Fulham 2-1 Brentford

Harry Wilson rescued three points for Fulham in the West London derby against Brentford on Monday evening at Craven Cottage.

Despite a dominant performance in the first period, Brentford led at the break thanks to Vitaly Janelt’s thunderbolt. But patience was the key for the Whites as Harry Wilson scored with an outrageous flick in stoppage-time to equalise, before completing the turnaround with a header from an Antonee Robinson cross in the 97th minute.

The headline from the team news was a first start for Reiss Nelson, rewarded following a number of impressive cameos from the bench.

Joachim Andersen returned from suspension to partner Calvin Bassey, replacing Issa Diop, while Timothy Castagne was named on the bench following a period of the sidelines with a hamstring injury.

Emile Smith Rowe was instrumental in the early stages, picking up the ball just outside the box and laying it off to Raúl Jiménez, only for his weak shot to be easily gathered by Mark Flekken.

Nelson, keen to impress on his first start for the Whites, could have broken the deadlock after five minutes, forcing Flekken into a smart double save at his near post. The goalkeeper got a strong hand to Nelson’s initial effort, before rushing out to keep out the follow up.

At the other end, Antonee Robinson had to be alert as he won a foot race with Bryan Mbeumo, making an important interception to stop the Brentford forward.

Fulham were building their attacking moves down the left side – and Nelson, Robinson and Smith Rowe were all involved in a free-flowing team move on 15 minutes, only for Nathan Collins to make a big block to deny our number 32.

But against the run of play, it was Brentford who took the lead midway through the first-half. There was nothing Bernd Leno could do about Janelt’s opener, striking the ball into the far corner from 25 yards with his left foot.

Smith Rowe then nearly finished off a move that he started, feeding Alex Iwobi down the left after driving through the middle of the pitch, but he could only get slight contact on Iwobi’s teasing delivery.

On the stroke of half-time, Janelt almost picked out the opposite corner to which he hit earlier in the game, only for his shot to take a slight deflection and sail wide.

Marco Silva's side started the second period with an even greater intensity as Iwobi dragged a shot wide from 20 yards, before Collins made a last-ditch challenge in the box as Jiménez was about the pull the trigger.

Adama Traoré's introduction shortly after the hour mark gave Fulham some fresh energy, with Kenny Tete and Iwobi testing Flekken from range, with the Whites number 11 involved in both moves.

Brentford were restricting the Whites to shots from range, with centre-back pairing Andersen and Bassey the latest to try their luck from outside the box with little success.

As the minutes ticked away, Andersen headed the ball into the arms of Flekken from a deep Tom Cairney corner, before it was Sepp van den Berg's turn to make a vital block, throwing himself at a fierce Adama effort. 

The attacks just kept on coming. Flekken temporarily spilled Bassey's piledriver, but gobbled the ball up as Rodrigo Muniz tried to jump on the follow up.

The equaliser came in stoppage-time as Wilson met Adama's cross with a mind-blowing backheel, which flew over Flekken and into the back of the net.

Brentford could have stolen the points themselves as Leno sprung to his right to deny Fabio Carvalho, who had been found in the box by a Mads Roerslev cutback, but Robinson led the march at the other end, picking out Wilson whose header looped over Flekken to make it a memorable night at the Cottage and to complete a remarkable turnaround.