Fulham 2-1 Brighton

Fulham returned to winning ways with a 2-1 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion on Tuesday evening.

Following an even first 45, we flew out of the traps after the break and went in front through Aleksandar Mitrović’s fifth of the season when he slid home Neeskens Kebano’s perfect cross.

It was the first goal scored by an opposition player that Brighton had conceded all season.

The lead was soon doubled when Andreas Pereira’s pass was turned into his own net by Lewis Dunk, and although the Seagulls halved the deficit through Alexis Mac Allister’s penalty, the Whites held on for the three points.

Persistent running down the right from Bobby De Cordova-Reid in the seventh minute almost provided Kebano with a tap-in from his centre, but a crucial toe from Joel Veltman denied the winger one of the easiest goals of his career.

Still, we had a corner, and it needed a flying reflex stop from Robert Sanchez to turn away João Palhinha’s goalbound flick from Andreas’ delivery.

Mitrović drew another save from the Spain international 10 minutes later, but this one was more routine after the big man shot straight down his throat having dribbled to the box from halfway.

A long ranger at either end followed, with Bernd Leno getting down to Pascal Gross’ strike calmly enough, before Andreas put over a free-kick that Mitrović had won at the end of a barnstorming run.

Brighton’s most threatening moment arrived when Leandro Trossard had time to pick a cross which Solly March bravely attacked, only to stoop his header wide of the near post.

The Whites started the second half as we had done the first, only this time we were rewarded for our pressure.

A patient short corner routine ended with Kebano volleying a delightful ball across the face for Mitrović to slide home having ghosted in at the far stick.

One became two soon after, as Fulham broke forward with pace after Mitrović had won possession in his own half. He took one for the team as he was wiped out, but he managed to get the ball out just in time, and Harrison Reed, Andreas and Kebano did the rest.

Zipping the ball between them, the killer pass came from Andreas on the left, with Dunk desperately getting a toe on his drilled square ball to divert it beyond Sanchez.

Albion were immediately given a way back into the match, though, when VAR adjudged that De Cordova-Reid had caught Pervis Estupinan in the area as he went to clear the ball. Mac Allister stepped up to plant the penalty beyond Leno, who had guessed the right way.

Kebano had a half chance to quickly restore our two-goal lead when Sanchez spilled a routine cross, but he couldn’t control his shot on the spin.

The chances continued to come at both ends, with Mitrović and De Cordova-Reid missing the target either side of Trossard calling Leno into action.

With two minutes of normal time to play, Deniz Undav hit the post after it went unnoticed that he was four yards offside when the ball was played. If that had gone in VAR would have ruled it out, but the lack of a flag meant that if they’d scored from the corner that followed it would have counted. Thankfully, it came to nothing.

It was a nervy end to the game as the referee added on six minutes – and played eight – but Fulham’s shape and work off the ball was phenomenal and duly got us over the line for a deserved three points.