Fulham vs Huddersfield Town. Sky Bet Championship.
Craven CottageAttendance19,858.
Saturday 29 October 2016 19:06, UK
Fulham ended their run of six home league matches without a win in style as they beat promotion-chasing Huddersfield 5-0.
Chris Martin, Tomas Kalas and Lucas Piazon gave Fulham a 3-0 half-time lead. Martin, with a penalty, and Kevin McDonald added further strikes against the shell-shocked Yorkshiremen, but the star performer was Sone Aluko, who created three of the goals with his pace, skill and persistence.
It was Fulham's biggest victory since a 5-0 defeat of Norwich, also at Craven Cottage, on the opening day of the 2012-13 season. Huddersfield have now lost three of their past four games.
The Cottagers were ahead after only eight minutes. Stefan Johansen sent a high free-kick from the left to the far post, where central defender Ragnar Sigurdsson had escaped his marker. He nodded the ball back for Martin - also unmarked - to drive the ball low past the right hand of Danny Ward.
Huddersfield attempted to hit back, with the experienced Dean Whitehead and Australian midfield player Aaron Mooy seeing plenty of the ball.
In the 25th minute they came close twice. First Mooy sent a low diagonal cross in from the right and with Nahki Wells closing in, a goal looked certain until Fulham right-back Ryan Fredericks slid in to touch the ball behind for a corner.
The kick was taken by left back Chris Lowe and found Tommy Smith alone beyond the far post, but his header went across the face of David Button's goal and wide.
But Fulham doubled their lead after 35 minutes. Huddersfield central defender Christopher Schindler missed his header from Scott Malone's cross and Lowe, behind him, could only miscue the ball to Kalas, who struck home his first goal since joining Fulham on loan from Chelsea.
And it was 3-0 four minutes before the break. Aluko charged down the left and produced the most inviting of crosses that Piazon nodded past Ward.
Harry Bunn passed up a chance to reduce the arrears in the last minute of the first half when he headed Palmer's cross wide under very little pressure. And Palmer, lucky to avoid a red card for a wild first-half challenge on Fredericks, brought an excellent save from David Button in the first minute of the second half with a shot on the turn.
But Fulham went further ahead in the 63rd minute when Schindler brought down Aluko and Martin sent the penalty low past Ward's right hand.
Three minutes later it was 5-0 as Aluko cut in from the right and set up McDonald for a low shot. It was nearly six but substitute Tim Ream headed over from a yard out.
Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic:
"We have shown we can play good football and keep clean sheets and that we can be more competitive. But the job is not done. We need to build on our confidence and philosophy. We are in a learning process and beginning to build some kind of identity.
"We and the supporters deserved that after waiting so long for a win. We have played well and got some points before but we couldn't find a clear way to win games. So we can be positive now and I have to be satisfied."
Huddersfield boss David Wagner:
"I can leave this game very quickly behind us," he said. "We don't have to speak about any tactical problems because we had so many individual mistakes that you couldn't get anything against any opponent.
"We conceded two early goals after set pieces and we lacked concentration and focus in easy situations. We were very sloppy when we had the ball and in the end we totally underperformed today."
