Harry Wilson was beaming after scoring a superb winner to help Fulham come from behind and beat Brentford in this afternoon’s west London derby.
The Welsh winger, who scored twice in added time to beat the Bees at Craven Cottage in November, curled in a special strike from thirty yards out to help the Whites win a five-goal thriller.
Wilson told Premier League Productions:
“It was mental game! I didn’t think we started too well but we scored a goal on the counter attack. [Bernd] Leno saves the penalty and I thought that would give us more life.
When me and Josh King came on, … [Marco Silva] told us to influence the ball and we did that for the first goal. I didn’t think it would happen again, it was disappointing to be on the bench but to score was great.
Before the game, we were thinking of swapping sides because of the sun but we didn’t because a late winner meant we could celebrate with the fans late on. We were gutted when we lost a couple of games but we knew there was a club record to break and we were desperate to do that so everyone in that changing room is now in the club’s history.”
I was just as disappointed as Harry to see Traore start the game with Wilson benched. It made sense when I realised that Lewis Potter was still being used as a left back. It made even more sense when Traore provided the cross for Jiminez’s great header and, whenever Traore was used properly, he looked capable of destroying whichever Brentford defender was blocking him.
So why our midfield chose NOT to use Traore so often is a complete mystery. Instead, we resorted to that irritating, slow, sideways and backwards passing game that gets us absolutely nowhere. In one first half move, we actually went from being deep in Brentford’s half to, a dozen inept passes later, being forced to play the ball back to Leno. As for Traore, he was forced to come inside looking for the ball, going on bewildering cross field meandering runs that also lead nowhere and, eventually, he came unstuck, leading to their equaliser.
Thankfully, the manager must have given them a rocket at halftime because they came out for the second half steaming.
I was surprised to see Berge pulled so early but it proved to be a master stroke as Tom Cairney started pulling the strings with intent and when, eventually, Silva realised that, no matter how long they stayed on the pitch, neither Iwobi nor Smith Rowe were liable to do anything of merit, he brought on Wilson and King and they proved to be real live wires. Arguably, King had his best cameo in a senior Fulham shirt, running at defenders, switching right and left and giving us a flavour of something exciting to come next season.
The rarity that is a Tom Cairney header was a joy to behold, climbing well and directing the ball perfectly. And Harry Wilson’s supremely placed shot was just as magical.