It took only 53 seconds for Antoine Semenyo to revive AFC Bournemouth’s quest for European football. The Ghanian international, a scourge of Fulham in the Championship when he starred for Bristol City, punished poor defending from Antonee Robinson to place a precise finish past Bernd Leno, which set the tone for a frustrating evening on the south coast for Marco Silva’s men. The Portuguese head coach, embroiled in a furious argument with the officials after they forced him to substitute Ryan Sessegnon, saw his side denied a point by goalkeeping of Kepa Arizzabalaga and the calmness of centre half Dean Huijsen, who celebrated his 21st birthday with a clean sheet.
The Cherries’ first win in seven matches saw them leapfrog Fulham and move into eighth place on goal difference. The deciding factor in this contest between two surprise contenders for the continental positions was the way in which Semenyo clinically converted a chance that should never have come his way. Timothy Castagne failed to control an ambitious crossfield ball from Antonee Robinson, but the retreating American international looked favourite to deal with Alex Scott’s forward ball. Fulham’s captain didn’t – allowing Semenyo to saunter in from the right flank, cut inside Joachim Andersen and curl a low effort into the bottom corner.
The visitors were fortunate not to be out of the contest only a few minutes later. Scott sent Milos Kerkez’s deep cross into the path of Evanilson, but the Brazilian forward somehow rattled the crossbar from six yards rather than scoring his seventh goal in as many games. As if liberated by the fact that a lacklustre start hadn’t cost them dear, Fulham gradually gained the upper hand in midfield and dictated play for the remainder of the half. Rodrigo Muniz might have done better when he was the beneficiary of a lack of communication between Huijsen and Marco Senesi, but the Brazilian dragged his shot wide of the far post having run through on goal. The in-form forward twice tested the goalkeeper before Sessegnon squandered a glorious chance at the back post – sending a free header from Alex Iwobi’s cross into Kepa’s arms – but Andoni Iraoli was fortunate to have the opportunity to substitute Senesi at half time after the Argentine had only been booked by Michael Oliver for a reckless high tackle on Andersen.
Bournemouth still had two great chances to double their lead either side of half time. First, Scott nearly sneaked a shot past Leno at the near post after the visitors had failed to prevent the all-action midfielder from snaking his way into a promising position on the edge of the box and Tyler Adams was denied by the Fulham goalkeeper’s feet after unselfish play from Dango Ouattara. Then came Silva’s outburst at the fourth official and referee Oliver after he was forced to substitute Sessegnon, despite the officials misreading the Fulham coaching staff’s handwriting on their substitution sheet.
When got back underway after a barely believable three-minute stoppage, Kepa flew to his left to push away an Iwobi effort from 25 yards out. The Chelsea loanee was also equal to a Sasa Lukic shot before two of Silva’s substitutes came close to creating an equaliser. Adama Traore headed over at the back post before Tom Cairney shot tamely at Kepa from just outside the box. The Cottagers kept pressing for the goal that their domination of possession threatened, but Raul Jimenez saw a header deflected wide from Willian’s cross and, in truth, Fulham paid for their lack of decisiveness in the final third.
It said plenty about the toothlessness of Fulham’s side that Bournemouth looked the likelier to score again on a rare break forward. Leno did brilliantly to palm the ball away from Evanilson after the Brazilian seemed set to punish some dozy defending from Calvin Bassey, but the German goalkeeper’s intervention only served to prolong Fulham’s misery. It seemed absurd that there were only five added minutes, but the futility of Fulham’s frenzied attacks was summed up by Willian’s final cross floating over Jimenez, who failed to jump, and Traore, whose mistimed leap, was greeted with relieved cheers from the home fans.
This gritty win – Bournemouth’s third in a row in the league at home to Fulham for the first time since 1931 – puts the Cherries back on cross for European football, something Iraola’s impressive retooling of a watchable side definitely deserves. For all of Silva’s superb coaching, Fulham remain too inconsistent to capitalise on a great opportunity to break into the top flight’s top eight. The continental dream isn’t dead yet for the Whites, but they will need to win four of their last six matches to make amends after this massive missed opportunity.
AFC BOURNEMOUTH (4-2-3-1): Arizzabalaga; Smith, Kerkez, Huijsen, Senesi (Zabarnyi 45); Cook, Adams; Ouattara, Semenyo (J. Soler 88), Scott (Tavernier 65); Evanilson. Subs (not used): Dennis, Winterburn, Araujo, Brooks, Jebbison.
BOOKED: Senesi, Adams, Cook.
GOAL: Semenyo (1).
FULHAM (4-2-3-1): Leno; Castagne, A. Robinson, Andersen, Bassey; Lukic (Willian 85), Berge (Cairney 59); R. Sessegnon (Traore 57), Iwobi, Pereira (Smith Rowe 69); Muniz (Jimenez 57). Subs (not used): Benda, Tete, Cuenca, Reed.
BOOKED: A. Robinson, Cairney.
REFEREE: Michael Oliver (County Durham).
ATTENDANCE: 11,195.
