The Tanner Report: Fulham 1 Liverpool 3

The difference between teams like Fulham is the bench.

Liverpool could bring on – and did – Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez as game changers.

Fulham have no such advantage. It was not a high octane game and there was not much to choose between either side until Trent Alexander Arnold floated a free kick into the corner of the net.

Fulham pulled one back in the dying embers of the first half when Tim Castagne drilled the ball home after a goal mouth melee.

In the second half Liverpool asserted their superiority with goals from Gravenberch and Jots.

I took my schoolmate who took me to my first game.

He was now in a wheelchair and I was impressed by how well and sensitively the Fulham supporters liaison executive had organised the visit. We sat on a dedicated platform beneath the Cottage.

One supporter looked like “See Fulham and die” and perhaps this was to be his last game.

It all went smoothly though transportation at the end of the game was demanding.

We ordered a Uber plus for the princely sum of £77 for two central London journeys and one – ordered on my account – proved tough to cancel because of connection problems. Fortunately my friend’s son and carer was much more proficient and sorted it.

This old fart would rather hail a taxi …