Two for Petric in Fulham romp

Fulham 5 Norwich City 0

Mladen Petric scored twice on his debut as Fulham stormed to a superb opening-day victory.

The Croatian international headed home a corner on the stroke of half-time before firing in another from 20 yards out just after the break.

Damien Duff had earlier put Fulham ahead when he latched on to John Arne Riise’s through-ball and beat John Ruddy.

Promising young winger Alex Kacaniklic scored his first Fulham goal after the hour-mark before substitute Steve Sidwell converted a penalty on his return from injury.

As well as Petric, Martin Jol also handed a debut to German defender Sascha Riethe, with Hugo Rodallega starting from the bench.

Bryan Ruiz joined Petric up front in place of Clint Dempsey, who was left out of the squad by Jol after making known his desire to leave Craven Cottage this summer.

Fulham were comfortably two-up at the break thanks to Riise’s vision to pick out Duff and the assistant referee spotting that Petric’s header had indeed crossed the line before it was cleared.

Petric, who signed from Hamburg this summer, found the corner from distance to add a third before setting up Kacaniklic to slot home and was eventually replaced by Rodallega.

Sidwell was a late substitute for Ruiz and stepped up to fire a spot-kick high into the net after Rodallega had been tripped in the box.

Follow West London Sport on Twitter
Find us on Facebook