The Tanner Report: Fulham 4 Brighton 2

At half time on a freezing, wet night Fulham seemed doomed to relegation as supreme goal poacher Glenn Murray put the visitors two ahead.

A second half revival which will live long in the memory resulted in an epic 4-2 win.

Two goals down, Ranieri changed the system taking Tim Ream off switching to 4-4-2 and introducing Tom Cairney.

However the team seemed bereft of guts, leadership and creativity. We feared the worst and got the best.

Calum Chambers with a fine volley from the edge of the penalty area pulled one back, Mitrovic added two more with his head and was totally bossing Lewis Dunk and Shaun Duffy and Luciano Vietto, on for Schurrle, scored the his first for Fulham.

However my man of the match was none of these but Seri who really pulled the strings in midfield.

He was forever picking the ball up from the defence and spraying the ball wide.

It is thought that as Tom Cairney plays a similar role you can’t play both in Ranieri’s system but I would. Cairney also hit the bar twice. However if you do play Cairney then it has to be central, to play such a left-sided player on the right, as Ranieri did, is to negate his impact.

So can Fulham survive? There are 14 games left and 42 points. We are six points behind Burnley (and safety) with a poor goal difference so that makes seven. We need to keep up the momentum of the second half against Crystal Palace this Saturday.

The defence is wobbly and panicky. The loss of central pillar Alfie Mawson just as he came good is a telling one. Le Marchand simply does not have his aerial command nor strength. One must not forget that at a crucial stage when it was 2-2 keeper Sergio Rico pulled off a crucial save from Murray.

I sat next to Ivan who whilst in despair for his team in the second half has always thought Fulham would stay up as they will score goals. We need to with a defence that has conceded 51 goals.