Fulham edged out Coventry City in a battle of two of the early season strugglers in the Premier League.
The Cottagers sneaked a 1-0 win in the Midlands thanks to Oscar Bobb’s late strike. That made it two wins on the bounce for Alvaro Arbeloa’s side and moved them out of the drop zone in the top flight.
In truth, it was a game low on quality with chances very much at a premium and the contest edgy throughout.
Josh King came close for Fulham in the first half when he lashed a shot that came back off the woodwork from inside the City penalty area.
Fulham felt they should have had a penalty right at the end of the half when Calvin Bassey appeared to have his shirt pulled by Brandon Thomas-Asante but the referee waved away appeals.
Coventry then had their own claims for a penalty after the ball brushed Alex Iwobi but again they were waved away by the officials.
It was proving to be a real scrappy affair amid heavy rain and City were struggling to fashion anything of note, aside from the odd set-piece that caused brief panic in the Fulham backline.
The breakthrough then finally came, ten minutes from time, as Bobb scored a superb solo goal. He picked the ball up just outside the penalty box on the right-hand side and showed glorious close control before picking out the bottom-left corner amid a crowded box.
It was the only bit of quality in the entire game and Arbeloa praised his playmaker afterwards, saying: “He’s a young player and for me as a coach it would be easier to sign players with experience but they have the talent and I trust them. They are the people and the future of Fulham. I’m happy with this young talent.
“We are working so hard every day and we need to be at our best every day. We started to prepare this game at the beginning of the week. It’s important to involve every player in the squad, players from the bench did well. So happy with everyone and this is the way we have to play.”
Beaten Coventry chief Frank Lampard said: “They’re a good team and there wasn’t much in it at both boxes. Throughout the game very limited chances, we defended well but they didn’t open us up really but neither did we. Then we conceded the goal with a moment of quality from them which we couldn’t produce.”
