The wisdom of bringing on Solomon pays dividends again for Silva as Fulham grab point against Wolves
Fulham (0) 1 Solomon 64
Wolves (1) 1 Sarabia 23
Manor Solomon repeated his Brighton party-piece to fire a sluggish Fulham back into a contest in danger of slipping away from them.
A goal down and looking blunt up to then, Fulham got their mojo back when Antonee Robinson won the ball and fed the Israeli wide on the left. His swift cut inside was followed by a perfect curling shot into the far corner and it was game on again.
Having cancelled out a goal from Pablo Sarabia, the feeling was that the Whites would go on and claim all three points and move level on points with fifth-placed Newcastle, but this time they had to settle for a point.
As against Brighton – where he hit a late smash-and-grab winner last week - Solomon did his work after coming off the bench.
He scored in the win against Forest too and is acquiring a reputation as quite the impact sub. The warning sign for Wolves was that he was on the front cover of the match programme. They should have guessed what was coming.
The late, great John Motson used to say during dull matches he was commentating on that a goal was needed to liven it up for neutrals. He could have been talking about this fixture.
Only five goals had been scored in the previous five encounters. Fulham hadn’t found the net in the four previous meetings and not beaten the all-golds – or all-jades as they were tonight – for five years.
This time, though, it had a little more bite to it. Or at least the second half did.
Wolves led midway through the first half when Sarabia clinically dispatched from inside the area after Robinson failed to read a cross from Matheus Nunez and a lurking Raul Jiminez knocked the ball back with his head for the goalscorer.
The Whites had to play without Aleksander Mitrovic – the muscular injury picked up in the warm-up ahead of the Forest game ruled him out of the next game at Brighton and he was kept out again as a precaution.
His replacement, Carlos Vinicius, is very much in credit after his winner against Chelsea but he does not carry the same frisson of danger. A close-range header on 36 minutes at least tested Jose Sa and only a super stretching save denied the Brazilian a late winner after Kenny Tete’s cross had picked him out.
In a first-half of limited punch from the hosts, Tete flashed a low just wide after a good pass inside from the ever-industrious Bobby Decordova-Reid and Andreas Pereira had a free-kick tipped over.
Marco Silva was not happy with what he saw and threw on Solomon and Sasa Lukic to try and shake things up at the interval.
Wanderers were the ones who almost scored again when Jiminez spurned a gilt-edged opening – his glancing header flashing wide when he really should have put it away past Bernd Leno.
The miss was to prove costly, as Solomon scuppered hopes of an away win for Julen Lopetegui's team..
Whites: (4-2-3-1) Leno – Tete, Diop, Ream, Robinson – Reed (Lukic h/t), Palhinha – Decordova-Reid (Solomon h/t), Pereira, Wilian (Wilson 83) – Vinicius. Subs not used: Rodak, Kurzawa, Tosin, Duffy, Wilson, James
Wolves: (4-3-3) Sa – Semedo, Dawson, Kilman, Bueno – Nunes (Podence 76), Neves, Lemina – Sarabia (Moutinho 76), Jiminez (costa 84), Cunha (Traore 60). Subs not used: Bentley, Ait-Nouri, Collins, Jonny, Gomes
Attendance: 24,399
