Fulham’s winning run ended by home defeat

Fulham 1 Bristol City 2

Fulham’s four-match winning streak came to an end against a resolute Bristol City side, who are now equal on points with the Whites in third place in the Championship.

Fulham struggled to break down the visitors, who have beaten them at Craven Cottage for the fifth match in a row, though the home side wasted clear chances at the start of each half.

Anthony Knockaert started in place of Aboubakar Kamara as the only change from last week’s win at Swansea and should have put the home side in front after two minutes, but diverted Joe Bryan’s excellent cross over the bar from close range.

The Robins pressed well from the outset and could have taken the lead through Famara Diedhiou, who headed straight at Marek Rodák after a quarter of an hour.

But an unmarked Josh Brownhill made no mistake in a similar situation 10 minutes later, capitalising on Fulham’s lapse in concentration at the back by nodding in Niclas Eliasson’s cross.

Knockaert spurned another glorious chance just a minute after the restart when he was clean through on goal, but fluffed his lines again as former Brentford goalkeeper Daniel Bentley closed him down.

Championship top scorer Aleksandar Mitrović had a frustrating afternoon up against the physical partnership of Nathan Baker and Ashley Williams, failing to hit the target with any of his three shots.

And with 15 minutes to go, Diedhiou doubled the lead after good work by Bristol down the right, tapping an Adam Nagy pull-back into an empty net.

Substitute Kamara gave the Whites hope with five minutes to go when he lashed home the rebound off a drive from Neeskens Kebano, who was making only his second appearance of the season.

Kebano was then seemingly brought down in the box in added time, only for the referee to wave Fulham’s fervent appeals away, before the Congolese hit the bar with a header as the Whites piled forward in search of an equaliser but ultimately fell just short.