Fulham 1-0 Luton

Fulham secured a big three points against Luton Town in the Saturday sun.

After a large spell of possession had gone unprofited, Carlos Vinicius came off the bench to make an instant impact and ultimately win the game for his side.

There was a triplet of changes to Marco Silva’s side for this one as João Palhinha and Willian came back into the mix, as well as a full debut for Timothy Castagne who filled in at left-back in the absence of Antonee Robinson. Despite question marks with injury, Tom Cairney made the bench, alongside deadline day signings Alex Iwobi and Fodé Ballo-Touré.

Prior to kick off there was a moment of a applause for the late Mohamed Al-Fayed, followed by a minute's silence to pay respects to the victims of the recent tragic events in Morocco and Libya.

The first sight of goal went Luton’s way a few minutes in. After an Andreas Pereira free kick was cleared, Tahith Chong raced away on the counter. He was followed all the way by Pereira though resulting in a tame shot for Bernd Leno to collect.

Fulham took control of the contest for the next period and tried to carve an opening. After some patient play down the right, Harry Wilson whipped in a wicked delivery which was close to finding the head of Raúl Jiménez, but ended up flying just over him.

An audacious attempt from our Mexican frontman came next. After Willian cushioned the ball down brilliantly in the box, he teed up Raúl who went for the bicycle kick and was unlucky not to find a clean connection with the strike.

From the resulting corner the Whites had their closest effort so far. A Willian inswinger made its’ way to Kenny Tete, who couldn’t quite steer his nod towards goal on target.

Carlton Morris had an opportunity 25 minutes in after a smart header down allowed him to volley on goal, but Leno saw it all the way as it went beyond his post. Seconds later and the visitors then hit the post through Jacob Brown’s header in a burst of Luton pressure.

10 minutes later and Wilson tried his luck from another set piece. Bending one from far with his left, he sent his shot narrowly wide of the sticks.

The Hatters had a golden chance to go ahead just after the restart. Brown was involved again with a pinpoint cross to the back post where Amari’i Bell was waiting, but he couldn’t get his volley past Leno who caught the shot.

Palhinha, who had been his typical dynamic self throughout the game so far, was next to go near to finding an opener. Castagne recycled a corner and swung it in from the right to the head of our Portuguese midfielder, whose effort ended up on the roof of the net.

It was all Fulham in possession, but Silva’s men couldn’t quite find the key to unlock the stubborn Luton defence and go ahead.

With half an hour to go some fresh faces were deployed as Iwobi came on for his Fulham debut, as well as a return to action for Vinicius.

And the latter made an instant impact to grab Fulham the opener. Brazilian’s combined when Pereira played the ball out to Willian to cross in from the left. Thomas Kaminski in the Luton goal could only parry the ball out to the feet of a grateful Vinicius to poke home.

We were going through the motions now and creating chances at will. Willian was the latest to go close, curling one towards the opposite corner from the left as he raced through on goal.

The visitors pushed for an equaliser as the clock ticked down, Issa Kaboré let one fly from the right after the ball was pinched back up field, but it was blocked effectively.

Iwobi was on a mission to impress with his first Fulham minutes and went close to adding a second with seven minutes left to play. A Palhinha ping played through Bobby De Cordova-Reid who unselfishly tucked the ball back to Iwobi to have a go, but his shot on the swivel went over.

Vinicius went so close to getting a brace at the death after Tete’s poke through to him, but opted to take it around the ‘keeper which didn’t work out in the end.

Fulham held out in a professional display to make it a healthy seven points from the first five games.