The Tanner Report: West Ham 3 Fulham 1
The relegation trap door is becoming more open and Fulham are stumbling towards it. Claudio Ranieri can claim with some justification that the West Ham equaliser by Hernández was a blatant and calculated handball. This view does not alter the fact that keeper Sergio Rico flapped at the cross which led to the goal and a subsequent one to gift the Hammers the lead.
Nor that Fulham have conceded 61 goals in 27 matches, have yet to win away and have only recorded 4 wins all season.
Once again Ranieri played Tom Cairney a wholly left-sided player on the right and took off at half time Ryan Sessegnon, an accomplished finisher, for Markovic a loanee who made no impact at all.
We are where we are and we deserve to be there. The white wall of Wembley last May the greatest collective of Fulham fans ever deteriorated last Friday to fighting amongst our own fans and in social media the excoriation of Ranieri and the chairman’s son Tony rightly or wrongly held responsible for the recruitment policy.
One only hopes that there will be a full and transparent investigation and accountability of how a team that delighted everyone with their football in the Championship, achieved promotion and gave us the greatest Fulham day ever on May 26 at the play-off final at Wembley could now be on the verge of relegation after spending a record £100m plus in the August transfer window.
