Sheffield Wednesday 3-2 Fulham
Kit Symons felt Fulham deserved more against Sheffield Wednesday, despite conceding three almost identical headers from set pieces at Hillsborough.
Fernando Forestieri opened the scoring on his home debut, before Jamie O’Hara’s deflected strike drew the visitors level.
Tom Lees and former Fulham loanee Michael Turner scored either side of half time to put Sheffield Wednesday 3-1 up, before Tom Cairney’s consolation.
“I don’t think too many people could have complained if we had come away with something out of the game, but to give away three free headers, that cost us for the three goals,” said Symons.
“Take the goals out of it and we played pretty well, so I’m torn between two stools.
“I’m annoyed with the defending from set-pieces and balls played into the box but I’m proud of the way the players performed, especially in the second half.
“We’ve got a new back four, but as a team we normally defend better. “
After winning their previous three games in all competitions, Fulham were expected to come out firing against a team without a league victory since the opening day of the season.
But it was all Wednesday in the opening minutes and Forestieri towered above Ashley Richards to deservedly head in the opener within 15 minutes.
The Cottagers pulled level with just over half an hour on the clock, when O’Hara’s deflected effort wrong-footed Keiren Westwood.
They were level for only six minutes though as Lees got free of Moussa Dembele from a corner and headed the hosts ahead going into half time.
Symons tried to tackle Wednesday’s aerial threat with a half-time change, replacing the ineffectual Ben Pringle with the towering Dan Burn.
But that did little to stop the Yorkshire side’s dominance from set pieces and Turner made it 3-1 up after losing his marker from a free kick.
Cairney headed in an O’Hara cross to give Fulham hope with 67 minutes gone, but they were unable to make up for their defensive frailties, despite dominating late on.
Next up for Fulham is a third round League Cup tie at home to Stoke on Tuesday.
Feature image courtesy of Fulham FC, via Youtube, with thanks
