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Tom Prentki at Daily Telegraph |
Fulham (0) 1-2 (0) Brighton & Hove Albion
Brighton moved two points clear at the top of the Championship and extended their unbeaten league run to 18 games after coming from behind to win at Fulham.
Brighton, who have a game in hand over second-placed Newcastle United after winning both their festive fixtures, scored twice in just over a minute to defeat Slavisa Jokanovic’s side despite being outplayed for long spells.
“There were periods of the game where Fulham were very good,” said Chris Hughton, the Brighton manager. “We’ve got a fair bit of resilience in the side, a fair bit of consistency.”
“This is tough for us,” countered Jokanovic. “We played very close to our maximum level and I don’t know if we can improve much on what we showed today.”
Had Fulham had top goal-scorer Chris Martin on the pitch, it might have been a different story. But Martin, due to be on a season-long loan from Derby, has been offered a new contract at Pride Park with manager Steve McLaren keen to have him and Jokanovic questioned the sincerity of Martin’s injury complaints ahead of this fixture.
“I am not the doctor but my medical department did not find any problem. He was going to stay until the end of the season. That is my position and Fulham’s position.”
This game was played at a frenetic pace throughout. Brighton were soon on the back foot when their captain, Bruno, conceded a penalty for handball in the 14th minute.
The Spaniard will have been the most relieved man in Craven Cottage when his goalkeeper, the former Fulham man David Stockdale, saved Stefan Johansen’s spot kick low to his right.
Despite the setback, Fulham were in the ascendancy and Tom Cairney, surely one of the division’s outstanding players, dictated proceedings in midfield.
Lewis Dunk was called upon to make a last-ditch clearance as Lucas Piazon was poised to score at the back post after a flowing Fulham move whilst Sone Aluko also went close with a run and shot midway through the half.
The hosts kept up the pressure and were rewarded 10 minutes into the second half when Cairney slid the ball to Piazon and the Chelsea loan striker finished clinically into the bottom corner.
An excellent game got better as Brighton came on strong and their efforts were rewarded when the ebullient Anthony Knockaert arrowed across the penalty area and Ragnar Sigurdsson nudged him to the ground. Stuart Attwell pointed to the spot and Tomer Hemed succeeded where Johansen had not.
Seventy-two seconds later, Brighton completed their comeback as Knockaert raced at goal to fire at Button with Dunk on hand to head in the rebound.
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