Fulham 1-1 West Ham

Danny Ings’ 95th minute strike denied Fulham all three points on Saturday afternoon at Craven Cottage.

The Whites were the dominant side throughout and deservedly led through Raúl Jiménez’s close range effort after terrific work from Emile Smith Rowe.

But the lack of a second goal ended up proving costly when substitute Ings popped up at the death, although Calvin Bassey almost snatched the points back when he headed inches wide with the final touch of the game.

There were two changes to the side that drew at Ipswich Town a fortnight earlier. Joachim Andersen made his first Craven Cottage appearance in a Fulham shirt since May 2021 at the expense of Issa Diop, while at the other end of the pitch Rodrigo Muniz made way for Raúl. Deadline day signing Reiss Nelson was named on the bench.

Fulham fashioned a couple of half chances early on, and after Raúl had backheeled into the gloves of Alphonse Areola following good work from Alex Iwobi and Antonee Robinson down the left, Andreas Pereira drew another save from the former Whites loanee with a deflected effort from 20 yards.

The home players and fans wanted a penalty when Max Kilman made no attempt to play the ball when barging Adama Traoré who was clean through on goal, but referee Tim Robinson saw nothing wrong, and there was no VAR reprieve either.

Heads didn’t drop, with Raúl having a speculative effort blocked, and Iwobi seeing his angled strike deflect marginally over a concerned Areola’s crossbar.

But the closest anyone came was Adama midway through the half. Launching himself at Iwobi’s inviting inswinger, the winger’s header must have missed the far post by a matter of centimetres.

No matter – mere seconds later Raúl had us in front. Smith Rowe refused point blank to give up on Andreas’ clipped ball over the top, managing to reach it just before it went out of play. The West Ham defence was not as determined, meaning he had plenty of time to square to Raúl for a simple close range finish.

There were chances at either end at the start of the second half. Andreas’ side footed volley went wide when he met Smith Rowe’s delivery immediately after kick-off, before Konstantinos Mavropanos headed straight at Bernd Leno from an Emerson free-kick.

We’d seen more attacking intent from the Hammers since the break, and they had their best chance of the afternoon on the hour when Mohammed Kudus’ cross found Jarrod Bowen in the box. The England man’s first touch was good and there was nothing wrong with his shot, either, but Leno had read the danger and was out quickly to make a big save.

Nelson had been on the field a matter of minutes before endearing himself to the Fulham faithful. First, he almost diverted an Areola clearance into the net, before he set up a chance for Smith Rowe who was unfortunate to see his power drive smash into Raúl.

Tom Cairney was another who’d been introduced, and it was his cross with 10 to play that almost gave his side daylight, but Adama headed over.

The substitutes had all been lively, with Muniz next to impress. After his beautiful crossfield pass to Adama almost led to something, his hold-up play allowed Andreas a sighter of goal, but he fired over from 25 yards.

Andreas then turned provider, feeding Nelson to his left who shot low into Areola.

Five minutes were added on at the end, and in the final one of those, West Ham levelled. A quick throw-in freed Bowen down the right, and Ings collected his cutback with his first touch and rifled inside the near post with his second to deny the Whites two points, although for a split second it looked as though Bassey had won it, but his diving header from Harrison Reed’s free-kick flew agonisingly wide.