|
|
Dom Howson at The Star |
Sheff Wed (2) 3-2 (1) Fulham
Ross Wallace starred as Sheffield Wednesday beat Fulham 3-2 to seal their second win of the season.
The winger, one of three changes, had a hand in all of the Owls' goals to help Carlos Carvalhal's men halt their six-match winless Championship run.
Fernando Forestieri, Tom Lees and Michael Turner registered to clinch Wednesday's first league victory over Fulham since 1983.
Jamie O'Hara and Tom Cairney netted either side of the interval to set-up a thrilling finale but Carvalhal's side deservedly held on for maximum points.
Wednesday made an impressive start following a minute's applause for club legend Ron Springett, who sadly passed away following a short illness last weekend. They came close to opening the scoring in the third minute when Wallace floated in a lovely cross to the back post which picked out Barry Bannan, whose header was acrobatically tipped over by Andy Lonergan.
Scotland international Bannan was in the thick of the action in the early stages, bending a left foot shot narrowly wide following good play by Wallace on the right flank.
Fulham enjoyed the majority of possession but never looked capable of hurting the Owls and Carvalhal's men deservedly broke the deadlock in the 13th minute when Forestieri headed in Wallace's corner.
A minute later, Forestieri just failed to turn in another Wallace delivery as Wednesday continued to dominate.
In a rare foray forward, the Cottagers carved open the Owls' backline, with Tim Ream firing over from an acute angle. That opportunity came moments after Lopez was yellow carded for tugging back on Ross McCormack's shirt.
Fulham grew in stature as the half wore on and Tom Cairney squared to Ryan Tunnicliffe, who sliced an effort inches off target.
But Kit Symons side were not to be denied and levelled things up on the half hour mark when O'Hara's deflected drive from distance gave Westwood no chance after the hosts only partially cleared Jazz Richards dangerous delivery.
The Owls could have felt sorry for themselves after Fulham's equaliser but quickly regained their verve and poise and Lonergan produced an outstanding stop to keep out Lopez's header following a lovely centre by Wallace.
From the resulting corner, Lees nodded in Wallace's centre to ease the tension threatening to build at Hillsborough.
Wednesday almost grabbed a third on the stroke of half-time but Atdhe Nuhiu glanced over after a great run and cross by Wallace.
Both sides, who were wearing black armbands in tribute to Springett, made changes at the interval, with Lucas Joao replacing Forestieri and Dan Burn coming on for ex-Rotherham United midfielder Ben Pringle.
But the Owls gave themselves a two-goal cushion in the 50th minute when Turner, against his former club, powered in Wallace's free kick after Burn had upended Joao. The centre-back's header went in off the crossbar to the delight of the Kop.
However, Fulham refused to give up and Cairney reduced their arrears with a quarter of an enthralling contest remaining, with the midfielder heading in Jamie O'Hara's superb centre.
Bannan wasted a decent opportunity to put the result beyond all doubt in the 74th minute after cleverly out-foxing Burn but the drilled a shot into the side-netting.
Tunnicliffe skied over after Westwood spilled a cross in the dying minutes and the Republic of Ireland international had to be alert to deny Burn as Fulham threw everything at them but Wednesday held on.
Source .