Okay, here we go. It’s party pooper time!
There is a huge gulf between these two teams, IMO, as was shown by our domination in that second half. But it counts for nothing if we don’t have the quality to make possession count and, clearly, we do not.
It’s a horrible ground, confined space on a tight pitch and we never do well here or, for that matter, when they come to the Cottage. We needed to be really up for this game from the start and, sadly, we weren’t.
Castagne has had a long time to impress with Tete out and, quite frankly, he has failed to do that. Time for Kenny to come back.
It was his error that started their early break and it was compounded by our left back who, once again, struggled throughout, looking way off his best, something that has been apparent for months.
Why hasn’t the manager addressed this issue?
The kerfuffle over Sessegnon’s substitution and Silva’s rant at Robinson was a clear indication that he was about to sub the captain and move Sessegnon in his place. It didn’t happen but, surely, it has to be inevitable. It is even more bewildering when we are told that Robinson is carrying an injury. He needs a rest.
Since Silva came to Fulham, he has insisted on playing with a lone striker and two wingers. Fair enough. But, for far too long, we have been absent real wingers and, no matter how much he might hope it to be true, neither Iwobi nor Sessegnon are wingers. So our attacking ability from wide positions is null and void. It’s especially important against a team like Bournemouth and on a narrow pitch like theirs.
Iwobi had one great cross (that Sessegnon should have buried) and a decent shot in the second half but his overall contribution was minimal. Sessegnon looked totally out of place on the right wing. No surprise when he’s a left back.
Bournemouth have conceded goals in their last nine league games, had lost their last four home games. Yet, we could have played until the cows came home and not scored.
For a moment, Traore, by doing what Iwobi and Sessegnon had failed to do, running at the Bournemouth defence, looked likely to produce something but he soon fizzled out, mainly because Iraola astutely assigned a second player to help his fullback. Traore is a player that needs to move on in the summer, along with those others that simply aren’t good enough or have been good servants but reached the end of their time at the Cottage.
Will it happen? If Marco Silva stays at the helm, probably not. We can look forward to another season of Emile Smith Rowe coming on and making not the slightest difference.
It’s not over yet with six games to go and I’m sure that we will go above Bournemouth, one week, and they will go above us, another. But, ultimately, neither team are really good enough and Brighton will probably pip us both at the post.
Not quite sure what to make of that. Bournmouth started at 8pm we started at half past. The system we play away from home means we have to be strong at the back and efficient on the counter. When you give away a goal like that so early it limits the amount of counters you get as they don’t need to commit so many players forward. This was compounded by the numerous times we gave the ball away with sloppy passing with some players looking like they have never played together before.
I will not single players out because it’s unfair after a disappointing team performance like that. I would say that if Adama is occupying 2 defenders then he is certainly contributing. ESR looked keen and energetic. For the most part his passing was good but at the same time unable to produce an opening (the same as the rest of the team. Oh for a quality playmaker, but they are hard to find and expensive. We have to decent strikers who given the chance will score but they need some service.
What a pathetic ground and supporters. Says it all when they need to have someone bashing a drum to create some noise.
Anyway on a brighter note I would like to say the spirit the team showed was excellent, they fought to the end. Also terrific backing from the fans as always away from home
These are the bread and butter matches that you must compete in it’s as if there are two or maybe three different Fulham teams that turn up,this team turned up after 35 mins we should have had enough quality to win but have we,
Castagne started the rot with the first of many bad passes that led to the goal
Robinson needs a rest we can all see that why can’t Silva,I felt for Sess he looked totally bemused by the substitution.the passing was terrible totally inept team performance
I think we should stop talking about a European place maybe that’s affecting the team I don’t know, I did not understand the subs Cairney,Traore,ESR,and Jimenez,Cairney settled things down a bit but needs to go at the end of the season he has been a good servant to Fulham and needs to seek pastures new how can you have a captain only playing twenty minutes,the other subs showed no impact at all,Chelsea next I bet we beat then lose to Southampton that would be just like Fulham
The subs were a mix up with officials and ref would not let silva change it Sessegon and Berge were not ment to come off . Lots of talk about how we come back well from bad defeats which is true. But what has to be sorted how poorly we play after good results it’s happening to much this season
Same old story. Creating plenty of chances but not being clinical with our finishing. If only Sess had been through on goal instead of Muniz, and Muniz been given Sess’s free header at the back post we would have won 2-1!!
Would have liked to see Kenny Tete given some minutes on the pitch. He might have given us some much needed impetus. And he would have had more chance of starting the next game. That seems unlikely now.
Conceding so early was a disaster against a team like Bournemouth who could sit back and defend and try to catch us on the break.
It’s so easy to identify individual performances, as we all know, but that was a crap team performance. No single player really came out with flying colours, with exception of Leno who in truth was just doing what he’s paid for. That is more than can really be said of the rest, perhaps I’d give Ryan a pass. Quite why we suffer from this appalling lack of consistency I don’t know, what I do know, is that it’s a collective malaise where nobody turns up.
Really disappointing, yet again.