Fulham 1-1 Bournemouth

Fulham and Bournemouth played out a 1-1 draw in a lively encounter at Craven Cottage on Friday night.

The Whites had the better of the first half in terms of chances, but also had two penalty shouts, with a foul not given on Harry Wilson looking particularly stonewall.

It looked as though that may cost us when the visitors blitzed through from kick-off in the second half to take the lead through Dominic Solanke.

But Fulham rescued a point – the least we deserved – late on through Tosin’s first goal for the Club.

Marco Silva made one enforced change to the side that drew in Preston the previous week. Illness had caught up with Antonee Robinson so he missed out entirely, with Joe Bryan the natural replacement at left-back.

The visitors had the first effort early on when a quick break up the pitch culminated in Adam Smith testing Marek Rodák from the edge of the box, but Fulham then went straight up the other end and almost took the lead through Neeskens Kebano.

The winger showed phenomenal skill to wriggle between two defenders, but his low shot was pushed around the near post by Mark Travers in the Bournemouth goal.

It was déjà vu soon after when Kebano dropped the shoulder, cut inside and smashed his effort into the same spot, but again Travers got down well to parry.

From the subsequent corner Fabio Carvalho saw his snapshot cannon off the elbow of Gary Cahill, but the officials didn’t spot it.

The Cherries were perhaps fortunate to keep 11 men on the field as we reached the quarter hour mark. Lewis Cook miscontrolled the ball and as he went to win it back, dangerously wiped out Kebano with a two-footed, knee-high challenge. Yellow card the decision from referee Tim Robinson.

The opportunities continued to flow, albeit nothing clear cut, with Solanke and Aleksandar Mitrović each heading a chance off target, before the former flashed a strike wide of the far post.

Next up was Carvalho to try his luck, but his fizzer from 18 yards deflected behind, and then Mitrović stabbed one wide under pressure.

The Whites had another penalty claim turned down on 39 minutes when Wilson chopped inside Solanke whose trailing leg brought the former Bournemouth loanee down, but again the referee was unmoved.

It was all Fulham now and we would have broken the deadlock had it not been for superb last-ditch defending from Steve Cook who made two heroic blocks in a matter of seconds to deny Mitrović and Carvalho.

For all Fulham’s good work, the Cherries took the lead with just eight seconds played of the restart. A long ball over the top caught the defence flat-footed, and Solanke finished high into the net.

We responded quickly, but again the sequence of Kebano’s shot towards the near post ended with Travers turning it behind. Denis Odoi got on the end of Jean Michaël Seri’s subsequent corner, but couldn’t find the angle to get it on target.

Carvalho did find his range moments later, but Travers beat it away once again.

The goalkeeper had no chance with a Wilson screamer that followed, but unfortunately the sweetly struck hit curled away from the far post.

We came within inches of the equaliser as the clock ticked past the hour mark. Another fine delivery from Seri saw Mitrović leap and hang in the air, but his header wouldn’t come down, kissing the top of the net on its way over.

The Cherries’ timewasting since going in front was frankly farcical, with Travers the first to be booked for such.

A well worked corner routine saw the ball worked to substitute Tom Cairney who picked out Mitrović with an in-swinging cross, but he was tightly marked and could only nod into the arms of Travers.

Cairney had been orchestrating matters since coming on and showed his class again with a lovely reverse pass to Kebano who’d run in behind, but Travers made himself big to come out on top of that clash once more.

Travers saved his best stop to keep out another Mitrović header at full stretch on 81 minutes, with Kebano slicing the loose ball wide afterwards.

Surely the pressure would tell, and it did. Another perfect Cairney delivery was flicked on into the far corner by Tosin to send the sold out Craven Cottage into ecstasy.

Fulham were buoyed by the equaliser and were throwing everything forward. Bournemouth, meanwhile, had everyone behind the ball as they looked to cling onto a point.

And the visitors achieved their goal despite constant pressure, to ensure the sides remained as they were at the top of the table.