Fulham's Tom Cairney can barely believe his luck after a string of saves put his side ahead against Sheffield United.” Photo: John Walton/PA Wire
Sheffield United's poor start to life in the Premier League continued with another defeat, this time to Fulham, where they lost captain Chris Basham to a serious ankle injury which forced him off the field. stretcher midway through the first half.
Basham joins Paul Heckingbottom's long injury list, who must be wondering if his luck will ever change after a punishing first eight games of the season in which his side remain winless , conceding 22 goals.
“He is where he is. should be in the hospital with doctors,” Heckingbottom said. “Nobody ever wants to see this. When it's one of your players, it's tough. It's terrible, it's terrible.
“I was thinking about Basham and how to get points for him, but it was the second goal that decided the game and seemed to take the energy out of us. At this level, we still have some naivety.
“We are where we deserve to be, but at the moment everything that can go against us is going against us,” he added.
Chris Basham's serious ankle injury has caused concern for players on both teams. Photo: Action Images via Reuters/Peter CiborraIt was all Fulham style in the early stages of the game, with Auston Trusty parrying Bobby De Cordova-Reid's low cross from Anthony Robinson and Willian seeing a desperate effort saved by a fine save from Wes Foderingham.
A game. was then stopped for a long time after Basham collapsed while attempting to cross the ball into the penalty area. Basham was carried off the pitch straight into a waiting ambulance.
With Raul Jimenez having failed to score for Fulham since being replaced by Aleksandar Mitrovic, Marco Silva opted to start Carlos Vinicius instead.
Fulham made the breakthrough eight minutes into the second half thanks to a brilliant counter-attack goal from De Cordova-Reid after a fine strike from Vinicius and Andreas Pereira.
Silva's team seemed to be in complete control, but then conceded. Issa Diop was injured and brought the ball out of defense, gifting the ball to James McAtee. He passed to Yasser Laroussi, whose cross Robinson turned into his own net.
But in this strange game there was time for another strange twist of fate, and this time it was in the footsteps of his Fulham substitute. Tom Cairney.< /p>
During the kick, Cairney slipped and deflected the ball off his standing foot, the unintentional contact causing the ball to go over Foderingham and the crossbar before bouncing and hitting the Blades goalkeeper on the back of the head before falling into the net.
Cairney's kick caught his standing leg. Photo: Ryan Pearce/Getty Images
United had no way back and Harry Wilson struck the Fulham post eight minutes from time before Willian capped off a fine performance with a low strike that Foderingham should have reflect.
“A well-deserved blow.” three points, an important victory for us. The first half was at a very good level on our part, and we created a lot of chances. But the players believed and carried out the plan,” Silva said in his assessment.
On Diop’s injury, he added: “He has a crack in his leg. We'll have to wait and see, but it doesn't look good.”
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