By Simon Leyland
Fulham 0 West Ham 1
Well, it was never going to be a classic, but three points are three points!
Vladi Coufal played a big part in the goal
Showing infinitely more grit than on Wednesday, the Irons played most of the game on the back foot with only 25 % possession, but a well ordered and resolute defensive display got us over the line.
And at the final whistle we have shot up to the heady heights of 13th putting a little bit of distance away from the dreaded dotted line. but still only three points above the relegation zone although it is beginning to look a little bit better than before.
The goal came about after some quick thinking from Declan Rice from a free-kick after Antonio had been fouled.
He picked out Coufal, who channelled his inner Alan Devonshire and ghosted past Robinson and crossed. It was then cleared to Bowen, who got to the by-line, crossed and the hapless Reed diverted the ball into his own net with his heel under pressure from the hulking Antonio.
Not pretty, but they all count
In fact despite the terrible possession figure had Ings, Antonio and Cornet not spurned gift wrapped chances the score cold have been three or four nil.
Surprisingly, the last time we had an own-goal fall our way in the Premier League was in November 2021, when Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson put through his own net in our 3-2 win at London Stadium – 56 games ago!
Hopefully this will give the lads some well needed confidence and we can build on this, ahead of our forthcoming games with Gent and Arsenal next week.