Millwall vs Fulham. Sky Bet Championship.
The DenAttendance17,614.
Saturday 21 April 2018 08:48, UK
Fulham stretched their unbeaten run to 22 league games and climbed to second in the process as they beat Millwall 3-0 in the Sky Bet Championship on Friday evening.
The Lions took the game to their fellow Londoners in the first half and could count themselves unlucky to not take the lead into the break after raining down a barrage of first-half efforts on their uncharacteristically flat opponents.
But the hard work was undone inside a minute of the second half when Ryan Sessegnon mopped up after Jordan Archer could only parry Aleksandar Mitrovic's effort (46), before Kevin McDonald's stunner doubled the advantage (56).
Mitrovic added a third in the final minute of normal time to lift Slavisa Jokanovic's team above Cardiff once more, leaving Millwall's play-off hopes in the balance with two games to play.
With the importance of victory clear, the Lions flew out of the traps and came within a hair's breadth of the opener when Jake Cooper's header was pushed onto the bar by the slightest of fingertip saves by Marcus Bettinelli.
Ten minutes later George Saville smashed home from close range, but had a goal chalked off after Jed Wallace fouled Matt Targett in the build-up. Fulham soon got to grips with the game and began to set their passing game into motion.
But Bettinelli was forced to come to his side's rescue when he pushed Ben Marshall's cross away from Steve Morison, before Tim Ream's sliding clearance kept Wallace's follow-up effort from crossing the line; Targett went close for the visitors when he struck the bar from range to conclude an eventful first half.
Less than 60 seconds after the restart, all the toils of the first half were lost when Mitrovic tried his luck for the first time; Archer got a hand to the strike but Sessegnon struck the killer blow from the rebound.
Mere minutes before the hour mark, McDonald added to the extraordinary turnaround when he skipped past Saville and thundered an effort - his third of the season - into the back of the net from 20 yards.
The devastating nature of Fulham's style has been evident over the course of the unprecedented run and Mitrovic struck home Tomas Kalas' square ball to cap the result and reaffirm the automatic promotion ambitions of Jokanovic's side.
A superbly taken goal and a performance to match. McDonald has been a vital component of the glue that holds together this Fulham side together and was typically dominant in the middle of the park at the Den on Friday evening.
Neil Harris: "I feel a little bit hard done by. The goal early in the second half put us on the back foot and the second goal was disappoiting - they were really poor goals to give away. It was my fault, really, as we were caught chasing the game and it was a disappointing result in the end.
"We've been on a terrific run, the boys have given so much and produced so many good performances. We've been beaten by a good side tonight, there's no doubting that. We've got two huge games left."
Slavisa Jokanovic: "I must be proud of my team, we showed character, we showed quality and we survived an intense first 45 minutes. Millwall try to use the weapons they have in this team - long ball, with direct play - we showed we can be solid. It's not an easy place to play football.
"In the second half we played brilliant, we dominated with our style. I'm excited because we are soon going to be fighting for another three points and we must rest and be ready for the next game. We're going to fight to the end and make our supporters satisfied."
With the Championship reaching its conclusion, both promotion-chasing sides are in televised action next weekend. The Whites kick things off on Friday evening when they welcome Sunderland to Craven Cottage, while Neil Harris' men travel to the Riverside Stadium, where they will meet Middlesbrough. Both fixtures are live on Sky Sports Football.
