Fulham vs Huddersfield Town. Sky Bet Championship.
Craven CottageAttendance18,013.
Report and highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash at Craven Cottage
Saturday 1 February 2020 18:50, UK
Fulham climbed up to third place in the Championship with their third victory in four matches after surviving a scare to beat Huddersfield 3-2.
Bobby Decordova-Reid, Tom Cairney and Aleksandar Mitrovic had put Fulham 3-0 ahead and apparently out of sight by the 31st minute but Emile Smith Rowe and Steve Mounie made it 3-2 before the interval.
The visitors gave them an almighty scare and could have grabbed a point by the final whistle but Scott Parker's men held on to claim their 10th home win of the season and close the gap on second-placed Leeds to just three points.
Fulham were ahead after 10 minutes when Decordova-Reid, out on the left touchline, controlled a well-hit crossfield pass from Michael Hector and hooked the ball past makeshift Huddersfield right back Juninho Bacuna.
He then charged into the penalty area, sidestepped Richard Stearman and opened his body before shooting past goalkeeper Joel Coleman.
The home side doubled their advantage after 15 minutes. Right-back Cyrus Christie drove in a low cross and Fulham captain Cairney flicked the ball up in front of him and volleyed it on the turn past Coleman's right hand.
Huddersfield tried to get back into the game with some neat passing down each wing but their final ball came to nothing and they were 3-0 down on the half-hour to another well-worked goal.
Cairney sent Joe Bryan clear with a lofted pass and the left back's low cross was met at the near post by Aleksandar Mitrovic, whose flick appeared to take a touch off Christopher Schindler on its way past Coleman and just under the crossbar.
It was the Serbian's 19th league goal of the season and marked his return after three games out with an ankle injury.
The Terriers reduced the arrears after 35 minutes when Schindler diverted Bacuna's free-kick into the path of Smith Rowe, and a combination of his shot and Denis Odoi's challenge sent the ball past Marek Rodak.
Their tails up, the visitors snatched another goal back four minutes later. Bacuna's through pass gave Smith Rowe the chance to cross from the right and Mounie bundled the ball in at the far post. It was the fifth shot on target in the match and all five had gone in.
Huddersfield did their best to continue their revival after the interval and Rodak saved well from Karlan Grant on three occasions and then dropped onto an angled shot from Smith Rowe.
Chances for Fulham were now rare and substitute Aboubakar Kamara drove the best one high past the near post after 78 minutes.
That left the home side hanging on in the dying minutes as Huddersfield attacked in waves. Frazier Campbell's deflected shot almost gave them what would have been a deserved leveller and Elias Kachunga put a chance over the bar in the fifth of six minutes of added time.
Fulham's Scott Parker: "First and foremost the result is key and I'm pleased with that. But take your foot off the pedal and take liberties, or go against what has got you 3-0 up, and in this division or in any football match it can come back to bite you. We dropped our intensity and it felt as if the game had become too easy for us.
"For 31 minutes I thought we were sensational. But the bits in between were poor and I didn't like us one bit. If you see out the game there is some positive there, but we are a young team and we need to learn from today. One positive was that we did hang on. Earlier in the season that might have ended in a draw."
Huddersfield's Danny Cowley: "We started well but they scored from their first attack. Then they scored with their second and third attacks and you are shell-shocked. Fulham are a wonderful football team but they only had three shots on target the whole game. They have not carved us apart by any stretch of the imagination.
"At 3-0 down to a Fulham in free-flow you can easily go under and we didn't. I thought we were resolute and showed determination and grit. Defeats don't do anything for me but the process was good. We didn't have many chances against us and there were seeds in our attacking play. I'd like to think that people can start to see an identity. Today was probably our best performance with the ball."
