Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Fulham and Blackburn Rovers at Craven Cottage as goals from Neeskens Kebano and Harry Wilson helped Marco Silva's Cottagers strengthen their grip on top spot
Saturday 5 March 2022 17:46, UK
Fulham again strengthened their grip on top spot in the Sky Bet Championship after a 2-0 win over Blackburn saw them climb 11 points clear of second-placed Huddersfield.
Neeskens Kebano got the Whites up and running at Craven Cottage with a close-range finish following Rovers goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski's error (25), before a cool finish from Harry Wilson doubled the lead (35).
Blackburn's Sam Gallagher later had a goal disallowed, before Fulham's Liverpool loanee Neco Williams almost wrapped the points when his shot from just beyond halfway rattled the crossbar.
As they did prior to kick-off, the two teams remain in the first and fourth in the table ahead of the remainder of Saturday's action, with a 19-point cushion between the hosts and the teams outside the play-off spots.
Blackburn remain five points outside the automatic promotion places with 11 games to play.
The pre-match narrative focused on whether or not Blackburn could avenge the 7-0 defeat to Fulham in November - the heaviest defeat they have ever suffered at Ewood Park - and while the hosts dominated to begin with, they were somewhat stifled and unable to get into their usual rhythm, for a time, at least.
With 13 minutes gone, Aleksandar Mitrovic was denied a penalty after going down under the challenge of Darragh Lenihan, but 12 minutes later, Fulham took the lead in fortuitous circumstances, as Kebano tapped in when Thomas Kaminski spilled Williams' shot into his path.
It was not long before they added a second, which was also disappointing from a Rovers perspective. Tosin Adarabioyo's low ball from defence made its way through to Wilson, who made a menacing dash into the box and lifted the ball over Kaminski and over the line.
Tony Mowbray demanded improvement from his side after the break and introduced Sam Gallagher, in place of Reda Khadra, who led the high press and prodded in to spark what he thought was the comeback, though it was soon chalked off after the officials agreed that Bradley Johnson had strayed offside in the build-up.
Fulham goalkeeper Marek Rodak made two important saves to deny Ryan Giles, before Williams came within inches of a goal of the season contender, when he spotted Kaminski off his line and launched a shot at goal from just beyond halfway, with the crossbar coming to the visitors' rescue.
Fulham's Marco Silva: "To be honest, we're not here to break records. We don't look at that. We have a clear aim, which you all know, and the rest of it will come along. It's fantastic for us to have Mitrovic with 34 goals and breaking the record. If you take the goals from Mitrovic away, maybe we are the second or third best attack in this league. That is the philosophy of ourselves. I must congratulate the players for that - but the records are not important for us."
"It is really important. It was not a final for us at all. But we have a clash against the contender. And we knew before the match we could create a bigger gap to them. And we won the game clearly in my opinion. And we kept a clean sheet that is fantastic for us show the consistency that I want to see in our in our team. We deserved to be two up at half time but got a bit sloppy in the second half. There are things we have to keep working on and keep improving."
Blackburn's Tony Mowbray: "I think we obviously suffered from the mistakes that we made today. The goalkeeper really fumbled the first one. You should be collecting that no problem. It wasn't as if it was a fantastic opportunity and a great chance it was just a fumble from the goalie. The second one he has to come and deal with it as well. All week he's been outside his box and just sweeping them things up and then he decides to go backwards and it's frustrating for us and frustrating for him because he's been fantastic this year.
"So it's not ideal when you come to a place as difficult as this and you shoot yourself in the foot. I think we are capable of beating any team in this league. We need to win about five of our last games to get into the play-offs."
Both teams are back in action at 7.45pm on Tuesday, March 8. Fulham travel to the Swansea.com Stadium to face Swansea, while Blackburn host Millwall at Ewood Park, in a game live on Sky Sports Football Red Button.
