Peterborough United vs Fulham. Sky Bet Championship.
Weston Homes StadiumAttendance11,214.
Report and highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Peterborough and Fulham at the Weston Homes Stadium as Aleksandar Mitrovic scored his 20th goal of the season to seal victory for the Cottagers
Saturday 6 November 2021 18:16, UK
The Sky Bet Championship's top-scorer Aleksandar Mitrovic fired Fulham to a sixth consecutive win as they overcame a resilient Peterborough 1-0.
The Serbian striker made the only breakthrough in the 74th minute with his 20th goal of a prolific campaign to keep Marco Silva's men in second spot as their second-half dominance eventually paid dividends at the Weston Homes Stadium.
Mitrovic escaped the attention of the Peterborough defence to head a Neeskens Kebano cross from the left past 'keeper Dai Cornell.
But a first-ever league success against Posh was far from a stroll as Fulham were frustrated by the battling hosts for much of the contest and later were reliant on a terrific save from Marek Rodak to preserve their advantage.
The Slovakian shot-stopper superbly finger-tipped a Jonson Clarke-Harris shot against the far post with seven minutes to go to ensure three points didn't turn into one and Rodak also had to push away a last-gasp free-kick from the striker.
Despite controlling possession for long periods of the opening half, a Fulham side who kicked off having scored 16 more goals than any other team in the division, created virtually nothing.
In fact, the most threatening spell of attacking play in the first half came from a Posh team who have now collectively scored three fewer goals so far this season than Mitrovic has managed single-handedly.
The recalled Clarke-Harris hit the angle of post and crossbar with his left foot before Rodak was required to deny Sammie Szmodics from close range and then keep out a curling 25-yard free-kick from Joe Ward.
Fulham did finally succeed in carving open the Posh backline as the clock ticked into stoppage time, but Kebano's wild shot wide of the near post did not provide the standard of finish that Harry Wilson's exquisite pass deserved.
However, Fulham were a different beast in the second half when they laid siege on the Posh goal with Mitrovic being denied by Cornell twice in quick succession.
Bobby Decordova-Reid was then twice off-target either side of a rare Posh attacking foray that saw Szmodics force Rodak into another sharp save.
But it seemed almost inevitable that the opening goal would arrive at the other end and the source of it was also entirely predictable as Mitrovic continued his rich vein of form to keep Fulham in the automatic promotion places.
Peterborough's Darren Ferguson: "It's a rubbish result in a game we felt we could win… and a game we should have won. I don't want everyone to say 'well done' and 'good performance' because the truth is it is a game we shouldn't have lost.
"When we have a game like that against a team like Fulham and have four or five really good opportunities, you have to take them and win. This is probably as disappointed as I've been all season because it was there to be won."
Fulham's Marco Silva: "Six wins in a row with five clean sheets in a row is amazing. They are fantastic numbers for us and the key for our win was the passion we had throughout the game. Aleksandar has been brilliant for us and it is up to me to always push him and demand more, but for me it is a collective process and it is not just one player.
"We saw today that Kebano created the chance for 'Mitro' to show his fantastic capacity around the box to score the goal. We are lucky to have two great goalkeepers and fantastic competition between them. Marek knows the confidence we have in him and he has been fantastic since he came into the team."
