Fulham 1-1 Crystal Palace

A late Jeffrey Schlupp worldie denied Fulham all three points in our meeting with Crystal Palace at Craven Cottage.

The Whites were not at their best in the first half, but started the second impressively and duly took the lead through Rodrigo Muniz’s 10th goal of the season.

We looked on track for a return to winnings way with a professional performance, until Schlupp came off the bench to hammer in a stunning 87th minute equaliser.

There were two changes to the XI that started against Liverpool, with Issa Diop preferred to Tosin, and Harrison Reed – captaining the side – in place of Saša Lukić. Willian was on the bench having recovered from a groin strain.

The in-form Palace started menacingly and should have been in front inside six minutes when Will Hughes played Michael Olise in, but the winger side-footed wide when well placed.

They had another clear sighter in the 13th minute when a strong João Palhinha tackle fell kindly for Daniel Munoz. His clipped cross was slightly behind Jean-Philippe Mateta, who volleyed over from close range.

There was no let-up, with Chris Richards next to squander a chance, heading narrowly over from Olise’s deep free-kick.

The Eagles were playing with the swagger of a side coming off the back of three straight wins, with their latest threat coming from the left foot of Adam Wharton who fizzed one just over from distance.

Fulham did grow into the game as we approached the end of the first half, with Dean Henderson denying Muniz from a tight angle, and Diop heading over from the subsequent corner.

The Whites began the second half with much more purpose and were quickly rewarded. Andreas spotted the overlapping run of Timothy Castagne down the right, whose perfectly flighted cross just had to be guided home by the head of Muniz, who made no mistake.

Andreas would have claimed assist of the season had we taken our next chance, as his stunning outside of the boot pass cut through the Palace defence to find Bobby De Cordova-Reid, but he couldn’t quite wrap his foot around the shot and skewed wide of the near post.

Palace responded by replacing Mateta with Odsonne Edouard who almost had an immediate impact when he skidded a low shot on target, but Leno got down instantly to make a fine save.

A stunning Muniz switch of play then sent Alex Iwobi scamping down the right, holding the ball up before laying off to Reed who curled his first time strike narrowly off target from 20 yards.

Schlupp had been another introduction and he did make a telling difference, crashing an unstoppable strike into the top left hand corner from long range, leaving Leno with no chance.

It was a gutting blow but, on the balance of Palace’s first half display, probably led to the fairest outcome.