By Jack Pooley

Fulham climbed out of the relegation zone with a magic Monday night display in Leicester.

A calm finish from Ademola Lookman was complimented by Ivan Cavaleiro’s redemption penalty in a few first half minutes. Substitute Harvey Barnes’ late goal made it a nervous close to the game, but ultimately we did enough for a massive three points.

Scott Parker named two midfield changes from the side that were narrowly defeated against Everton last time out, as André-Frank Anguissa and Ruben Loftus-Cheek replaced Mario Lemina and Tom Cairney.

Players from both teams wore black armbands in memory of two late greats; Diego Maradona and Papa Bouba Diop. There was also a minute’s applause prior to kick-off as both teams and all inside the stadium paid their respects.

There was a misty rain looming over the King Power as the game got underway, with both sides looking to bounce back after defeats last time out.

The game started slowly with neither team being able to take a real hold of proceedings with the majority of possession condensed to the middle third of the park.

The first real chance of the contest came after quarter of an hour. Anguissa was sharp as always to pinch possession high in the Leicester half, before Lookman was wiped out on the edge of the D for a free kick. The winger stepped up to take, but could only stroke convincingly over Kasper Schmeichel’s goal.

The game seemed to ignite from here, and a few minutes later there was a huge let-off for Fulham as the Foxes hit the woodwork twice in rapid succession. From a Maddison free kick, the ball cannoned off the wall to Youri Tielemans who managed to hit the post from the edge of the box, before Wesley Fofana then clipped the Fulham crossbar on the follow up.

The Foxes had their tales up now, and soon forced the first save of the evening from Alphonse Areola. Dennis Praet’s cross was smartly flicked on by Jamie Vardy at the front post, but he couldn’t quite squirm his shot under the Frenchman.

But it was Fulham who stuck first in a swift counter attacking move. Anguissa glided the length of the pitch and slotted in Lookman, who made no mistake calmly steering his shot into the far corner for the advantage, followed by a fitting tribute to Papa Bouba Diop holding his Senegal shirt high.

Ademola Lookman calmly slots it past Kasper Schmeichel to give Fulham the advantage.

A few minutes later and there was further drama in Fulham’s favour. After a swift VAR consultation, De Cordova-Reid was adjudged to have been tripped by Fuchs as he rushed in on goal and it was a penalty to us.

After all the penalty talk in recent weeks, Cavaleiro looked determined to make amends for his miss last week and give Fulham a two-goal cushion. And he did in style, sending his shot soaring into the top corner to make it a dream first-half for Parker’s men.

Brendan Rodgers clearly wasn’t happy and made two half-time swaps in the shape of Harvey Barnes and Cengiz Ünder. And Ünder almost made an instant impact when, in the 52nd minute, he raced down the right before curling in a tasty ball towards Vardy. Luckily for us though the threatening forward couldn’t bring it down and Areola was there to collect.

The game was largely being played in Fulham’s half now, with plenty of resolute defending ensuring Leicester were kept out of gaining a foothold in the contest. The Whites were still threatening on the counter though, and almost put the game out of sight in the 70th minute. Cavaleiro combined well with Loftus-Cheek who found a yard and managed to get a shot off from 15 yards, but it was blocked for a corner.

We were really coming out of our shell now and started to look for a third to put the game to bed. And that goal so almost came after 73 minutes. Antonee Robinson, who had been lively throughout, popped off a nice one-two with Cavaleiro before squaring it to Lookman yards from goal. He sent his man to the shops before firing off an effort which Schmeichel had to be alert for to keep out.

Ivan Cavaleiro celebrates after making no mistake from the spot for 2-0.

The first Fulham change was made soon after, as Loftus-Cheek swapped places with Lemina as we looked to close out the three points.

With five minutes to go there was a scare, as Leicester clawed one back. After a looping ball in was nodded down by Vardy, substitute Barnes slammed home from close range to give his team a slender hope of revival.

Joe Bryan entered the field with seconds of the 90 left in place of Lookman, as five minutes added time was announced.

Barnes was almost at it again in the closing seconds, but the ball was somehow hacked away at the vital moment.

With barely any time left, Leicester had to throw all their men up for a corner, including goalkeeper Schmeichel, leaving them with an open net. Mitrović raced up field as the men in blue scrambled back but couldn’t quite find the final ball or shot to close out the game.

In the end we’d done enough to seal the three points and it was a superb start to the week for Fulham.

Fulham XI: Areola; Aina, Andersen, Adarabioyo, Robinson; Reed, Anguissa, Loftus-Cheek (77’ Lemina); Cavaleiro, De Cordova-Reid, Lookman (90’ Bryan)

Leicester XI: Schmeichel; Fofana, Evans, Fuchs, Justin; Tielemans, Mendy (69’ Iheanacho), Thomas (46’ Ünder), Praet (46’ Barnes), Maddison; Vardy