Fulham 3-1 Bournemouth

Goals from Bobby De Cordova-Reid and Rodrigo Muniz saw that Fulham secured all three points as they beat Bournemouth 3-1 on Saturday afternoon.

Bobby's 5th minute opener set the tone for the afternoon, with Rodrigo Muniz following up later on. Despite the away side clawing a goal back early into the second-half, Rodrigo replied quickly for his second of the day for Fulham to achieve their first Premier League win of 2024.

There were two changes from last Saturday’s away fixture in Burnley, with the Captain Tom Cairney returning in place of Harrison Reed and Issa Diop coming in for Tosin, who Marco confirmed was absent due to a knock sustained last week that he was unable to recover from in time for Bournemouth.

On what was our annual Celebration Day, we honoured the Fulham fans who had passed away in the last 12 months, as their names and pictures adorned the scoreboard as well as a minute's applause ahead of kick-off.

It was the quickest of starts for Fulham, when Bobby De Cordova-Reid capitalised on a mistake from Lewis Cook, who slipped in the box when he cancelled out the cross into the box from Rodrigo Muniz but Bobby pounced quickly to tuck his shot home into the bottom corner.

Just minutes later, we found ourselves through on goal once more when it was worked excellently by Cairney and Willian. The Brazilian set himself up to have a shot from 5 yards out but Neto did well to push the ball wide.

There was a pause in play from the 18^th minute when Tom Cairney took a powerful Bournemouth free-kick to the face, which he thankfully got up from.

In the 27^th minute, we worked a good chance once again when Timothy Castagne whipped a ball, which found his full-back compatriot Antonee Robinson, who whipped a delicious ball into the danger zone but Muniz couldn’t get on the end of it and it was defended well by the South Coast side.

Bournemouth had some chances of their own down the other end. First it was Sinisterra, who audaciously shot from the left hand side, for it to be dealt with well by Bernd Leno. The resulting corner saw Dominic Solanke break free from his marker to have a volleyed shot from close range go just over the crossbar.

In the 35^th minute, Fulham had their second through Rodrigo Muniz. It was an excellent delivery from Willian into Bobby, who then did well himself by heading the ball down to Rodrigo to tip it over the ‘keeper.

Bournemouth tried to find a response with half-time approaching via Alex Scott, who leathered a shot from distance, which forced Leno into quickly diving to his right but it went wide in the end.

Willian, who was enjoying a lot of possession down the left, was able to get creative with Robinson, when he played him through to a tight angle but the shot was difficult to pull off and saved by Neto.

It was quick out of the starting blocks for Fulham in the second 45, with Willian cutting onto his right foot before testing Neto from distance.

But it was Bournemouth who struck first. A corner from the left was met by the head of Solanke and finished by Marcos Senesi.

Rodrigo Muniz was having none of it though when he delivered an instant reply in the 52^nd minute. Willian once again found his man at the back post just for Muniz to smash a volley into the back of the net.

Following the goal, Bournemouth enjoyed a lot of the possession as we sat off to protect our lead.

It was good to see Harry Wilson, Fodé Ballo-Touré and Adama Traoré return to the fold following their injuries/time away at AFCON.

The referee blew for full-time, signalling the first win for Fulham in the Premier League in 2024.