Brentford 2-3 Fulham

Fulham claimed a brilliant 3-2 victory over Brentford in a pulsating local derby on Sunday afternoon.

After Raúl Jiménez had headed us in front, the hosts turned the game around through Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa efforts, either side of Bernd Leno saving a generously-awarded Mbeumo penalty.

But two substitutes turned things back in the Whites’ favour. First, Tom Cairney glanced home an equaliser, before Harry Wilson – the scourge of Brentford – bent home an absurd winner from 30 yards.

It’s a victory that takes us to 54 points, a Club record in the Premier League.

Marco Silva made three changes for the derby, with Antonee Robinson and Saša Lukić returning after one game absences to take the places of Ryan Sessegnon and Andreas Pereira, while Adama was preferred to Wilson on the right wing.

Fulham fashioned the first chance of the game in the seventh minute when Raúl brought down Adama’s cross and quickly got a snapshot away, but a good block sent it behind for a corner.

After Raúl had another shot blocked, Brentford threatened for the first when Wissa was slipped through, but Leno rushed out to narrow the angle and make a good save.

The end-to-end nature of the fixture continued with Emile Smith Rowe stinging the palms of Mark Flekken with a low drive inside the near post.

Raúl had been lively in the opening stages and, as was the case a week earlier, opened the scoring with a power header, climbing above his man to thunder in Adama’s looping cross. There was a delay in celebrating from the away fans down the opposite end of the stadium as it had looked as though Flekken had saved it, but it had too much venom and squeezed under the Bees number one.

Unfortunately, the lead did not last long, with Brentford pinching possession off Adama in a dangerous area and efficiently working it forwards into Mbeumo, who drilled across Leno low and hard for 1-1.

Things got worse pretty quickly when Joachim Andersen was harshly adjudged to have clipped Kevin Schade in the box. It looked as though the German may have tripped over his own feet, though, so it felt like justice was done when Leno made an incredible save to keep out Mbeumo’s spot-kick.

It was a high octane encounter in Hounslow, with Adama next to have a go, although he didn’t connect as he would’ve liked with his volley and it was a routine save for Flekken.

The Adama-Raúl linkup caused problems again five minutes before the break when Adama roasted his man before hanging a cross up for his teammate to attack. He got good direction to send his header downwards, but Flekken was there to smother.

But it was Brentford who struck next. A long throw into the box was flicked on to Christian Norgaard at the back post – his header was repelled by Leno but dropped kindly for Wissa, who was left to pop it in from a centimetre out.

Cairney was introduced for Sander Berge at the break as we looked for a way back into the match, but opportunities were much scarcer than in the first 45, with one blocked Tete effort the only attempt by either side in the first quarter of an hour.

The Cairney substitution looked a masterclass midway through the half, though, when the skipper showed his aerial prowess by leaping onto the end of Tete’s deflected cross to flick the ball beyond a helpless Flekken.

Wilson had been another man introduced off the bench, and he needed even less time to make his mark, lashing a ridiculous 30-yard curling strike inside the far post four minutes after coming off the bench. Again, Flekken was motionless.

Those two goals in three minutes had rocked the Gtech, and the home side failed to muster a shot on target again until the 87^th minute, but when they did it required a fine low save from Leno to keep out Norgaard’s bullet header.

As seven added minutes were announced, TC threatened his second of the afternoon when he raced onto Raúl’s long ball over the top, but he couldn’t quite get enough height on his attempted lob, allowing Flekken to catch.

It was a big chunk of time to hold out but the boys did it impeccably to see out a first league double over our neighbours in more than 70 years.