Fulham lose at Forest despite second-half rally
Fulham produced a rousing second-half performance at the City Ground but paid the price for conceding three goals before the interval.
Callum Hudson-Odoi, Chris Wood and Morgan Gibbs-White scored to seemingly put relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest in total command.
But Fulham were radically better after half-time and peppered the hosts’ goal – hitting the woodwork twice – after Tosin Adarabioyo reduced the deficit early in the second half.
Hudson-Odoi opened the scoring by firing into the bottom corner after being superbly set up by Gibbs-White.
Worse followed for Fulham when keeper Bernd Leno was flat-footed and unable to keep out Wood’s 25-yard effort.
The Whites were so bad that boss Marco Silva made a triple substitution on 33 minutes, hooking Sasa Lukic, Harry Wilson and Alex Iwobi and sending on Tom Cairney, Willian and Adama Traore.
The changes initially made very little difference – and Gibbs-White made it 3-0 with a cool finish after being put in on goal by Danilo.
After Tosin headed in from Andreas Pereira’s corner, Forest almost added a fourth when Neco Williams’ deflected strike hit the bar.
However, apart from that it was mostly one-way traffic in the second half, with Fulham putting the hosts under sustained pressure.
Tosin would have scored again but for a superb save from keeper Matz Sels – and the resulting corner was headed against the bar by Kenny Tete.
And in stoppage time, Traore fired against the outside of the post from an acute angle.
Fulham: Leno, Tete, Bassey, Adarabioyo, Robinson, Palhinha (Reed 71), Lukic (Cairney 33), Pereira (De Cordova-Reid 71), Wilson (Willian 33), Iwobi (Traore 33), Muniz.
Subs not used: Rodak, Jiminez, Ream, Castagne.
