The Tanner Report : Fulham 1 Wolves 4.

On Friday November 3rd 1978 Fulham played Blackburn Rovers.

The season had started well under new coach Bobby Campbell.

His signings Ray Evans, Richard Money, John Beck had fitted in well and young Tony Gale was emerging as a real talent.

We took the lead but Blackburn rallied to win 2-1.

The opposition and circumstances were different 46 years on but once again Fulham failed to capitalise on an early goal.

We were expected to beat Wolves but some of our players were tired by travel on the international break, whilst Emile Smith Rowe – who was not called up for international duty – could not impose himself.

The lively Alex Iwobi gave us the lead and though we had chances in the second half – at one point Harry Wilson struck the bar – Wolves ran out easy winners.

They were helped by an injury to Joachim Andersen which reduced Fulham to 10 men having used all our subs.

There was an interview with Raul Jimenez, whom Fulham bought from Wolves and who sustained a horrific head injury with them. It was revealing that he would not celebrate a goal against his former team and his big team mates were South American – Andreas, Rodrigo Muniz and Vinucius.

There must also be an Arsenal ex-group of Emile Smith Rowe, Reiss-Nelson, Alex  Iwobi and Bernd Leno.

I do not suppose coach Marco Silva has any knowledge of the Blackburn game but he must by now realise that, over the years, Fulham can lose to lower opposition but on their day can also beat the best.

With Spurs, Arsenal and Liverpool looming we will need to.