Blackpool 1-0 Fulham

A frustrating afternoon saw Fulham beaten 1-0 by a workmanlike Blackpool side at Bloomfield Road.

The Whites created a number of chances, but in truth never really got going to replicate the high standards we’ve previously demonstrated.

Josh Bowler’s solo effort early in the second half was the difference between the sides, as Marco Silva’s men tasted defeat for the first time in 2021/22.

Our Head Coach was forced into two changes with both Fabio Carvalho and Harry Wilson ruled out. In came Domingos Quina, for a Fulham debut in the number 10 role, and Ivan Cavaleiro.

And within three minutes an opportunity fell Cavaleiro’s way when he played a one-two with Josh Onomah, but he couldn’t get the ball out from under his feet and shanked over the bar.

Blackpool did not look like a team who had yet to win this season, as they tried to take the game to the Whites, with Tyreece John-Jules inches away from connecting with Keshi Anderson’s ball across the face, before Anderson himself sent a long ranger just off target.

John-Jules then found himself one-on-one only to be denied by the alert Paulo Gazzaniga, during a good spell for the hosts.

Fulham fought to regain a foothold in the match and responded with a Cavaleiro shot from 20 yards which was straight down the throat of Seasiders goalie Chris Maxwell.

Gazzaniga was probably busier in the opener quarter of the game than he had been at any point previously in the season, though his next save from Anderson was a routine one.

Five minutes before the break a loose ball dropped invitingly for Jean Michaël Seri on the edge of the box and he didn’t need asking twice, lashing in a vicious shot that had Maxwell scrambling, only for it to fly the wrong side of the post.

The Whites had struggled to hit the high levels set of late in the first half, but at least we were level. Unfortunately the same was only true of the first four minutes in the second period, with Bowler driving into the box and finding a way to get the ball inside Gazzaniga’s near post.

A quick move up the pitch presented a half chance for an equaliser when Aleksandar Mitrović fed Onomah, but his placed left footer didn’t quite have the accuracy needed.

Minimal sights of goal followed for Denis Odoi and Quina, but neither could find the target.

Midway through the second half Silva tried to shake things up by introducing Neeskens Kebano and Harrison Reed for Quina and Onomah.

We came close to restoring parity through an unlikely source when Odoi stormed into the box to get a march on his man and meet Antonee Robinson’s clipped delivery, but Maxwell got down well to push his header behind.

With time running out, Silva threw caution to the wind and stuck Rodrigo Muniz on for his first Fulham appearance in place of Odoi.

As the Whites pushed for a way back into things, gaps were being left and another Bowler run could have proved decisive had he slipped his man in at the end of it rather than blazing over the bar.

After Cavaleiro won a free-kick in a dangerous area in the closing stages, Kebano whipped across a delicious set-piece, but nobody was able to get on the end of it for what would have been a tap-in.

Maxwell was called into another save in stoppage time but he didn’t have to overly exert himself to claim Muniz’s downwards header.

The Brazilian was putting himself about and almost signed off his debut in glorious fashion, only for a last ditch block to send his shot on the turn spinning into the grateful reach of Maxwell.

The Tangerines had been organised and hard working throughout, and they responded diligently as Fulham put the pressure on to see the game out and condemn us to a first defeat of the campaign.