Sheffield Wednesday 1-1 Fulham
Kit Symons made it clear that Ross McCormack is not for sale as the Scottish striker helped Fulham draw at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.
McCormack played the whole 90 minutes as Matt Smith’s second-half strike equalised Stevie May’s goal to earn Fulham a point as they saw their gap to the bottom three shrink from eight points to six after Wigan Athletic beat Rotherham.
There has been speculation McCormack will leave the struggling Cottagers at the end of the season, but Symons was quick to dismiss this.
He said: “There will always be interest in Ross as he’s a very good player.
“But he won’t be going anywhere and we certainly won’t be letting him go out on loan as was mooted in some areas of the press.
“He’s worked his socks off ever since he’s been here and that’s one of the reasons why our fans love him so much.
“He’s a talented, quality player but he’ll give you that work rate as well which is a great combination to have.”
Fulham went a goal down early in the second half, after an uneventful first 45, as May headed in Lewis McGugan’s corner on 55 minutes.
With Fulham looking in trouble, Symons took a bold step 70 minutes in, by replacing defenders Sean Kavanagh and Tim Hoogland with the attacking minded Seko Fofana and Cauley Woodrow.
The changes paid off as, five minutes later, Smith buried the ball into the top corner after being put through by Ryan Tunnicliffe.
Symons added: “We were a goal down away from home and we needed to get something out of it, so I had to make positive substitutions and act quite early.
“That’s what we did and it paid off. It doesn’t always work like that but luckily it did.”
The game saw Michael Turner make his debut after joining on loan from Norwich and the 31-year-old defender impressed.
“I brought him in to give us that bit of solidity and experience at the back,we have a lot of players without Championship experience,” said Symons.
“He talks and communicates well and leads that backline and I thought he did very well. I was really pleased with his performance.”
Feature image courtesy of Fulham FC, via Youtube, with thanks
