Sessegnon rescues Fulham in injury time
Fulham 1 Burton Albion 1
Fulham got out of jail with an injury-time strike from Ryan Sessegnon after it looked like they were about to slip to a second successive 1-0 home defeat.
Sessegnon was in just the right spot to rifle home after Sone Aluko had made space for a left foot shot that Albion keeper Jon McLaughlin could only claw out from under the bar at the second attempt and into the path of the teenager.
The Whites had fallen behind six minutes into the second half when Jackson Irvine drilled in a smart low shot beyond David Button’s left hand.
That goal made a mockery of the home side’s first-half dominance, when they somehow failed to make the most of being virtually camped in the Burton half for 45 minutes.
But the Whites paid for a slow start to the second half and their play became increasingly erratic as they chased the game against limited, but hard-working opponents.
Fulham had looked like profiting from the low crosses supplied by Sessegnon on the left flank, two of which just eluded Chris Martin.
But surely worrying for Slavisa Jokanovic was the lack of clear-cut chances such territorial advantage should have produced, in spite of the eye-catching promptings of Tom Cairney.
The Fulham boss threw on Matt Smith and Floyd Ayite in a bid to turn the tide, with the evening increasingly being played out to frustrated catcalls from home fans – their mood not helped by apparent time wasting from McLaughlin.
But just as Craven Cottage was starting to empty, the Whites drew level in the third minute of stoppage time – and there was still time for a Cairney free-kick to just clear the crossbar.
Fulham: Button; Odoi, Kalas, Sigurdsson, Sessegnon; Parker, McDonald (Jozabed 79); Cairney, Aluko, Kebano (Smith 62); Martin (Ayite 78).
Subs not used: Bettinelli, Ream, Johansen, Piazon.
