could not agree more. I’m a Toon fan and we had to endure Mick McCarthy’s awful tactics and team of thugs just a few weeks back. They are a disgraceful side that resort to kicking lumps out of players once they realise the opposition can actually pass the ball about a bit. Well done on your win today. I’m sure every Toon fan in the country was rooting for Fulham today.
Grow up Barry. You know there were more Toon fouls than Wolves’ in that game. I like Newcastle and most of their fans, but the incessant whining from people like you has become really tiresome. Your own manager had no complaints and he knows a lot more about football than you do. Instead of blindly parroting the media-led narrative, use your eyes and your brain before making ill-considered posts.
As for today, no complaints about the result considering your second half improvement, though of course it was disappointing to lose after taking the lead and it could easily have been a draw. I see the previous article is similarly irrational towards Wolves, but I’ll make allowances for partisanship and disappointment at losing a key player.. I wish Zamora a speedy recovery.
Barry, WTF are you on about?
We do not go around booting people.
when we played you, it was a tough battle but not dirty.
Your team just surrounded the ref at every oppourtunity.
today we got out played but again we dint boot people. the ref was a joke, Fulham could have had 2 pens, Mancienne got booked for a pull back. 5 mins later a fulham player did the same and nothin happened.
Well done Barry! More considered opinion from another idiot geordie, what was todays excuse?
Another super geordie who has weekend pass.
Fulham 2nd half performance was alot better than Wolves and deserved there victory, But saying that at 90 min i was happy with a draw.
Of the Yellow card account today the ref gave them for petty fouls not thuggery as many think.
The challenge on Bobby was a quality tackle and it was just unfortunate that he fell badly ( I hope for a speedy recover ) As for the chants of a ‘disgrace to the Premiership’ Well I’m sorry we did not play open expansive attacking football but we have to live to our means and cut cloth accordingly, I mean how can a club live on such low gate and pay high wages like Fulham ? Sooner rather than later football will implode and teams living beyond there means will fall awayside.
Look forward to re-match at the Mol when we play Fulham and you geordie boys cannot waiting to get to sportingdirectstjamespark.com stadium and put you down.
Oh yeh what was your excuse against Blackpool ????
pay high wages like fulham?
haha this is funny. i wish i could compare each clubs wage bill. i imagine they look very similar.
the zamora tackle was unfortunate. however wolves behaviour throughout the game was a disgrace. just because the fouls werent that bad (petty fouls as many wolves fans have stated) doesnt make your systematic fouling ok. if you cant play football the way it should be played then please get relegated so a team like burnley can come back. at least they attempted to play football.
19 fouls – a foul every 4 minutes 44 seconds
7 yellows – one every 12 minutes 51 seconds
1 red – how was it only 1!!!
There were 2 teams out there and only 1 of them was playing football (to mis-quote Bradman)
If you look at our books we cover our wages and expenses with our income – surprisingly, a club can make more money in London than they can up north.
I will not be sad to see Wolves relegated – the only problem is that thuggery is normally enough to stay up 🙁
All this nonsence started with Match of the day – and their montage of Wolves tackles on Joey Barton. Please BBC, put together a montage of tackles on Kevin Doyle, or Fletcher, or Ebanks-Blake, or Jarvis etc etc. Doyle gets kicked up in the air every week, and do we ever hear him winging?
We all have great sympathy for Bobby Zamora, but it was a fair challenge, as both Mark Hughes and Danny Murphy have said. Last week, no-one from Newcastle had any complaints either (appart from Barton), and we certainly did not make an issue of Newcastle’s ‘agricultural’ play.
what about john pantsil’s ‘agricultural’ foul when we were through on goal, he was the last man and yet only received a yellow for a cynical foul?
Wolves can ‘play football’, check dave jones’ free kick against stoke, or sylvain ebanks-blake sublime control and clinical finish for examples from the last few weeks alone. what we also do is compete, make sure that every 50/50 ball is contested, make sure that every second ball is challenged for, and that is as much part of the game as one touch passing and 30 yard volleys. when players like essien and mascherano put in a strong tackle they are applauded for it, when henry does it he’s a ‘thug’, just another example of the bias against the midlands in the national media.
and for your information wolverhampton is not ‘the north’, any more than the cottage is in essex or al fayed comes from yugoslavia. buy a map.
genuinely sorry for zamora, but it was a clean tackle and the ref didn’t even award a free kick so what’s your point? henry should think “that players got the ball, i could tackle him but theres a chance ill hurt him, so ill let him run at the defence and take a shot” – get real
anywhere above cambridge is in the north, so yes wolverhampton is in the north.
Fulham lacked strikers last season and we were fine. People are getting too up tight over the early season performances from Gera & Dempsey, which I’ll never understand. We’re 4 games in, calm down people.
AJ is coming back soon, Eddie can give us quality minutes late & Gera/Dempsey will be ok. Enjoy the win for once people and stop thinking negative.
This was a nice win for Fulham…take it as it is…
i dont know sleachy, whats northern for pretentious?
I missed this game because I was at a wedding, but Wolves were a tidy team when they visited the Cottage last season.
I’m guessing most of the upset on here is from losing Bobby for four months. The teams I’m not looking forward to watching this season are Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers, although they are starting to look more like a footballing side under Owen Coyle.
i don’t know mitchell stream, i’m not from there
Have a look at the photos on the forum:
http://cc.fulhamfc.com/forum/topics/popping-this-image-up-here-so?xg_source=activity
I think you’ll change your mind if you think Henry’s tackle wasn’t dangerous (unless you’re a Wolves fan in denial, of course).
FIFA Law 12 is also quite explicit about what constitutes dangerous foul play and warrants a red card and this tackle certainly fits the bill.
Sleachy, you know this already from my post on your forum!