Hutchinson off as Fulham lose again

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Fulham 0 Blackburn 1

Kit Symons suffered defeat in his first game in caretaker charge of Fulham, who had defender Shaun Hutchinson sent off.

Hutchinson went in forcefully over the top of the ball and collided with Lee Williamson’s shin just before half-time. Williamson was taken straight to hospital.

Jordan Rhodes tapped in what proved to be the winner on 58 minutes.

Symons declared on Friday that we wants the job full-time, but he was unable to find Fulham a first league win of the season and they remain bottom of the Championship on a single point from eight games.

He handed Bryan Ruiz, an outcast under sacked boss Felix Magath, his first game of the season but the Whites managed just three shots at goal in the first half, none of which were on target.

Blackburn, meanwhile, started the game brightly and could have gone ahead through Rhodes and Ben Marshall.

Ruiz’s shot after half an hour was Fulham’s first attempt on goal, before Hugo Rodallega went desperately close with a vicious shot wide of the near post.

But Fulham’s ascendancy was halted when Hutchinson’s challenge, similar to that which saw Matt Smith shown a straight red card in the defeat at Reading last Saturday, left the referee with no choice but to dismiss him.

Blackburn took advantage of the extra man and Rhodes had a simple finish from inside the box after Shane Duffy’s volley deflected off the legs of Dan Burn and into Rhodes’ path.

Rhodes could have made it 2-0 when he rounded keeper Marcus Bettinelli but Burn recovered to block his shot off the line.

Fulham desperately searched for an equaliser but Tim Hoogland missed by a whisker from eight yards before Ross McCormack and substitute Patrick Roberts forced good saves from Jason Steele late on.

Fulham (4-3-3): Bettinelli; Hoogland, Hutchinson, Burn, Amorebieta; Christensen, Parker, Stafylidis (Roberts 83); Ruiz (Williams 73), Rodallega, McCormack
Subs not used: Kiraly, Bodurov, Roberts, Dembele, Hyndman, Kavanagh.

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