By Jake Wilkin

Fulham came from behind to take home all three points after defeating Nottingham Forest 3-2 on Friday night.

Forest took the lead early on in the first-half through Taiwo Awoniyi and the score remained 1-0 going into the break. However, a goal from Tosin turned the game on its head as that was followed by a rocket from João Palhinha and a first Fulham goal for Harrison Reed.

Marco made two changes from the team that played at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last time out, with Issa Diop coming in to make his first Premier League start of the season in place of Antonee Robinson, who came off injured against Spurs and Willian, who made his first start in White, in place of Neeskens Kebano.

It wasn’t the start we wanted when after 11 minutes, Nottingham Forest took the lead through Taiwo Awoniyi, who found himself unmarked at the back post from a corner, and nodded home his effort past Bernd Leno.

It was a good response though from the Whites, who took charge of the game after going behind, with Aleksandar Mitrović cropping up with a couple of half chances, followed by a chance for Andreas Pereira, who had a ball swept into him nicely in the box, but it was just in front of our number 18.

Mitro came close to getting his birthday goal when he snuck around to the front post and headed an effort at goal, which Dean Henderson was able to block, only to spill it to Bobby De Cordova-Reid but it was well defended in the end by the ‘keeper and Remo Freuler.

As the first half drew to a close, Forest started to enjoy more possession of the ball, winning a freekick on the edge of the area from a foul by Diop. The resulting set-piece only hit the well-positioned wall.

Bobby De Cordova-Reid battles with Neco Williams

The home side got us underway for the final 45 minutes of the game and were almost through on goal but Leno was quickly out to gather the ball before Brennan Johnson could get there.

In the 54th minute, we got ourselves back into the game through Tosin, who of course climbed the highest from a corner swung in by Willian, to score the second headed goal on the night.

Just three minutes later, João Palhinha thundered home an effort that almost took the back of the net off to turn around the tie in style. The bench erupted at the sight of that one, as did the Fulham away end, who certainly let João know how much he has endeared himself to them.

João Palhinha celebrates scoring against Forest.

We weren’t done there though. Again, just two minutes later, Bobby De Cordova-Reid whipped in a delicious ball, which was left by Willian and fell nicely for none other than Harrison Reed, who made no mistake in sticking home his first goal for Fulham. Once more, the bench rose to their feet to join in with the delight of seeing Reedy put one in the back of net.

With the game firmly in our grasp, the chances just kept coming. Andreas stepped up to take a freekick and stung the palms of Henderson to tip the ball out for a corner. Bobby had a chance moments later but the defender just did enough to put him off as his sliding effort glided over the crossbar.

The next goal came from Forest though, when Lewis O'Brien scored from a half-cleared effort. The goal swung momentum back in favour of the home side.

The game was professionally managed towards the end, despite there being an additional six minutes of added time played.

The victory meant that we took all three points back to Craven Cottage with our first away win of the season.

 

Nott'm Forest: Henderson, McKenna, Cook (Lingard 63'), Boly (Worrall 63'), Yates, Williams (Dennis 88'), Renan Lodi, Freuler (O'Brien 70'), Awoniyi (Surridge 70'), Gibbs-White, Johnson

Subs: Toffolo, Worrall, Surridge, Dennis, Hennessey, Kouyaté, O'Brien, Biancone, Lingard

Fulham FC: Leno, Tete, Tosin, Diop, Ream, Palhinha, Reed, Andreas Pereira (Cairney 83'), Willian (James 70'), Mitrović (Vinícius 90'), De Cordova-Reid (Kebano 91')

Subs: Mbabu, Rodák, James, Duffy, Cairney, Carlos Vinícius, Harris, Chalobah, Kebano